Forbes Africa - June 2015

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CONTENTS JUNE 2015FORBES

6 | FORBES STREET // Chris Bishop

10 | BRIEF 360

12 | TALKING POINTS

14 | 30 UNDER 30FORBES AFRICA makes history with its first ever homegrown 30 under 30 list. That is the young and gifted, burning stars on the horizon; the billionaires of tomorrow who will create the

jobs and wealth that this continent needs.

EDITED BY TSHEPO TSHABALALA

26 | WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR COMPANY LOSES ITS MOJO?

He is not your average CEO. When he laughs, its infectious. When we arrived late for the interview, he bantered and

laughed louder even though he was to talk about his worst day.

BY THOBILE HANS

30 | REMORSE AND RUBBLE IN NEPALFORBES AFRICA Publisher and Vice-Chairman of the

ABN Group, Rakesh Wahi, was caught in the tremors and aftershocks of the earthquake in Kathmandu. Wahi went to Nepal to climb Everest and ended up making a harrowing

journey through the rubble.

BY RAKESH WAHI

34 | GENOCIDE LOOMS OVER THE STREETS OF FLAMES

Burundi is divided between those loyal to the president and those against him. With elections coming up, there are fears

that civil war, and possibly genocide, will return.

BY ELAYNE WANGALWA

14FORBES AFRICA makes history with its first ever

homegrown 30 under 30 list. That is the young and gifted, burning stars on the horizon; the billionaires of

tomorrow who will create the jobs and wealth that this continent needs.

30

FORBES FOCUS

UNDER 30

COVER PHOTOGRAPHS BY OSBORNE MACHARIA; GEORGE OKWONG; MAKE-UP BY TOBI BAMIDELE; ERNEST & BROS DIGITAL PHOTOS SYSTEM; VUMELWANO MLALAZI (VOOTOGRAPHY)

4 | FORBES AFRICA JUNE 2015

VOLUME 5 NUMBER 5

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ANSELM TABANSIBY ABISOLA OWOLAWI

MANDLA MASEKOBY SUNITA MENON

37 | FREEDOM, STRUGGLE AND GAS: 40 YEARS OF MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique has sloughed through four decades of pain brought on by civil war and unrest. Now it is a hotspot for

African investment.

BY JAY CABOZ

48 | AFRICA WELCOMES A FAMOUS SONBarack Obama will visit Kenya his fathers home for the first time as president. His arrival in East Africa will come

with hope and promise.

BY JOSEPH BONYO

58 | SPARKING ZIPPOAmericans dont smoke much anymore, but that hasnt

stopped the iconic cigarette lighter maker from having its best year ever.

BY ABRAM BROWN

60 | 4C THE FUTUREAlfa Romeo is in need of a revival and the

4C is leading the way.

BY DEREK WATTS

70 | THE GOOD AND BAD OF BEING AN AD // Kirsty Coventry

74 | THE GIANT WHO LAUGHED IN THE FACE OF RACISM

Jack Johnson was the first black heavyweight champion of the world. He pummelled most of his challengers to the

vile abuse of racists.

BY CHRIS BISHOP

76 | THE BABY-FACED ASSASSINMoruti Mthalane, Africas world champion flyweight boxer, has never stopped throwing punches to get to the top. His

achievements have inspired many, just as former greats, like Baby JakeMatlala, influenced him.

BY REGINALD NKHOLISE

64 | THE GENERAL MUST STOP THE BLEEDING //

Muyiwa Moyela

66 | WILL PRIVATIZATION SAVE US MONEY? //

Dumile Sibindana

68 | FORGET MONEY CREATE VALUE //

Paul Mashegoane

FOCUS

FORBES LIFE

INVESTMENT GUIDE

FORBES SPORT

FREEDOM, STRUGGLE AND GAS: 40 YEARS OF

MOZAMBIQUE

THE GIANT WHO LAUGHED IN THE FACE OF RACISM

BY CHRIS BISHOP

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JUNE 2015 FORBES AFRICA | 5


FORBES

FORBES STREET CHRIS BISHOPCarpe Diem

The Night An Egg Made Me Laugh

BY CHRIS BISHOP, MANAGING EDITOR

I dont think I had ever been as tired. It had been a dozen hours on a never-ending road up the coast of Mozambique. We had driven south from Harare to Polokwane, in South Africa, then north through Ressano Garcia to Maputo to cover a couple of stories in the capital; this trip to Beira, was on the way to Tet, for a mission to Lake Malawi, then back to Zimbabwe. It was more than two weeks of driving, punctuated by intense reporting, laden with illness and fatigue. A tough assignment for any TV crew; we were feeling the strain.

Late at night in Vilanculos, a port halfway between Maputo and Beira, we drove in search of shelter; bumbling through the dark empty streets in vain. Someone, on the side of the dingy road, pointed through the darkness to a hotel called the Dona Ana. We couldnt see at first, but it soon became clear that it had been left to rot for decades.

When we piled wearily and gratefully through the dimly-lit door to be fair, we would have slept on the street we found a number of people drinking by candlelight. It was a difficult to work out which of the drinkers was running the place until a man stood up and asked us if we wanted dinner. Great, we said.

Twenty dollars US each, says the man.What is it? I replied, even though

I had not eaten for 24 hours and would have devoured a tablecloth if you had put salt on it.

Eggs, replied the man. Great, we thought, until an hour later

one boiled egg and a slice of bread came

on a massive plate. We sat in a large, empty dining room crammed with tables; the only other occupant only was a lone man, oblivious to us, who was listening to world news in Portuguese blasting out from an ancient radio almost as big as his table. In between the two bites that saw off the egg, I could have eaten the shell too, the crew and I looked at each other and laughed. A few years on the highways and byways of Africa does that to you.

An hour later, we didnt care. We stood joking, holding cold beers, in the arms of a warm breeze, next to the sea wall at the back of the hotel, to the mighty roar of the Indian Ocean beyond. We can all tut-tut, about drinking beer in the evenings, as I often do. Believe me, after a long day on the road in the distant corners of Africa; you cant go to the gym or yoga classes in the evenings, nor surf the net if there was broadband in those days, we didnt know about it nor could we tweet anyone, because we didnt have cell phones.

Instead we laughed and looked back to the gloomy hotel; wondering how they kept the beer cold in summer with no electricity. At bedtime, we were given a bucket of water and a candle; in the darkness, the room smelled bad and the sheets were sticky. Nostalgia often polishes the memory, but lacks power to burnish the memory of the Dona Ana.

Anyway, the reason I am telling you all of this is that, in many ways, the Dona Ana is a metaphor for the new Mozambique. I checked it out online the other day, and found, to my surprise,


Views expressed by commentators in this publication are not necessarily those held by FORBES AFRICA or its members of staff. All facts printed in FORBES AFRICA were confirmed as being correct at the time the magazine went to print.

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that a foreign investor has restored the Dona Ana to its former glory: a blue pool; pristine rooms and electricity. It is hard to believe it is the same hotel that served an egg in the dark.

A remarkable turnaround, mirrored by the economy of Mozambique, that I found in ruins when I first reported from Beira, on the northern coast of Mozambique, ahead of its inaugural elections in 1994. In those bleak post-civil war days, there were broken down Russian T34 tanks on the streets and columns of infantry patrolling in armored cars. There were no shops; the nearest was planks of wood propped at the side of potholed roads. If you could find a restaurant it was expensive and full of UN troops.

What a contrast two decades later. Mozambiques annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth averaged 7.4% over the past two decades, according to the World Bank. This figure is well above the regional average of 5% and achieved in years that the rest of the world has been bleeding. The cynics may say Mozambique is growing from a very low base, but nevertheless, it is an achievement for a tiny country that has

seen war and upheaval shatter the little infrastructure it had.Now that gas, oil and rubies are the in the picture, it is a

different story. Many foreign investors, who had written off Mozambique, are now its new best friend. For those who havent yet picked it out on the map, maybe 2015 is the time.

This is one reason FORBES AFRICA chose to feature 40 years of the Republic of Mozambique in this issue a story from a night of fervour when millions saluted the birth of a nation; through the struggles of a state-controlled economy, to the free market revival of the 21st century. Sure, the money is taking time to filter down to people living leanly, outside Maputo, but it is time to take stock to see what private money can do.

