2008 is likely to go down in history as a tumultuous year for South Africa. A year that started with a power crisis and was followed by the global economic crisis and an active political arena back home that saw the ruling African National Congress (ANC) decide to recall Thabo Mbeki as country president, voting in Kgalema Petrus Motlanthe, the ANC’s deputy president and former secretary general, as interim president of South Africa until the next elections, expected to take place in April 2009.
The 59-year-old Motlanthe became South Africa’s interim or caretaker president on September 25, 2008, and later assumed the role of deputy president after the election of Jacob Zuma as South Africa’s president.
Affectionately known as Mkulu, a term of veneration that means ‘elder’ or ‘leader’, he is seen as a left-leaning intellectual who is not afraid to speak his mind, and gained public support for urging the ANC Youth League to respect the rule of law when ANCYL leader Julius Malema said he was prepared to kill for ANC president Jacob Zuma.
Motlanthe is seen both as a voice of reason and a unifying force within the ANC and was the only person to feature on both the Zuma and Mbeki top lists at the succession battle at the party conference in Polokwane in December last year.
Born in Alexandra Township, close to the centre of Johannesburg, on July 19, 1949, he attended an Anglican missionary school in Alex now known as Pholos Primary before moving to Meadowlands, Soweto in 1959. The church played a major role in his formative years and the Tswana speaking youngster served as an altar boy for many years and even considered becoming a priest.
After matriculating from Orlando High School Motlanthe went to work for the Johannesburg City Council for several years during the 1970s as a supervisor in the commercial department overseeing bottle-stores and agricultural marketing in the townships. It was during this period that the avid soccer player and jazz lover was recruited to the military wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (meaning spear of the nation).
Motlanthe’s unit was initially tasked with recruiting new members for military training, but later became involved in sabotage. Motlanthe was arrested by the security police on April 14, 1976, just months before the Soweto uprising, and detained until his trial in February 1977 where he was found guilty on three counts of terrorism and was sent to Robben Island for ten years.
In various reports, Motlanthe describes his time of incarceration on the island as and enriching period filled with camaraderie, sharing and learning; although it is bound to have also been hard and exceedingly tough.
Shortly after his release in April 1987 he joined the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) first as an education officer and rising to secretary general of the mining union in January 1992 succeeding Cyril Ramaphosa. It was here that Motlanthe began to hone his political skills.
When the ANC was unbanned Motlanthe became the chairman of the party’s Gauteng region but stepped down in September 1991 to devote more time to NUM.
The father of two daughters and one son followed in Ramaphosa’s footsteps again and became secretary general of the ANC in December 1997, a position he held until his appointment as the deputy president of the ANC in December 2007.
The ANC conference in Polokwane in December 2007 saw Mbeki losing the presidency of the ANC to Zuma, and the new ANC leadership applied pressure on Mbeki to appoint Motlanthe, widely believed to be the brains behind Zuma’s campaign, to the cabinet.
Described as a committed socialist and 120% ANC, Motlanthe became a member of parliament in May 2008, and in a move to facilitate a smooth transition of government after the 2009 elections was appointed to the cabinet as a minister without portfolio in July 2008.
Motlanthe went on to become the third post-apartheid president winning 269 of a possible 351 parliamentary votes in September and now fills the role of deputy president under Jacob Zuma after the 2009 polls.
As president he proved more popular than Mbeki and gained approval for the appointment of Barbara Hogan as minister of health and facilitating a conventional scientific approach to HIV, as well as his assurances that he will stick to former president Mbeki’s pro-business financial policies.
Motlanthe, who has studiously avoided any limelight, appears to put the ANC before himself, and is respected by all for his studious regard for process and consultation.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
ELON MUSK
Boldly going where no South African has gone before…
Mark Shuttleworth became a household name when the successful South African entrepreneur, now resident in London, became the second self-funded space tourist and the first South African in space on a flight aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 in April 2002, but few of us realise that another South African, now resident in Bel-Air, California, is persistently pioneering space and other frontiers and boldly going where no South Africa has gone before.
