From rags to riches: Nungu’s success story

Only a decade ago, he was a hopeless Zimbabwean – walking street after street, scouring shops and tuck shops, trying to get employment.

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Nungu near the machine that has given him fame and fortune.

Today, Lindile Nungu (33) is one of the most talked-about names in Johannesburg and his shop, GET and Projects, is well-known across South Africa for manufacturing curtains, blankets and interior home decorations. He has won tenders from top companies and the South African government.
“I knew what I wanted to do even when I crossed the border into this country. I was only looking for employment so that I could raise start-up capital,” Nungu told The Zimbabwean during an interview at one of his factories.
“Manufacturing runs in my blood – it is a family thing and I did not dream of doing something else because I was inducted into this by my parents at an early age. It sounds weird, but I did not play with other children when I grew up in Bulawayo, nor did I have any toys but my father’s sewing machines,” he said.
After completing school, Nungu took sewing seriously and acquired skills as a tailor, after which he worked at a Bulawayo factory that produced clothing for two years. He left to seek greener pastures in neighbouring South Africa.

Pap and cabbage

“When I arrived here, I worked for a Zimbabwean man who owned a small tailor’s shop in Johannesburg. For four years I saved every cent I could,” he said.
“In 2001, I had saved enough money and bought myself a few machines, which I used to start the business that you see now.”
But it was not easy.
“I did not have relevant documentation then and getting loans, which I really needed at that stage, was impossible. I had to live from hand-to-mouth in the beginning, and my personal needs had to suffer in order for the business to grow. I lived on pap and cabbage for more than two years, trying to break even, which I eventually did,” said Nungu.
Having soldiered on, walking long distances to get supplies and negotiate contracts with potential customers, he finally established himself.
“Things began to move for me when I got contracts to supply 70 major businesses with my products and from then the company just moved up, up and up.”

Give a hand

With his profile having grown in leaps and bounds, Nungu was contracted by some major suppliers of clothing, blankets and curtains from all over South Africa, where there is no corner that he does not supply.
“I have contracts with major dealers in as far as Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the whole of South Africa we are there and respected. But we have not forgotten the need to give a hand to some developing businessmen as well,” said Nungu.
“We currently supply more than 130 small businesses in South Africa and Zimbabwe, who get our products on reasonable terms. In this way, we are making sure that other poor people with a vision are also given wings to fly.”

World Cup cake

The highlight of Nungu’s career came in 2010, when some companies that had won tenders to supply clothing for participating teams at the World Cup approached him for partnership deals.
“We knew that for us to break into the deals on our own in a field where the who’s who of the industry were also struggling to get in was always going to be difficult. But our good profile and track record saw us get sub-contracts with some major companies and we got a piece of the World Cup cake.”
He is now established - but Nungu is not satisfied with making a name for himself in a foreign land. He longs to do so in his homeland too. He has started drawing up plans for a presence in Zimbabwe – Bulawayo especially.
“I want my boyhood friends to be proud of me one day and that is why I am planning to make a big impact in Zimbabwe,” he said. But first of all he wants to establish several branches in every major city here in South Africa.
Having gone through the trials and tribulations of trying to find his feet in a foreign land, Nungu has this advice for his compatriots in the Diaspora:
“Do not underestimate what runs in your family - because it is what you have done most in your life that will at the end of the day determine your destiny. Practice makes perfect and that is what has worked for me.
“Also, people might think that investing money is ‘not cool’ but that is the key to success, especially when you live far away from your parents, who will always breathe down your neck and tell you to buy cattle and goats for a better tomorrow. In fact, living a carefree life of chasing after women and night spots is now out of fashion and will not take you anywhere.”

Source: thezimbabwean.co.uk

South Africa : Rags to riches story

Hottest children's clothing brands, Naartjie and Keedo began in the early 1990s and both companies are thriving and expanding while most of the country's clothing sector struggles for survival as cheap Chinese imports swamp the market. Naartjie owns 15 stores in the major centres including three factory shops and 20 stores in the US. Keedo, owns seven retail stores locally and one in Switzerland has export partners in the US and a website for online sales and will launch a UK website to make further inroads in the foreign market next month. Ann Eels started Naartjie and Nelia Schutte with Keedo, who hated the synthetic fabrics and mediocre design of children's clothing, got their sewing machines out, tapped into their creative minds and began churning out earthy cotton outfits for their little ones. In Cape Town dressed in stylish and comfortable clothing, the young ones became their marketing agents. Parents who spotted children’s wanted the same garments for their own children wanting clean and fun lines. Naartjie and Keedo are seen as sterling examples in the local clothing sector as against the gloomy scenario of an industry that has lost more than 65000 jobs in the past two years as factories have shut down and retrenchments have soared. Their original designs, high-quality fabric and manufacturing, good financial management and a loyal workforce, have paid off. Both self-starters have won awards over the years and have been lauded by the SA Clothing & Textile Workers' Union, which is leading the drive to impose quotas on Chinese imports. Government has given the clothing industry some breathing space by delaying the imposition of quotas on Chinese imports until January. This will enable local retailers to reduce their reliance on goods from China, Malaysia, India and Vietnam and gradually reassign orders to local clothing manufacturers. Source: fibre2fashion.com

Patrice MOTSEPE

Biography :

Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe(b. January 28,1962), is one of the richest and powerful man in South Africa.Patrice Tlhopane Motsepe is Executive Chairman of African Rainbow Minerals Limited, ARM, a leading, niche-diversified mining and minerals company, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the non-executive Chairman of Harmony and the Deputy Chairman of Sanlam. His various business responsibilities include being President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA), which is the voice of organised business in South Africa. He is also president of Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.

He figured 503 in the Forbes 2008 year list of the richest people in the world, third and first black man n South Africa just behind Nicky Oppenheimer and Johann Rupert.

Mr. Motsepe began his business career as a child when he would wake early to help his entrepreneurial father by selling liquor to mine workers at his father's shop. "I must have been about eight when my dad said one day, We make so much money when you're behind the counter you should take over the business when you grow up. But it was hard work, from 6am to 8pm. I soon realised I needed to choose a career that would keep me away from that shop! That's how I came to decide when was only eight that I'd become a lawyer."He went on to earn a BA from Swaziland University and a LLB from Wits University.

In 1994 he became the first black lawyer to be made a partner at the law firm Bowman Gilfillan, where he specialized in mining and business law before becoming restless. He then shifted to the mining industry. He Started a contract mining operation called Future Mining which provided various services to Vaal Reefs gold mine, now part of AngloGold. Unable to secure a loan, he ran his business from a briefcase for the first eight months.

Mr.Motsepe formed African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) in 1997 and acquired a number of marginal shafts at Vaal Reefs in January 1998 on favorable financial terms, followed by the purchase of other marginal shafts owned by AngloGold in the Free State.

Today he's the biggest single shareholder of the world's fifth-largest gold mining company. His firm, African Rainbow Minerals, controls 19.8 per cent of Harmony. His family trust owns 43.1 per cent of ARM, valued at approximately $1 billion.

Harmony Gold Mining Company specializes in turning old digs into new digs. Harmony is South Africa's largest gold miner, after acquiring ARMgold in 2003, and the sixth largest in the world. The company buys mature gold mines with lagging production and turns them into low-cost, high-productivity mines. It had 2003 revenues of $1.2 billion and has 50,718 employees.

He is married to Dr Precious Makgosi Maloi and have three sons.

Source: africansuccess.org