Exactly four years ago, I sat looking at a blank computer screen, charged with the daunting job of launching a compelling FORBES AFRICA from scratch. Our thought-provoking spread on Mozambique, told from the streets and docks to the boardrooms by those in the know, was exactly what I had in mind.

www.discovery.co.za

ACCRA


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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Bronwyn NielsenNON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Busi MabuzaNON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Sam Bhembe

FORBES MEDIA LLCChairman & Editor-in-Chief: Steve Forbes

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JUNE 2015 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 5

ABN MANAGEMENT TEAMGroup Head of West Africa: Frederic Van de vyver

Group Head of East Africa: Maya KulyckyGroup Head of Sales: Quinton Scholes

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MANAGING EDITORChris Bishop

SUB-EDITORGareth Cotterell

HEAD OF SALESQuinton Scholes

BDM - EAST AFRICANicolas Karamacheras

BDM - WEST AFRICAPatrick Omitoki

ART & DESIGN DIRECTORKristijan Sra

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTIONShanna Jacobsen

JOURNALIST, WEST AFRICAAbisola Owolawi

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PHOTOJOURNALISTJay Caboz

AFRICA IN BRIEFFORBES

10 | FORBES AFRICA june 2015

BRIEF

Read his story on page 30.

EaRthquakEs RavagE NEpalNepal was hit by two earthquakes in less than three weeks. Thousands were killed, tens of thousands were injured and millions had to rebuild their lives.

The first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.8, hit on April 25. The second, with a magnitude of 7.3, struck on May 12.

In some areas, there has been up to 90% destruction, said Dan Sermand, Mdecins Sans Frontires County Director in Nepal. In some areas, whole villages have been brought down, compounding an already dire situation as many had already lost their homes in the first earthquake.

The UN estimated that more than $400 million is needed in humanitarian aid.

FORBES AFRICAs publisher and Vice-Chairman of the ABN Group, Rakesh Wahi, was in Nepal during the first earthquake. PH

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Write to us at [email protected]

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The president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, set fire to almost five tons of seized elephant ivory during a summit to devise an African strategy to fight wildlife poaching.

The plan will be presented to the African Union Summit to be held in Johannesburg in June.

The trade in poached animals and plants is estimated to be worth $23 billion a year.

Congo follows Kenya and Ethiopia which incinerated stockpiles of ivory earlier this year to show their opposition to the trade.

CONGO FIGHTS POACHING WITH FLAMES

Last Ones Out is considered the first African zombie movie. Four characters journey through an abandoned and empty African region, staying together to make it out alive with the constant threat of zombies. The film, shot over two weeks in the Western Cape province of South Africa, features a zombie chase sequence in a township in Cape Town. The film will be released at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Howard James Fyvie, it offers a fresh take on the zombie genre while wrestling with questions of life, survival and love.

THE AFRICAN WALKING DEAD

A Moroccan scientist won the top prize at the Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) awards. Adnane Remmal bagged the $100,000 prize for developing an alternative to livestock antibiotics with anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic and anti-fungal properties.

His formula reduces the transmission of germs and carcinogens from animal products to humans.

Two $25,000 prizes were also awarded.

Kenyas Alex Mwaura Muriu won the prize for having the best business potential with his agri-business model, Farm Capital Africa. It allows farmers to find investors and share the risk of growing crops.

South Africas Lesley Erica Scott won the prize for the highest social impact with Smartspot TBCheck. It is a machine that increases the accuracy of TB diagnosis.

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In the second week of June, bitter wage negotiations spiced with union rivalry are expected to begin in Johannesburg, South Africa, one of Africas biggest mining nations. The Chamber of Mines will negotiate on behalf of: AngloGold Ashanti; Harmony; Sibanye; Evander Gold and Village Main Reef.

Rival unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), representing the lions share of 94,000 gold miners, have both put in huge wage demands for the bi-annual pay talks. NUM wants an 80% increase in entry level pay for miners and AMCU wants to more than double entry level to R12,500 ($877) a month.

AMCU has been gaining membership, at the expense of the NUM, over the last two years. Whichever union secures the best deal is likely to attract more members and with them supremacy in the mines.

IT COULD BE ALL MINES

Judging by the poor performance of McDonalds sales globally it is surprising that Africa is still largely an unchartered territory for the fast food behemoth. Millions of Africans are yet to experience the taste of the Big Mac. Currently, the fast-food giant can only be found in South Africa, Egypt and Morocco.

McDonalds South Africa is bucking the trend of what the chains are doing in the United States, its largest market. With 218 stores around the country, McDonalds South Africa plans to double the restaurants it has in the next five years.

Greg Solomon, Managing Director of McDonalds South Africa, believes that its biggest competitive advantage is its people and responsible growth. We focus on making each unit profitable and sustainable within three to five years, he says.

Innovation is also key to its success. Solomon says that McDonalds plans to implement a tap and go facility at certain of its stores within the next three to six months. It has also developed a world class supply chain that has been recognized as a global supplier. It is currently considering exporting to other McDonalds stores around the world and has launched a pilot in the Middle East.

Greg Solomon

AFRICAN INNOVATORS REWARDED

MCDONALDS BUCKING THE TREND IN AFRICA

Denis Sassou Nguesso

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ATLAS MARA INVESTS $22 MILLION IN RWANDAS BANKS

Atlas Mara, the African bank co-founded by Bob Diamond, is in talks to invest over $22 million in Banque Populaire du Rwanda, which would create Rwandas second largest bank by assets. Atlas Mara has already invested in BancABC in Botswana and Zimbabwe, as well as amassing stakes in the Development Bank of Rwanda and the Union Bank of Nigeria. In 2014, Atlas Mara acquired Rwandan bank BRD Commercial Bank Ltd and is reportedly planning to merge the two. When Atlas filed its prospectus about 18 months ago, the management team said the fund would target Africas booming financial services sector and this trend is likely to gather pace, says Mayank Gupta, a partner in the Banking and Finance practice of Mayer and Brown.Rwanda is a key growth market for many investors. Rwanda has been ranked 46th in the World Banks ease of doing business and the country has worked tirelessly to curb corrup-tion, with several former government ministers serving time for this, says Gupta.There are, of course, risks to the investment. Like many African nations, Rwanda still suffers from poor domestic infrastructure, but several years ago the government announced ambi-tious plans to increase power capacity tenfold by 2017, he says.

TALKINGTALKING POINTSFORBES

AFRICA LESS ATTRACTIVE FOR INVESTORS

Business leaders are increasingly seeking global opportunities for growth, but they arent looking in Africa.

According to the 2015 FDI Confidence Index from strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, there are no African or Middle Eastern countries ranked in the top 25. South Africa, ranked 13th last year, fell out of the index. The other African countries included in the survey are Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.

While market volatility and economic uncertainties may create periodic speed bumps in our interconnected world, these findings point to reinvigorated cross-border investment, says Paul Laudicina, founder of the FDI Confidence Index and chairman of A.T. Kearneys Global Business Policy Council.

Unfortunately, those investments arent reaching African shores. Nearly 75% of the countries ranked in the top 25 are from developed economies, as investors see new opportunities as safe ground.

It was an emotional moment that Ngaungau Martha Olifant had waited a lifetime for and feared she may never see.

When Olifant was born in South Africa, in 1925, the African National Congress was a mere 12 years old, the worlds first motel was opened and a man called John Logie Baird sent the first TV pictures.

It was also the year when Olifant began living in a rented house; as she grew, she longed for a roof of her own.

I was really afraid that I was going to die with nothing in my name after working so hard and that was a very painful thought for me. I used to earn R3 a week working in a factory and I managed to extend this house, furnish it but that bothered me because I knew at any time I could be told to leave, I have been renting all these years, says Olifant in her mother tongue, Sotho.

This gift of a title deed to one of South Africas poorest citizens came from one of Africas richest. South African retail tycoon, Christo Wiese, Africas fifth richest person worth $5.4 billion according to FORBES, paid $200 a head to register the title deeds for 200 new home owners in Ngwathe Municipality in the Free State province. Wiese is the first to admit that this is a drop in the ocean in a country where seven million need homes.

I will certainly do everything I can to persuade, not only the businesses that Im involved in, other businesses, other institutions, organizations and individuals to step up and help, says Wiese.

As Olifant gazed at the ceiling she thought of her late husband, who worked all his life to raise their three children, but never owned a home.

He died 15 years ago and didnt get to see this day, she says.