Elon Musk, best known for co-founding PayPal, the leading internet payment system, was born in Pretoria two years before Shuttleworth and has gone on to develop an affordable revolutionary electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, and as CEO and chief technician of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is developing rockets to take satellites and people into orbit around Earth and beyond.
Musk’s penchant for thinking big and achieving the seemingly impossible began early. At age 10 he bought his first computer and taught himself how to program. By age 12 the Thomas Edison fan had designed his own computer game, a variation on Space Invaders called Blaster which he sold to a computer magazine for USD 500.
At age 17 the Pretoria Boys High School matriculant left South Africa against the wishes of his parents largely to avoid military conscription in support of the Apartheid government and headed for North America. There he self-funded his studies, earning Bachelors degrees in both Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
By the age of 27 the over 6 foot tall Musk had sold his four-year-old online publishing software company Zip2 to Compaq for USD 307mn plus USD 34mn in stock options.
The South African national then went on to co-found PayPal which was sold to eBay shortly after Shuttleworth’s trip into space for USD 1.5bn. At the time Musk was PayPal’s largest shareholder with 11.7% and earned enough to start his third company SpaceX and pursue his dreams of human colonisation of space.
Now at 39, Musk is aiming high – in fact 250 miles up, at the International Space Station – and beyond that to a human oasis on Mars, and could just be the very person to shrug off what we consider the impossible and change the world as we know it.
Prior to October this year California-based SpaceX had launched the Falcon 1 (F1) rocket 180 miles above Earth, further than any privately developed rocket, and on Oct 7, on only its fourth launch attempt, the F1 became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit around Earth. The next flight, carrying a Malaysian primary satellite and US government secondary satellite is schedule for March 2009 and the private rocket company aims to start shuttling people to the International Space Station by 2011.
SpaceX’s focus on affordable technology has seen the 525 employees develop a competitive launch vehicle in less time and for less money than would seem possible and is likely to provide stiff competition for the 150,000 employees at the USD 61.5bn Boeing plant. The company already boasts that it will launch satellites into space for a quarter of the cost of its competitors.
In addition to the space programme, Musk’s concern for the environment resulted in a USD 6.3mn investment which sees him as principal owner and chairman of the board at Tesla Motors which has built the first truly viable electric motor car.
Although Tesla initially focused on a sports car which sells for around USD 98,000 they also have plans to produce a family sedan in the region of USD 50,000 and a third model as more of a city run-around at USD 30,000.
In recent years Musk’s desire to combat global warming sees him also the primary investor and chairman of the successful solar panel installation company SolarCity.
Musk was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Space Transportation Award in September this year for his contribution to the development of commercial space transportation systems using innovative low-cost approaches.
Musk has indicated that after the successful launch of the F1, the next goal is to launch the cargo carrying Falcon 9 (F9), as well as the F9 with crew Dragon and the F9 heavy… and then Musk’s sights are set, as they have been since his 2001, on a Mars landing. Musk had initially put plans to land an experimental greenhouse on the hot red planet on hold in order to reduce prohibitive launch costs – something he has recently achieved.
Mark Shuttleworth became a household name when the successful South African entrepreneur, now resident in London, became the second self-funded space tourist and the first South African in space on a flight aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 in April 2002, but few of us realise that another South African, now resident in Bel-Air, California, is persistently pioneering space and other frontiers and boldly going where no South Africa has gone before.
Elon Musk, best known for co-founding PayPal, the leading internet payment system, was born in Pretoria two years before Shuttleworth and has gone on to develop an affordable revolutionary electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, and as CEO and chief technician of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is developing rockets to take satellites and people into orbit around Earth and beyond.
Musk’s penchant for thinking big and achieving the seemingly impossible began early. At age 10 he bought his first computer and taught himself how to program. By age 12 the Thomas Edison fan had designed his own computer game, a variation on Space Invaders called Blaster which he sold to a computer magazine for USD 500.
At age 17 the Pretoria Boys High School matriculant left South Africa against the wishes of his parents largely to avoid military conscription in support of the Apartheid government and headed for North America. There he self-funded his studies, earning Bachelors degrees in both Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
By the age of 27 the over 6 foot tall Musk had sold his four-year-old online publishing software company Zip2 to Compaq for USD 307mn plus USD 34mn in stock options.