A ROOF AT LAST THE CENTURY-LONG WAIT

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Emerging markets look more difficult. African growth was substantially driven by resource investments. With lower commodity prices, investments in oil, gas and mining in emerging markets look less attractive. Resource companies have diverted their investments away from new-build and into acquiring existing operations.

For the third year in a row, the US and China are ranked first and second as target countries for investment, while Britain is third.


POINTS

The Democratic Alliance, the official opposition party of South Africa, has a black leader for the first time. The 35-year-old Mmusi Maimane, called the Obama of Soweto, won a landslide victory against Wilmot James, a senior member, to succeed Helen Zille.

Shortly after joining the party, Maimane was appointed the mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in the 2011 local government elections. He later became the spokesperson and in the 2014 national elections he was the Gauteng provincial candidate but lost to the ANCs David Makhura. After the elections he became the party leader in parliament.

Maimane talked to 1,400 delegates at his election in Port Elizabeth, in the Eastern Cape province.

It is our values that unite us. It is our values that will take us to victory. Non-racialism does not mean being color blind If you dont see black, then you dont see me at all, says Maimane.

Thapelo Tselapedi, a political analyst at the University of Johannesburg, says it is not a given the Democratic Alliance will win over black voters. He says Maimane has perfected political rhetoric which could help him win votes.

The DA will have to slog through the electoral support of the ANC to take over state power. The party has to appeal to the electorate, but ensure that its policies connect with the broader struggle for transformation, albeit through a liberal lens which is the partys political philosophy. The DA can exemplify liberalism as opposed to the illiberalism of its predecessors, says Tselapedi.

In 2000, the Democratic Party merged with the New National Party, both predominantly white, to form the Democratic Alliance.

STEP FORWARD THE OBAMA OF SOWETO

MORE JOBS CAN SNUFF THE FLAMES OF HATE

THE IRON LADY SEES A GOLDEN FUTURE

The poor performance of South Africas economy is causing social unrest, resulting in attacks on foreigners, says political-economist, Moeletsi Mbeki.

Mbeki, the younger brother of former President Thabo Mbeki, told CNBC Africa that South Africa was a bomb waiting to explode.

He says the government needs to do more to create jobs in the agriculture sector. This will bridge the growing unemployment gap.

We have a 40 percent unemployment rate among Africans and 30 percent unemployment rate among colored [people] which are the two largest populations in this country.

Mbeki warns that with those levels, the country is bound to have political and social instability.

The country needs to have an economy that creates employment because we dont have the cushion of peasantry agriculture like other regional economies, he says.

Mbeki adds that about 50% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed compared to 11% in the rest of Africa. This leads to them getting involved in criminal activity.

The problem of xenophobia will remain until South Africa solves the problems of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

Arunma Oteh, former Director-General of Nigerias Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), was in Johannesburg recently, when she spoke to FORBES AFRICA about her continuing commitment to Africa.

Reform-minded and articulate, she has consistently earned the respect of capital market stakeholders. Her five-year term with the SEC ended in January this year, the same month she turned 50 (50 is the new 16, she laughs) and she is very excited about the future.

I am looking at a number of incredible and exciting opportunities. I am taking my time to weigh them and decide the one that gives me the chance to impact society and make a difference.

Her biggest achievement, she says in the five years with SEC, was restoring investor confidence.

Now, we have a stock market that has more diversity in its offerings, she says.

What does she think of the future of capital markets in Africa?

Capital markets transform the world; they allow businesses to grow I want to see Nigeria become one of the most industrious countries in the world. I want to see Africa be the place where no one writes those articles about wars, disease and famine, and people are writing about being inspired by all the entrepreneurial opportunities But the future is much brighter, because we have so much to do as a continent. We are not going to be able to if we dont have capital markets that can mobilize resources If you have the leadership of countries understand why capital markets are very important, then we will make significant progress.

Oteh says she is at the moment also angel-investing in companies [such as Paga] owned by young people who are making a difference.

Read the full interview with Arunma Oteh in the June/July 2015 issue of FORBES WOMAN AFRICA.

Mmusi Maimane

Moeletsi Mbeki

Arunma Oteh

We have se-lected 30 for the future in a number of key fields that drive economic growth. You may not know many of their names now, but in 20 years they could be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA with their story of multi-million-dollar success. We hope so. For now, look,

debate and work out who is most likely.

Nominees came from readers and the FORBES AFRICA team; they were decided upon by a se-lected panel of judges from across Africa. In charge of it all, fittingly, an under 30 himself, one of our journalists Tshepo Tshabalala. Months of research yielded a list of 150 young hopefuls. We worked

for weeks, verifying and investigat-ing, to whittle it down. We favored entrepreneurs with fresh ideas and took into account their business size, location, struggles and deter-mination.

Senior editors then debated and argued over the final 30.

We find this list exciting, thought provoking and forward looking. We hope you will too.

FORBES AFRICA makes history with its first ever homegrown 30 under 30 list. That is the young and gifted, burning stars on the horizon; the

billionaires of tomorrow who will create the jobs and wealth that this continent needs.

UNDER 30TOMORROWS BILLIONAIRES


EDITED BY TSHEPO TSHABALALA

Mubarak Muyika20, Kenya Founder, Zagace LimitedMuyika was orphaned at the age of 10, thrived at school and turned down a scholar-ship to Harvard to become an entrepreneur. When he was 16, he founded Hypecentury Technologies, a web hosting company. He sold the company two years later to Wemps Telecoms in a six-figure deal. Muyikas new venture, Zagace, which has raised funding from local in-vestors, is a cloud enterprise software that helps compa-nies manage inventory such as accounting, payroll, stock management, marketing and many more all bundled in a simple and easy to use format called Zag apps.


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Bheki Kunene27, South AfricaFounder, Mind Trix MediaFew young entrepreneurs in Africa have survived being accused of murder and a collision with two cars that cracked his skull. Kunene has and he survived to create eight jobs and a profit with his website-building company, in Cape Town where he was born-and-bred, Mind Trix Media. The company does business with the big names in South Africa and as far afield as Italy, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Angola.

On a Sunday morning, in December 2009, not long after Kunene launched the business, came a knock on the door of his mothers house in Kayelitsha that could have spelt the end.

I opened to two men in suits. I thought they were from a church, but they were detectives who said some-one had seen me committing a murder the night before. I took them into my mothers garage and showed them a load of T-shirts I had printed the night before and said this is what I was doing. But they arrested me and locked me up in police cells, says Kunene.

The budding entrepreneur spent a week in the cells in Gugulethu before police found the real murderer and let him go.

All they said was sorry you can go now, he says.

Four years later, disaster struck again in Gugulethu, this time on the main road. A car hit Kunene knocking him into the path of another heading the other way. It cracked his skull and smashed one of his legs. He spent three months in hospi-tal and is on medication.

Kunene survived to prosper, a lesson to entrepreneurs that if it doesnt kill you, or imprison you, it makes you stronger.

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FORBES

FOCUS 30 UNDER 30

Rupert Bryant 29, South Africa Co-founder, ISP Web AfricaA school drop-out, Rupert grew up in Cape Town has been running his own web devel-opment company since the age of 14. At the age of 16, his friend asked him to jump in on a joint venture. This is how he became the co-founder and chief operating officer of Web Africa, one of the biggest internet service providers in South Africa. Web Africa was started with no money and built it into a $11 million a year business. In 2014, Bryant relaunched Accommodation Direct; an online tourism business that specializes in short-term accommodation rentals. His dream is to sail around the world.

Ali-shah Jivraj27, UgandaChief Executive, Royal ElectronicsJivraz began life as an entrepreneur in Kampala at the age of 17 with a chance meeting with an electronics technician. The two struck on the idea of repairing and manufacturing television sets, radios and DVD players. Out of this, in 2005, came the Royal Electronics firm in Kampa-la. Less than a decade later, this company is one of six in East Africa that earns $15 million a year in revenue.

In the next 10 years, Jivraz plans to venture into foreign currency earning cash crops like maize and green chillies and property. He also hopes to build homes for low income earners in Uganda.

These are the people who are driving the economies of Africa and all too often they feel pushed out of the community, he says.

Jivraz comes from an influential family, his grandfather Merali Jivraj, once one of the richest men in Uganda, lost almost every-thing when Ugandan-Asians were expelled in 1972 by Idi Amin. He says luck has played more of a part, than family ties, in his suc-cess that sees him drive through Kampala in a white Porsche 911 Carrera S.