The South African national then went on to co-found PayPal which was sold to eBay shortly after Shuttleworth’s trip into space for USD 1.5bn. At the time Musk was PayPal’s largest shareholder with 11.7% and earned enough to start his third company SpaceX and pursue his dreams of human colonisation of space.
Now at 39, Musk is aiming high – in fact 250 miles up, at the International Space Station – and beyond that to a human oasis on Mars, and could just be the very person to shrug off what we consider the impossible and change the world as we know it.
Prior to October this year California-based SpaceX had launched the Falcon 1 (F1) rocket 180 miles above Earth, further than any privately developed rocket, and on Oct 7, on only its fourth launch attempt, the F1 became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit around Earth. The next flight, carrying a Malaysian primary satellite and US government secondary satellite is schedule for March 2009 and the private rocket company aims to start shuttling people to the International Space Station by 2011.
SpaceX’s focus on affordable technology has seen the 525 employees develop a competitive launch vehicle in less time and for less money than would seem possible and is likely to provide stiff competition for the 150,000 employees at the USD 61.5bn Boeing plant. The company already boasts that it will launch satellites into space for a quarter of the cost of its competitors.
In addition to the space programme, Musk’s concern for the environment resulted in a USD 6.3mn investment which sees him as principal owner and chairman of the board at Tesla Motors which has built the first truly viable electric motor car.
Although Tesla initially focused on a sports car which sells for around USD 98,000 they also have plans to produce a family sedan in the region of USD 50,000 and a third model as more of a city run-around at USD 30,000.
In recent years Musk’s desire to combat global warming sees him also the primary investor and chairman of the successful solar panel installation company SolarCity.
Musk was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Space Transportation Award in September this year for his contribution to the development of commercial space transportation systems using innovative low-cost approaches.
He might not be a household name, yet, but he ought to be. This maverick South African-born entrepreneur has a penchant for turning innovation into success and is boldly exploring frontiers that could revolutionise our world.
Musk has indicated that after the successful launch of the F1, the next goal is to launch the cargo carrying Falcon 9 (F9), as well as the F9 with crew Dragon and the F9 heavy… and then Musk’s sights are set, as they have been since his 2001, on a Mars landing. Musk had initially put plans to land an experimental greenhouse on the hot red planet on hold in order to reduce prohibitive launch costs – something he has recently achieved.
Friday, January 28, 2011
GLORIA SEROBE
Renowned for her contribution to the empowerment of black women in South Africa and described as a torchbearer of our times, Gloria Tomatoe Serobe is a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Committee and the Presidential Working Group for Women, as well as a member of various boards.
Married to Gaur Serobe, the feisty Gloria is mother to two adult sons, Zani and Thato. At just 1.52 metres, she proves the adage that dynamite comes in small packages, and is widely regarded as an entrepreneur who makes her presence felt – but who can still enjoy a good joke or the odd prank or two.
Best known for her role as one of four co-founders of Women Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) - the first women’s group established post-1994 to list on the JSE (listed in 1999, although it de-listed in 2003) - and for her current role as CEO of Wipcapital, a subsidiary of Wiphold focusing on operational financial services, Gloria ascribes her success to hard work and a driving ambition. And this, she says, is at least in part attributable to the high expectations of her held by her maternal grandfather, Rev John Zamile Ndaliso, who played a formative role in her life.
Although born in Cape Town, this competent and tough corporate businesswoman was sent to St John’s High School in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, where schooling was of a higher quality. She was amongst the first group of five girls to attend the boys’ high school.
After matriculating, Gloria, who is one of 10 siblings and hails from a large family of successful entrepreneurs, obtained her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Transkei. She then went on to complete her MBA at the University of Rutgers State in the US on a Fulbright scholarship.
Her first job was for Exxon Corporation in the US as a trainee accountant, after which she returned to South Africa to work in various positions for the Premier Group’s Epic Oils and then Munich Reinsurance. She opted for a cut in salary to escape the routine of accounting and moved into investment and merchant banking with Standard Corporate & Merchant Bank.
Gloria, who turns 52 on September 20 this year, moved to state transport utility Transnet as group financial director in 1996 and stayed there until 2001, serving as a member of the board as well as on the boards of subsidiaries at the time, including Spoornet, Portnet, Petronet and South African Airways.
Wiphold was founded in 1994 as a dedicated broad-based black empowerment company focused on the empowerment of women. The company listed on the JSE in 1999 and survived some turbulent years leading up to a delisting in 2003 as one of the few surviving BBBEE companies that established soon after the 1994 democratic elections. Wiphold’s shareholding is majority owned (in excess of 60%) by women, also majority black-owned (50.3%) and has 1 200 direct beneficiaries and 18 000 indirect beneficiaries through the Wiphold Investment Trust. A further 200 000 women benefit through the Wiphold Non-Governmental Organisation Trust, making an economic impact in each of South Africa’s nine provinces.
In 2005 Gloria was instrumental in brokering a R7.2 billion empowerment deal for a 12.75% stake in the London-listed Old Mutual Group, of which Wiphold and other BEE consortiums were beneficiaries. Critics say she is haughty and used to getting her own way, but her admirers say she’s just driven.
Her hard work has been rewarded with a number of accolades, including the Impumeleleo Top 300 Award in 2003 for her contribution to transformation, job creation, the economy and as a BEE role model. In 2004 she received the ABSIP Pioneer of Empowerment Award and was winner of the Business category of the 2005 Top Women in Business and Government, and twas the 2006 winner of Businesswoman of the Year Award in the corporate category.
In 2006 she also won the African Woman Chartered Accountants Woman of Substance Award and was a finalist, together with Wiphold CEO Louisa Mojela, in the SA chapter of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Award. She has also been awarded the president’s award by the Institute of People Management, and recognised by the Black Management Forum for championing the empowerment of women. Although she received some negative press for controversy surrounding her nomination onto the SABC board, Gloria remains a much-loved pioneer in the field of economic empowerment for women and a well-respected businesswoman.
Married to Gaur Serobe, the feisty Gloria is mother to two adult sons, Zani and Thato. At just 1.52 metres, she proves the adage that dynamite comes in small packages, and is widely regarded as an entrepreneur who makes her presence felt – but who can still enjoy a good joke or the odd prank or two.
At just 1.52 metres, she proves the adage that dynamite comes in small packages.
Best known for her role as one of four co-founders of Women Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) - the first women’s group established post-1994 to list on the JSE (listed in 1999, although it de-listed in 2003) - and for her current role as CEO of Wipcapital, a subsidiary of Wiphold focusing on operational financial services, Gloria ascribes her success to hard work and a driving ambition. And this, she says, is at least in part attributable to the high expectations of her held by her maternal grandfather, Rev John Zamile Ndaliso, who played a formative role in her life.
Although born in Cape Town, this competent and tough corporate businesswoman was sent to St John’s High School in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, where schooling was of a higher quality. She was amongst the first group of five girls to attend the boys’ high school.
After matriculating, Gloria, who is one of 10 siblings and hails from a large family of successful entrepreneurs, obtained her Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Transkei. She then went on to complete her MBA at the University of Rutgers State in the US on a Fulbright scholarship.
Her first job was for Exxon Corporation in the US as a trainee accountant, after which she returned to South Africa to work in various positions for the Premier Group’s Epic Oils and then Munich Reinsurance. She opted for a cut in salary to escape the routine of accounting and moved into investment and merchant banking with Standard Corporate & Merchant Bank.
Gloria, who turns 52 on September 20 this year, moved to state transport utility Transnet as group financial director in 1996 and stayed there until 2001, serving as a member of the board as well as on the boards of subsidiaries at the time, including Spoornet, Portnet, Petronet and South African Airways.
Wiphold was founded in 1994 as a dedicated broad-based black empowerment company focused on the empowerment of women. The company listed on the JSE in 1999 and survived some turbulent years leading up to a delisting in 2003 as one of the few surviving BBBEE companies that established soon after the 1994 democratic elections. Wiphold’s shareholding is majority owned (in excess of 60%) by women, also majority black-owned (50.3%) and has 1 200 direct beneficiaries and 18 000 indirect beneficiaries through the Wiphold Investment Trust. A further 200 000 women benefit through the Wiphold Non-Governmental Organisation Trust, making an economic impact in each of South Africa’s nine provinces.