There was even luck in that. I was lucky to find the car in Dubai for three quarters of its price and couldnt let it go, he says.

The cover of FORBES AFRICA, the do-main of African multi-millionaires?

Maybe when Im 50, he chuckles down the line from Kampala.

Arthur Zang27, Cameroon Founder, CardiopadZangThe Cameroonian Engineer is the inventor of the Cardiopad, a touch screen medical tablet that enables heart examinations such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) to be performed at rural locations while the results of the test are transferred wireless-ly to specialists who can interpret them. The device spares African patients, living in remote areas, the trouble of having to travel to urban centers to seek medical ex-aminations. Zang is the founder of Himore Medical Equipments, the company that owns the rights to the Cardiopad.

Clarisse Iribagiza26, RwandaFounder and CEO, HeHe Labs Iribagiza runs a Kigali-based mobile technology company, HeHe Labs, which builds mobile technology solutions for the government and private companies looking to improve their operational efficiency. HeHe means where in Kinyarwanda, says Iribagiza, who founded the research and innovation lab in 2010 while still in college studying computer engineering.

I always loved physics and maths and it was an attractive space for me to be in. My mother is an entrepreneur and my father a teacher. I am a mash-up of what they do, says Irigabiza, who went to high school in Uganda.

HeHe runs six labs across Rwanda. It is also working with more than 100 Rwandan students in high schools and colleges. The companys GirlHub has empowered more than 13,000 teenage girls.

We are now refining our vision. Its a company for Africa by Africans and we are looking at the next vision for Africa, says Iribagiza.

HeHe has over $200,000 in revenues annually.

For a young company, that is great and we are investing in more ideas, she says.

In 2012, HeHe won a $50,000 grant from Inspire Africa, a Rwandan TV entrepreneur-ial contest.

Clinton Mutambo25, ZimbabweFounder, Esaja.ComMutambo describes himself as an entre-preneur, marketing whizz and all round blogger. He is also the brains behind the recently launched esaja.com a business network that is dedicated to intra African trade. Esaja stands for empowering solu-tions and joint action.

Kwame Nkrumah once said I wasn't born in Africa, Africa was born in me. This quote defines me as an entrepreneur, he says.

We have a massive African youth bulge and need to get this lion roaring or else it'll devour it's own future. Trade is key.

Making the cover of FORBES AFRICA one day would be epic, it's not something one plans for. It's an honor one earns.

Raindolf Owusu24, GhanaFounder, Oasis WebsoftOwusu is a software engineer based in Accra, Ghana, and was dubbed the Mark Zuckerberg of Accra by FORBES AFRICA in November 2012. He runs Oasis Websoft which developed the Anansi Web Browser hailed as Africas first web browser.

I believe software can solve many problems in Africa. Our problems on the continent are different and existing software

Clarisse Iribagiza

from abroad are not built to suit the African setting. Propriety operating systems are being entrenched into our society and we spend so much money paying for licens-es on this software. I decided to build a company that will address this problem and develop homegrown software, says Owusu.

His most recent projects include Anan-sipedia, an education platform that allows less privileged students to share education-al resources; and Bisa, a mobile application that supplies information to the public and gives them access to doctors.

Some of his other notable projects include Dr Diabetes, a web application that educates Africans about diabetes.

We hope in a few years we can expand our operations in other parts of Africa and to build a digital hub where Africans can learn more about emerging disruptive technologies like 3D printers, drones and how they can be used to improve our lives, says Owusu.

Julie Alexander Fourie28, South AfricaFounder, iFixFourie is the founder of iFix, which repairs and services all Apple products and Sam-sung smartphones. The company employs 40 people and services more than 4,000 clients a month. iFix has branches in Jo-hannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Fourie started the company in 2006 from his dorm room at the University of Stellenbosch, helping colleagues and friends repair broken and faulty iPods and computers. Satisfied customers recom-mended Fouries business and it took off.

Verone Mankou28, Republic of CongoTech Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO, VMKMankou is the founder of VMK and the cre-ator of the first African-made mobile phone, Elikia. He is also the inventor of Way-C tablet, Africas version of the iPad.

Mankou, the son of a school mistress and an oil engineer, provides affordable smart devices in Africa and increases internet access in the Republic of Congo.

Before receiving $700,000 from the Congolese government, Mankou had to finance his project himself. Banks refused to help him because he was too young and a little bit crazy, he says.

FORBES

FOCUS 30 UNDER 30


Affiong Williams,29, NigeriaFounder, ReelfruitReelFruit, founded, in March, 2012 is an emerging fruit processing company focused on packaging and branding and processing of locally, and quality fruit products.

The first product is a range of dried fruit snacks and nuts. The products are currently stocked in over 80 stores in Nigeria.

ReelFruit is an award-win-ning brand, winning both an international Women In Business Competition in the Netherlands, as well as an SME exhibition (Creative Fo-cus Africa) in Lagos, Nigeria.

Williams is trying to expand her nut business into the lucrative airline market. She is raising capital to build a factory on the outskirts of Lagos next year.

I hope to be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA in five years time, she says.

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Ludwick Marishane25, South AfricaFounder, Headboy Industries Marishane was in high school when he came up with DryBath, a gel that does all the work of a bath without water. Within a year, he launched Drybath with his company Headboy Industries.

He had previously tried his hand at business with his own brand of biodiesel, healthy cigarettes and a security magazine. The idea for DryBath was inspired by a friend of Marishanes who was too lazy to bath. "Why doesn't someone invent some-thing that you can put on your skin and then you don't have to bathe?" asked the friend.

Marishane, born in Limpopo, was voted the best student entrepreneur in the world by the Entrepreneurs Organisation.

Google named him as one of the most intelligent young brains in the universe.

Senai Wolderufael28, EthiopiaFounder of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports CompanyWolderufael is the founder of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports Company, an Addis Aba-ba-based outfit that produces and exports popular Ethiopian spice blends such as Shiro, Mitmita, Korarima and Berbere.

He worked for Ethiopian Airlines for almost four years and noticed many Ethio-pians travelling with bags full of Ethiopian

Ludwick Marishane

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packed it in polythene bags and sold it to truck drivers in Kitale.

Issam Chleuh28, Mali Founder and Chief executive, Africa Impact Group Chleuh is the founder an international orga-nization focused on directing investment to socially and environmentally beneficial ven-tures, an asset class called Impact Investing.

The companys services include data and research, news, advisory services, and start-up incubation.

Africa Impact Groups clients include impact investors, private equity firms, family offices, leading African corporations, governments and non-profits.

Ellen Chilemba21, MalawiFounder, TiwaleChilemba is easing the difficult circum-stances that women in Malawi face with Tiwale, her for-profit social enterprise she started when she was 17. Tiwale trains women as entrepreneurs or finds them jobs that suit their skills. It also has a microfinance loan program. Tiwales Design Project trains women to do traditional fabric dye-printing. Some of the revenue from this is used to fund other programs offered by the organi-zation that give women opportunities to support themselves.

These include a school grant program that covers fees, transportation costs, school supplies and offers a small stipend.

Kennedy Kitheka25, KenyaFounder, FundaIn 2008, Kitheka and his friends estab-lished an online education platform, Blu-Uni (later Funda), providing univer-sity students with a cheaper way to get course material.

Kitheka started his business along with his partners after returning to the Miamba-ni village where his father grew up in. After being away for 10 years, the 21-year-old Kitheka was heartbroken to see the lack of progress in the community.

Funda was created to provide resourc-es young Africans who have the potential

spices. Wolderufael founded the company in 2012, exporting spices and dry food to the United States and Europe and, as demand increased, to new markets within Africa.

His latest export is Ethiopian coffee and Wolderufael hopes to be one of the big-gest food companies in Africa in 10 years.

The company largely employs single mothers, young men and women from poor backgrounds.

Ronak Shah27, KenyaFounder, Kronex Chemicals LtdThis Asian-Kenyan is the founder and CEO of Kronex Chemicals, a manufac-turer of affordable dishwashing liquids and multi-purpose detergent for Kenyas lower class. He started the company to improve the de-teriorated levels of hygiene in the country. Kronex set up a manufacturing plant along Mombasa Road in January 2013 and opera-tions started in June that year. He is taking on larger firms in Kenya by producing liquid soap and changing the perception that it a luxury product.

Joel Mwale22, KenyaFounder, Skydrop EnterprisesMwale founded SkyDrop Enterprises, a rain-water filtration and bottling company which produces low-cost purified drinking water, milk and other dairy products in Kenya. In 2012, Mwale sold a 60% stake in Sky-drop to an Israeli firm for $500,000. Next stop: education. Last year, Mwale founded Gigavia, an educational social networking website. Five years after dropping out of high school, Mwale travelled the world and rubbed shoulders with several presidents.

The idea for his first business was in-spired by two events from his childhood. At 14 he suffered dysentery (infection of the intestines) from drinking dirty water in his village outside the western Kenyan town of Kitale. As a student, his school had visited a Coca-Cola bottling plant where he saw how the company made its bottled water.

I knew if there was any business I could easily go into, it was in water, recalls Mwale.

So, at 16, he started SkyDrop Enter-prises, a producer and bottler of low-cost purified drinking water. He boiled water,


FORBES

FOCUS 30 UNDER 30

Takunda Chingonzoh22, ZimbabweCo-founder, Neolab TechnologyChingonzohs Twitter profile reads: I am out, taking over the world. Apt may-be, Neolab Technology, the award-winning start-up he founded with partners Jabulani Mpofu and Blessing Mukome, works on pioneering technology for emerging economies. They also work with Saisai Wireless, a wireless network for free access to WiFi hotspots in public areas.

Neolab, which Chingonzoh calls the start-up factory, works in close con-junction with the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, and the students, training and getting them to work in teams and turn concepts into sustainable start-ups.

Chingonzoh was only 19 when he started the venture, after acquiring a Bache-lors degree in quantity surveying.

I have always had the inclination and passion for technology and how it can revolutionize communities We have created a model that works in the African context based on one key principle: that an entrepreneur must be able to create and transfer value to the end user, using the least amount of resourc-es. Capital must only be availed to scale a product that has already proven its potential. This way, we more or less guarantee the success of a product and do away with over-hyped products whose seeming success is as a result of money and resources. When that money burns out, the product/start-up will then fail. Our model does away with this unsustainability. We believe in frugal innova-tion: doing more with less!

Chingonzoh is now seeking partnerships and investment to scale this model and expand to other markets in and around Africa.

I want to help create and launch 100 sustainable companies in and around Africa by 2020; that means launching at least 20 disruptive start-ups every year. We are already working with 22 start-ups for this year.

Chingonzoh is also a YALI Washington Fellow, the youngest in 2014, he says.

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to become the next presidents, CEOs and entre-preneurs. Kitheka says these are the people who will create change in Africa.

Stephen Sembuya28, UgandaCo-founder, Pink Food Industries.Sembuya is living proof that a phoenix can rise from the ashes of a family fortune. The Sembuyas were the Rockerfellers of Kampala with their business empire based around Sembule Steel Mills. In the late 1990s, a power struggle at the company, followed by court cases and debt, led to its decline.

Young Sembuya dabbled in publishing for a while, but discovering that the family still owned a cocoa plantation he took it over and make it the heart of a chocolate making company set up a year ago.

I have always come up with crazy ideas, he says.The 700-acre farm, which employs 100 workers,

is the largest single owned cocoa plantation in Africa. It supplies a factory that makes everything from chocolate bars and drinks to biscuits. New machinery has increased output from 80 kilograms a day to 60 kilograms an hour.

The chocolate is making inroads with exports across east Africa; the region gets most of its choc-olate from Egypt, South Africa and Europe.

It would be an honor to be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA and I hope to make it by 2025, he says.

A chocolate business out of Uganda could cer-tainly prove a game changer that could help propel Sembuya there.

Stephen Sembuya

Abiola Olaniran26, NigeriaFounder, GamsoleOlaniran, 26, is the founder and CEO of Nigerian gaming company, Gamsole. Olaniran founded the company in 2012, and it has venture backing from 88mph, a Kenyan seed fund. The companys games now have more than 9 million downloads.

Alain Nteff22, CameroonFounder, Gifted MomNteff was alarmed by the high death rate of new born babies and pregnant women in his community. He developed a mobile app, when he was 20, to help solve this problem.

The app helps teenage mothers and health workers calculate due dates. It also collects and sends information to women in the community.

His app has more than 500 down-loads and is integrated with locally made phones. It has 1,200 pregnant women and mothers as beneficiaries and has led to a 20% increase in antena-tal attendance rate for pregnant women in 15 rural communities.

Nteff is also working with 200 med-ical students to reduce brain drain in Cameroon.

He plans to reach 50,000 pregnant women and mothers by end of 2015 and 5 million across the continent by 2017.

Emeka Akano28, Nigeria Co-Founder, Founder2Be Finding your perfect match is never easy but Akano and his co-partner, Chinedu Onyeaso, have made it easier through Founder2Be.

The cupids of commerce introduced a match-making service for business owners in Africa. Like online dating, a deal is just a click away.

The Nigerians are not strangers to entrepreneurship; they also started Entarado, a web development company empowering small businesses with web and mobile solutions.


Doug Hoernle25, South AfricaFounder, Rethink EducationThis young entrepreneur turned his first cents selling wrist bands, in school colors, to his friends in the playground, at the age of 12, at the elite Johannesburg school of St Stithians.

The next venture came at the University of Cape Town. Hoernle liked a glass of wine and, while finding supply, hit on the idea of

driving across the Western Cape to buy in bulk to retail to his college friends. When he left college, Hoernle founded Rethink Education with the aim of focusing directly on the high school market, in an effort to make current technology more useful in the schooling system.

We saw the gap in the market where you find people paying R100,000 a year in school fees and yet they still struggle with fractions, he says.

Rethinks platforms give learners access to high school mathematics and science content in a chat-styled interface via both mobile phones and the web. To date, Rethink Education has distributed maths and science content to more than 500,000 South Africans and is launch-ing in Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe.

Ola Orekunrin29, NigeriaMedical Doctor & Founder, The Flying DoctorsOrekunrin is founder and Managing Direc-tor of Flying Doctors Nigeria Ltd., an air ambulance service based in Lagos, Nigeria. Orekunrins company is the first air am-bulance service in West Africa to provide urgent helicopter, airplane ambulance and evacuation services.

Tragedy led me to entrepreneurship, she says. I believe that perhaps my sister, who died when she was just 12 years old, may have lived if this sort of service was available in Nigeria at the time, she says.

Born in London and raised in a working-class foster home in Lowestoft, a little fishing town in the East of England, Orekunrin enrolled for a medical degree at the University of York and qualified at 21 one of the youngest ever to take the doctors Hippocratic Oath in Britain.

She is a 2013 New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and was named a Young Global Leader in 2013 by the World Economic Forum.

Best Ayiorworth23, UgandaFounder, GipmoOften in Uganda when families struggle to put their children through school, the girl is forced to stay at home while the boy com-pletes school. Ayiorworth couldnt afford to go to school following the death of her father. She started a microlending business so other girls can.

Girl Power Microlending Organisation (Gipomo) is a business tied to loans where mothers take out loans to start their own small businesses and in return they must make sure their daughters attend school.

This project gained Ayiorworth the Anzisha Price in 2013 for young African

Doug Hoernle

FORBES

FOCUS 30 UNDER 30


Catherine Mahugu

entrepreneurs. She ploughed her winnings back into her microlending business.

Sangu Delle28, GhanaiaFounder, Golden Palm InvestmentsDelle is a co-founder of Golden Palm In-vestments, a holding company that invests in startups across Africa. Some of the entrepreneurs on this list have benefited from his investments. Golden Palm Invest-ments focuses on real estate, healthcare, agriculture and technology.

Delle showed entrepreneurial promise while in school. He sold his homework to classmates to earn money to travel to the United States, where he had accepted a scholarship.

He is also the co-founder of cleanacwa, a non-profit that provides clean water in

Ghanas underdeveloped regions. Sangu, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Valiant Capital Partners, is currently an MBA candidate at Harvard.

Max Hussman29, South AfricaFounder, Elegance GroupA 2016 swimming Olympic hopeful, Huss-mann also runs an aviation business through Elegance Group, which includes Elegance Air, sport consulting and aviation consulting.

He was born in Accra, raised in Germany, but made a home in South Africa where Elegance is thriving and making its mark in the aviation industry. It offers the hour package flying principle with chartered airlines, where companies are able to buy bulk hours of 25 to 50 hours and utilize them when it suits.

Bankole Cardoso26, NigeriaCo-founder, Easy Taxi NigeriaCardoso was the founding chief executive of online taxi hailing app, Easy Taxi Nigeria, a Rocket Internet-backed startup. While still affiliated with Easy Taxi, he is moving on to new projects. Easy Taxi, under Cardosos watch, grew to be one of the most used taxi hailing apps in Lagos and Abuja.

It has been a tough year for Cardoso. His mother, Stella Ameyo Adadevoh, died of Ebola this year. Adadevoh was one of the doctors in Nigeria who helped treat the disease.

Catherine Mahugu27, KenyaCo-founder, SokoMahugu is one of the founders of Soko, an online platform where global shoppers can buy handcrafted accessories direct from artisans in Kenya.

Born and raised in Nairobi, Mahugu studied computer science for her gradu-ate degree.

I used to fix things and gadgets as a child From a young age, I was fascinated by science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Family support motivated my sister to study civil engineering and me to study computer science. Although these are male-dominated fields, my parents positive attitude provided an empowering environ-ment, and we were encouraged to pursue our own interests.

If you want to be an innovative tech company anywhere in the world right now, mobile must be a significant component of what you do. Pervasive mobile phone own-ership and services such as M-Pesa have made Kenya a global hub of innovative business models that leverage mobile in order to leapfrog many of the infrastructur-al barriers the industrialized world faces for challenges as diverse as payment solutions and opportunities for poverty alleviation, says Mahugu.

Mahugu took the Design Liberation Technology course at Stanford University in 2010 and has been involved in various development projects including Stan-fords Nokia Africa Research Center which builds mobile applications for informal communities.


FORBES

FOCUS 30 UNDER 30

WATCH THIS SPACEAfua Osei28, GhanaCo-founder, She Leads AfricaOsei co-founded She Leads Africa with Yasmin Belo-Osagie. She Leads Africa is a social enterprise that provides women with the support they need to build their businesses. The plan is to turn female entrepreneurs into pan-African business leaders. She Leads Africa has almost 1,000 start-ups in its network and plans to empower more than 10,000 women this year. Osei, who has a fulltime job at global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, has worked on Michelle Obamas re-search and communications team as well as helping women running for Congress in the United States.

Kgomotso Mautloa29, South AfricaFounder, Green Robot DesignMautloa is the owner and co-founder of Green Robot Design. The son of well-known South African artists, Pat and Bongi Mautloa, Kgomotso quit his job in 2007 to start his own business and create his own legacy. Kgomotso is a designer, creative director and brand consultant and his clients include popular musicians such as Kuli Chana and Mo Flava. Besides a matric certificate, he has no formal degree. That hasnt stopped him from reaching the creative heights others can only dream about.

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Siyabonga Beyile21, South AfricaFounder, The Threaded ManThe Threaded Man is an online fashion platform for African men. Launched in February 2013 by Siyabonga Beyile, it has established itself as the leading site for the latest trends in menswear. Beyile dropped out of fashion school because his parents couldnt afford the fees. He then realized he didnt want to be a designer and became an analyst instead. He now advises and promotes designers. Beyile is considered one of the most influential blog-gers in South African mens fashion and has covered local and international fashion shows.

Trushar Khetia28, KenyaFounder,

Tria GroupKhetia is the founder

of Tria Group, a Kenyan company that places advertising on buses

in Nairobi. Tria, which was founded in 2013,

already has annual revenues exceeding $1.3 million. Khetia

also entered the retail market when

he founded Society Stores, a four-storey

supermarket. He plans to open two more retail

outlets before the end of the year.

Michael Muthiga27, KenyaFounder, Fatboy AnimationMuthiga is the founder of Fatboy Animation, a Nairo-bi-based company that produces animation for both film and adverts. FatBoy Animations has produced several viral 3-D animated commercials for leading Kenyan brands. After finishing school, Muthiga couldnt afford to attend animation courses and had to teach himself with free on-line tutorials. He then honed his skills at Tinga Tinga Tales, a cartoon series based on African folk tales that was aired on BBC and the Disney Channel. After creating work that has gone viral, Fatboy Animation now attracts clients from East Africa, the United States, Canada and India. In the future, Muthiga hopes to produce animated movies.

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MY WORST DAY

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR

COMPANY LOSES ITS

MOJO?He is not your average CEO. When he laughs, its infectious. When we

arrived late for the interview, he bantered and laughed louder even

though he was to talk about his worst day.

BY THOBILE HANS

Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo is a rare accounting firm built on small township businesses with sweat and hard work under apartheid. This year, it celebrates 30 years, and is the fifth largest firm in Southern Africa. It also works in West Africa. Eighteen years ago, it was rocked by uncertainty and despair. This was Victor Sekeses worst day.


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I BELIEVE IN NOT REINVENTING THE WHEEL.

What did I learn?Having a high profile personality at the helm of the organization is useful for the standing of the organization and its reputation. The advantage results in better deal flow for the business.It is, however, important for the organization to build its own profile, such that it is not overshadowed by the leaders one. Most importantly, stakeholder relations are important in making sure that they understand the strength and depth of the organization, that its success is not dependent on one individual. I have also learned that you should not take succession planning and contingency plans for granted. These should be proactively addressed even when things are going well. I have heard of too many start-ups where the founders leave them during early stages of operations.


In the cut-and-thrust world of business weve all experienced a worst day. How did you turn it around? What can we learn from your experience? [email protected]

Sekese is living proof you dont have to be eccentric to run this business, but it helps.

Am I properly dressed for this interview? By the way, thank you for being late, while you were getting lost on your way here I had to catch up on something, says Sekese, as he strides into the boardroom neatly dressed in a black suit and tie, before breaking into raucous laughter.

If it takes one man to change the world, Sekese could be that man. He has been the chief with the company since 1994, and chief executive for 18 years. You could say he is a rock of a company worth $60 million.

The foundation of this rock was laid in the turbulent townships of 1980s as South Africa burned.

We were operating at grassroots level. We were literarily getting our hands dirty helping all sorts of town-ship entrepreneurs, largely focusing on professional people running law firms, medical practitioners and non-govern-mental organization work. We helped them with books and tax matters. Thats the type of portfolio I was work-ing on, recalls Sekese.

In 1995, international funding for NGOs was dried up and the company had to help to close down many organi-zations. This was lost revenue. So, they started to knock on the doors of govern-ment parastatals and private companies.

In 1998, they got nice contracts from telecommunications and services com-panies. Right at this zenith, the company was shaken to its core. Sizwe Nxasana, the founder of Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo (then Nkonki Sizwe Ntsaluba) left his younger colleagues for a government job.

Nxasana was appointed CEO for Telkom, a lifetime opportunity for him. Now the founder, the pillar, the icon of the firm is leaving. We were very young, we had enthusiasm, we had energy, we had vision, but we were still building ourselves in the marketplace. One thing I have learned in life, theres no substitute for experience. When we leave these Ivy League institutions, we leave with confidence only. That is not enough, says Sekese.

Nxasana left Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo be-reft. There was uncertainty and clients cast doubt on the young team. Sekese, who was a manager at the time, says ser-vices firms, in their early days, are linked to founders and personalities.

Our key clients were getting jittery about Nxasana leaving. Now we needed to be quick on public relations, we stepped up quickly without the luxury of time. We tried to emphasize the success of the firm was not premised in an individual, he says.

It was also felt that Sizwe Ntsaluba, another founder and second in com-mand to Nxasana, was in his shadow. In this crisis, the company took a deep breath and put its confidence in Sekese, in his early 30s, appointing him chief executive.

This never occurred in my mind but we needed to do things and do them quickly. One is being asked to take the lead in a situation where theres a lack of confidence in the market. I saw myself as a person to leverage the team and the philosophy was that this firm was not about per-sonalities.

The team rallied behind Sekese and he was sent to Harvard for a short course in leadership. This gave him confidence.

Sekese says the experience forced the company to rebrand as Sizwe Ntsa-luba VSP and appoint a marketing team to change its image.

In 2011, Sizwe Ntsaluba merged with Gobodo Incorporated and renamed itself Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo. The new partner, Nonkululeko Gobodo, was the first black female chartered accountant in South Africa. She sold out and left in 2014.

In the past three years, Sizwe Ntsa-luba Gobodo received a 5-year multi-

million-rand contract from Transnet and announced plans to expand into the continent. Transnet and MTN are major clients.

Sekese says they are not comfortable as the fifth behind Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC.

We are working on our Africa strat-egy, extending our footprint across the continent and acquiring other firms to increase our capacity, he says.

Sekese, a chartered accountant and University of the Witwatersrand Uni-versity alumnus, was an entrepreneur in his own right but believes in the power of partnership. A few years after completing articles in 1991, he started Sekese Associates in Pretoria.

I wanted to create something big on my own but I realized that if I am alone it was going to take longer and be even more difficult. I believe in not reinventing the wheel. Sango Nxasana, my old colleague at ABASA, an associ-ation for the advancement of black ac-countants, approached me to join him. It was a no-brainer for me. I collapsed my little firm and got into a system that was already moving, says Sekese.

Behind the spontaneous laughter and carefree demeanour of the father of two, lies an activist. Sekese, raised in Mamelodi township, east of Preto-ria, cut his teeth in social activism at KwaZulu Natal University in his first year of a BCom degree. The universi-ty closed down because of the black students political activism. Sekese continued with his activism at Wits and later ABASA, where he met with Sango (meaning door in Xhosa) Ntsalu-ba, who became his mentor.

He really lived up to his name. He opened doors for many, he says.

You could argue Sekese is also a dab hand at battening down the hatches.

FORBES

MY WORST DAY VICTOR SEKESE

AFRICAN NOTEBOOKBY JEAN-JACQUES CORNISH

Nigerian security forces say they have Islamist militant group Boko Haram on run. Military assistance from neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon has made the difference. Boko Haram extended its insurgency into these countries in its effort to create a caliphate in the north east of Nigeria. Operations against the militants focused on the Sambisa forest which is their last stronghold. At least 1,000 women and girls held have been freed and moved to safety by Nigerian forces. The whereabouts of the schoolgirls captured from the town of Chibok has not been established. The freed women say they have to deal with the stigma of being Boko Haram brides after the militants boasted theyd provided captives to their fighters for marriage.

BOKO HARAM ON THE BACK FOOT?

Top politicians furiously fought back in a diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa over xenophobic attacks in Durban and Johannesburg. Abujas senior envoy, Martin Cobham, left Pretoria in a hurry, telling South African officials hed been recalled in protest against attacks on foreigners. The top public servant in Nigerias Foreign Ministry, Danjuma Sheni, was suspended for echoing Cobham. A South African foreign affairs spokesman who deplored Abuja exploiting South Africas pain was repudiated by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe who insisted this did not reflect the official view because relations between Nigeria and South Africa were very cordial. President Jacob Zuma reportedly dismissed the Nigerian action as that of an outgoing regime. He was resigned to leaving fence-mending until he attended the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari at the end of May. Nevertheless he spoke to outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan to underline Radabes remarks about the state of bilateral relations.

XENOPHOBIA SPARKS DIPLOMATIC SPAT

Efforts by beleaguered Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to hold free and fair elections were frustrated by his opposition who boycotted the ballot. They demanded the government disband before a national dialogue. Bashir refused and said the dialogue, following deadly riots in late 2013, would take place after the election. Support from the electorate was disappointingly low, even though voting took no fewer than four days. This, in turn, led the international community to discount the credibility of the election. The African Union observer team, led by former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, said the vote reflected the true will of the Sudanese people. It added that Sudans human rights record does not pass muster. The mediation troika of Britain, the United States and Norway said the elections lack credibility. This is a setback for Bashir who was hoping the process might help Sudan follow Myanmar, Iran and Cuba in from the cold.

BASHIR WINS BOYCOTTED ELECTIONS

After 42 days without any reported new cases of the deadly haemorrhagic disease, Liberia was declared Ebola free on May 9. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared: Liberia is a happy country. We have crossed the Rubicon. Her compatriots went to churches the following day for thanksgiving ceremonies. Liberia took the heaviest toll of the three West African countries affected by the worst Ebola outbreak to date that killed more than

11,000 people. Ebola cases are dwindling in Sierra Leone and Guinea but the disease is stubbornly refusing to disappear. Medical specialists making progress on developing a vaccine have moved to these countries. They need new cases to test the immunity properties of their work. As foreign doctors and nurses leave the region, medical services exhausted by the unprecedented fight against the disease are left in a parlous state.

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LIBERIA FREE OF EBOLA

AU CONDEMNS BURUNDI VIOLENCEAfrican Union chief, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says Burundi is not ready to hold elections on June 26. She says the continental body cannot send election observers to the overcrowded Great Lakes country when tens of thousands are fleeing into neighboring countries to escape the violence. At least 20 people have died in protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza who standing for an unconstitutional third term. He maintains his first mandate in 2005 came from parliament and not the electorate, so the 2010 election was his first win in terms of the constitution. The countrys Constitutional Court has ruled in his favor. However the vice president of that court, Sylvere Nimpagaritse, has skipped the country saying his life and those of other judges have been threatened. Nkurunziza dismisses protests as terrorism and has set the youth wing of his ruling CNDD FDD, known as the Imbonerakure, against demonstrators.

President Omar al-Bashir

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf



Remorse And Rubble In Nepal

FORBES AFRICA Publisher and Vice-Chairman of the ABN Group, Rakesh Wahi, was caught in the tremors

and aftershocks of the earthquake in Kathmandu. Wahi went to Nepal to climb Everest and ended up

making a harrowing journey through the rubble.

BY RAKESH WAHI

FORBES/FOCUS NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

CLICK TO PLAY VIDEO


Within minutes of driving out the parking lot at the Kathmandu airport, the first earthquake struck. Our vehicles rocked from side to side, like boats on a choppy ocean. At first, we didnt realize what was going on. When the shaking continued and we saw people screaming and running from the airport we realized we were amid the worst earthquake Nepal had ever seen.

In 2013, I took fifteen middle manage-ment executives from the ABN Group to the top of Kilimanjaro. Soon after our return, we started planning the next ad-venture Everest Base Camp (EBC). The earthquake changed everything.

When the tremors stopped, we had a chance to assess the situation. From the airport in Kathmandu, we could see black dust billowing from the city. The magnitude of the tremors was more than I had ever experienced in my life. We were told that the airport was closed and

the runway had cracked. The intensity of the earthquake and the damage was not clear. It became so as we made our way to our hotel.

By this time, all the residents of the city had moved into the streets. Dharaha-ra Tower, the tallest building in the city, had collapsed. Icons, like the Dhara-hara Tower, are pillars of pride. When they fall, it makes people desolate and uncertain, particularly when most of the buildings are old and poorly maintained.

The tremors continued at frequent intervals and in the frenzy our vehicles were separated. Our driver was young and seemed to have lost his nerve. He took us into a built-up area in the city, parked the car in an enclosed parking lot and without saying a word deserted us. We never saw him again. I was with Gary Fernandes and Biju Vetil who are both senior members of the Transnational Ed-ucation (TNE) management. By this time, the network was clogged and we were unable to contact Chris Pilgrim and other

members of our team in Kathmandu. We were, however, able to connect intermit-tently with our HR Manager, Bidisha Sen, in Dubai. The most important thing was to let everyones families know we were safe.

By 1PM, my son Sidharth, who is based in Johannesburg, started providing me with information based on what he was able to pick up from news reports. We were told that there was another severe quake expected at 3PM. Since we were stranded, the three of us decided to go towards a canal in an open area until the next wave of tremors. By 4PM, we asked a person in the garage to drive us to our hotel; he reluctantly agreed. The journey was eventful as most roads were blocked by fallen buildings and debris. Kathmandu is an old city and the streets are extremely narrow. Another death trap was the low hanging power cables that are part of a dilapidated grid. While most of the city had lost power, there were still some main cables that burst at the


FORBES

FOCUS NEPAL EARTHQUAKE

nodes as we were passing by. By this time, everyone had evacuated their homes and moved into the streets. By 5PM, we regrouped with the team at our hotel.

The hotel was in disarray. All the guests had moved into the lobby and the small courtyard outside. It was getting a cold and people went to their rooms hesitantly to collect sleeping bags and blankets for the night ahead. I assembled the team and my first goal was to make sure that everyone was calm. I stressed that we had to stay together and the safe-ty of our team was paramount. We agreed that we had to abandon the trek and plan an exit strategy.

The airport was closed. Our next option was to get transport to the Indian border and cross to Delhi to fly to Dubai. This needed visas from the Indian embassy as we had four other nationalities: Canadian, Chinese, Filipino and Egyptian.

We were told that the Indian Air Force had deployed C-130 aircraft to evacuate Indian nationals. The team agreed that we were not going to evac-uate piecemeal until there was a proper plan for each member. It was clear to me that I would be the last to leave. I also re-alized, rather than listening to rumours, a physical recce of the airport was need-ed so that I could decide whether it was going to be an air evacuation or by road.

The news from social media and fami-ly came in. The extent of the damage was not clear but by this time we knew about the avalanche at EBC, the devastation at the epicentre and the rising casualties. We could hear the sirens of ambulances and rescue workers moving around try-ing to help people trapped in the rubble.

My team was tired and emotionally drained but never showed a moment of weakness nor despair. I wanted to make sure that we found a place to eat. The city had shut down; nothing was open other than small grocery stores selling water and basic food. People had left their place of work and returned home to care for their families. We found a small restau-rant and were told the only dish they could serve was chow mein. The half cooked and barely warm dish was per-haps the tastiest chow we had ever eaten.

After dinner, Chris and Biju went on a mission to find a taxi to go on a recce. They found a broken down vintage taxi that Gary and I rode to the airport. It had started drizzling and it was heart-rending to see families, particularly children, sleeping on the streets. Some people were keeping a vigil to make sure that their groups were safe. To our delight, we found lines of tourists and expatriates lined up to fly out. The only operational flights were by the Indian Air Force which gave me the comfort that commercial airlines would soon start flying in. This is the information that I needed to have a proper plan for the next day.

My wife Saloni had been in touch with all the airlines flying out from the UAE and had made tentative bookings for us on Air Arabia. By 3AM, our seats were secured on the 10.55PM flight from Kathmandu to Sharjah on Sunday.

We had a sleepless night which saw several tremors, including a severe one at 5AM. It rained and was freezing cold. We had to move into the dining area where the guests were crammed like sardines. People were edgy, every time a chair moved they darted to the open courtyard.

At 7AM, we received a princely breakfast of tea, slices of bread and jam. It was a blessing. At 9AM, the hotel owner came to meet us and offered us a lift in his van. The only problem was it was the team or the luggage; not both. Since we had over 12 hours until our flight, I asked him to take the baggage. Our travel agent assured us it would get to the airport.

We decided not to walk through the built up areas as a lot of the buildings were unstable. We found a map and planned our more than 20 kilometer route along the canal and then finally on to the wide main road to the airport. The extent of the damage and the dis-placement of people we saw while walk-ing was an eye opener. The open areas were packed and temporary shelters, of tarpaulin and plastic, were everywhere. Rescuers pulled dead bodies from the wreckage. We were full of remorse and

knew it could have been us.After a six-hour march, that included

the second-most severe earthquake at 1PM, we finally made it to the airport. We joined long lines of people waiting to board commercial planes. The airport had been shut down once again and we had no idea if we would fly out. My wife stayed in close contact with the airline and at 6.30PM told us that the flight had taken off from Sharjah. Hope was revived. We checked in at 9PM and the way the baggage was piled up in the airport, and the lack of any tracking and staff, made it evident that the luggage was not going anywhere. We boarded at 1AM and took off an hour later to the cheers of relieved and exhausted passengers. The ordeal, for us, was over. Our families and the hot coffee and muf-fins at the airport more than compen-sated for our lost baggage that we have no hope of getting back. I only hope the contents make it to the needy people of Nepal and not into the hands of thieves.

This experience was a reality check. We often believe we are infallible; the truth is we are far from it. I was just happy that I could bring all members of my team back safely. I would not have been able to live with myself if anything untoward had happened. Our team members in Dubai and families stepped up and played a crucial role in lifting our morale. We went there for a team building exercise. Nothing prepared the team for a real life catastrophe that brought out the best in each of them and brought them together as a family and inspired them to contribute to the suffering people of Nepal.

We often believe we are infallible; the truth is we are far from it.

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Genocide Looms Over The Streets Of FlamesBurundi is divided between those loyal to the president and those against him. With elections coming up, there

are fears that civil war, and possibly genocide, will return.

BY ELAYNE WANGALWA

Burundi has been rocked by gunfire, protests and an attempted coup. At least 20 people are feared dead and hundreds of thousands are on the run since the skirmishes began in April.

Protests in East Africas smallest country began in the capital Bujum-bura on April 25 after President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he was seeking a third term in office, despite a two-term limit in the constitution.

FORBES/FOCUS BURUNDI

Protestors immediately barricaded roads and set tyres alight. Since then, there have been daily riots in the capital.

The air is full of tension as army and police officials patrol the streets.

A group, led by Godefroid Niyom-bare, even attempted to overthrow the government while Nkurunziza was in Tanzania for talks with regional leaders on the crisis in his country. Despite ini-tially claiming success, the coup failed, and many of its leaders were arrested. Niyombare remains on the run.

On May 5, the Constitutional Court said that Nkurunziza is eligible for a third term in office after four judges fled the country fearing for their safety. The court stated Nkurunzizas first term does not count because he was appointed by parliament, not the citizens of Burundi.

Nkurunziza took office 10 years ago after the end of a 12-year civil war. Fol-lowing a peace agreement in 2005 in Arusha, Tanzania, it was decided that no president will run for more than two terms.

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People burn mattresses looted from the local police post on May 13 in Masuga neighborhood in Bujumbura during a

protest against president Pierre Nkurunzizas bid for a third term


serious challenge to neighboring coun-tries capacities to accommodate refu-gees. It is a serious concern in an already fragile region, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Manage-ment, Christos Stylianides, said.

Burundis economy has grown by more than 4% annually since 2012 de-spite several constraints.

Last year, the International Mone-tary Fund (IMF) warned that the coun-trys medium term economic outlook remains bleak with risks arising from political uncertainties ahead of the general elections and vulnerability to external shocks given Burundis narrow export base.

According to Venuste Karambazi, an independent analyst based in Rwanda, Nkurunzizas decision to run for office will put a damper on the struggling economy.

Burundi is a poor country, so when there are riots, like the case now, these contribute to weakening the economy more and more. The capital is paralyzed,

International governments have expressed concern over the courts decision.

The eyes of the world are on Burun-di. The steps necessary for a peaceful and prosperous democratic future for Burundi should be taken now, Britain said in a statement.

Reports of intimidation against members of the Constitutional Court do not give the impression of an indepen-dent court that was able to come to an impartial decision.

We are deeply concerned about President Nkurunzizas decision, which flies directly in the face of the constitution of his country, US Secre-tary of State, John Kerry, said during a visit to Kenya.

Many fear that civil war will return. The country has been plagued with

tension since it gained independence from Belgium in 1962. The civil war, fought between the countrys Hutu majority and Tutsi minority, began in 1993 and resulted in the death of around 300,000 people.

With the presidential elections slated for June 26, Nkurunziza continues to defy international pressure to withdraw from the elections. Furthermore, the president has rejected calls to delay the elections, saying that it would worsen the current situation.

So far, Belgium has suspended the $2.2 million it had pledged for Burun-dis elections and the Netherlands says it is reviewing its commitment to the country.

The current government remains hopeful that peaceful and fair elections will still be held.

Since the protests began, more than 100,000 Burundians have fled to neigh-boring countries Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many fear the ruling partys youth wing militia Imbonerakure, according to the UN refugee agency.

The European Commission has disbursed $1.7 million to support and protect Burundian refugees in neighbor-ing countries.

Such sudden and massive displace-ment is a humanitarian tragedy and a

WE RISK HAVING A BURUNDIAN ECONOMY THAT IS DESTROYED.

Burundian police officer holding a baton and army forces run after protestors throwing stones during a demonstration against president Pierre Nkurunzizas bid for a third term

trade is paralyzed and other social activ-ities come to a stop. This is a danger to the economy which is already weak. If the situation continues, we risk having a Burundian economy that is destroyed, Karambazi said.

President Pierre Nkurunziza

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Forbes Africa - June 2015

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Transcript of Forbes Africa - June 2015