In 2005 Gloria was instrumental in brokering a R7.2 billion empowerment deal for a 12.75% stake in the London-listed Old Mutual Group, of which Wiphold and other BEE consortiums were beneficiaries. Critics say she is haughty and used to getting her own way, but her admirers say she’s just driven.
Her hard work has been rewarded with a number of accolades, including the Impumeleleo Top 300 Award in 2003 for her contribution to transformation, job creation, the economy and as a BEE role model. In 2004 she received the ABSIP Pioneer of Empowerment Award and was winner of the Business category of the 2005 Top Women in Business and Government, and twas the 2006 winner of Businesswoman of the Year Award in the corporate category.
Gloria remains a much-loved pioneer in the field of economic empowerment for women and a well-respected businesswoman.
In 2006 she also won the African Woman Chartered Accountants Woman of Substance Award and was a finalist, together with Wiphold CEO Louisa Mojela, in the SA chapter of the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Award. She has also been awarded the president’s award by the Institute of People Management, and recognised by the Black Management Forum for championing the empowerment of women. Although she received some negative press for controversy surrounding her nomination onto the SABC board, Gloria remains a much-loved pioneer in the field of economic empowerment for women and a well-respected businesswoman.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
ROELOF BOTHA
South African-born actuarial scientist,
Roelof Frederik Botha, has switched careers and successfully made a name for
himself as one of the leading venture capitalists in the cutting-edge high-tech
hub of Silicon Valley in the US.
He was CFO of PayPal when the secure
payment system was sold to Ebay for USD 1.5bn in 2003 and was the first to back
the video-sharing site YouTube as venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital.
YouTube was sold to Google for USD 1.65bn in 2006 effectively turning a USD 12mn
investment by Sequoia into a USD 450mn profit.
Botha is currently ranked 26th
on the Forbes Midas List of the top 100 influential Internet investors, and was
ranked 23rd and 22nd in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Born in 1973, Botha spent six years in
Pretoria before moving to Hout Bay in Cape Town with his family, which includes
three brothers and a sister.
Botha, who has not had his favourite kudu
biltong “for a long time”, attended Jan van Riebeeck High School in
Tamboerskloof and actively participated in both rugby and chess. He excelled in
academics and was the top student in the Cape Province for his matriculation year
in 1990.
With his obvious flair for mathematics and
figures, Botha went on to be the top actuarial science student at the
University of Cape Town where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Science
with majors in actuarial science, economics and statistics in 1994, at the age
of 22. He was the youngest person to qualify as an actuary in South Africa.
Botha became a Fellow of the Faculty of
Actuaries in 1996 and worked as a management consultant for McKinsey &
Company in Johannesburg for two years before leaving for the US in 1998 to study
for his MBA at Stanford University.
He graduated from Stanford Business School
in 2000, walking off with three MBA awards, including the Henry Ford Award as
valedictorian of his year.
While still completing his MBA, Botha was
recruited by fellow South African and co-founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, and
joined PayPal as its CFO in 2000.
He also met his Singaporean wife at
Stanford. They were classmates.
When PayPal was sold in 2003, Botha, joined
Sequoia Capital and embarked on a remarkably successful venture capital career.
Botha says Michael Moritz, a partner at
Sequoia Capital has had the biggest impact on his business life. “He led
Sequoia’s investments in Yahoo, Google and PayPal. He supported me as a young
CFO at PayPal and then invited me to interview at Sequoia Capital. I never
thought I would be in this career given that I don’t have an electrical engineering
or computer science background,” said Botha.
Focusing on services and software
investments, Botha has invested in instant messaging start-up Meebo, global
money transfer site Xoom, local business review site Insider Pages, and
lighting and technology firm Luxim, amongst others.
For Botha, who lives by the motto: “You’re
only as good as your next investment”, the biggest thrill in his daily work is
meeting an interesting new company and hearing a compelling idea from an
entrepreneur.
In contrast, the hardest part is calling a
business back to let them know that Sequoia has decided not to invest in their
idea.
“With investment being tighter since the
global financial crisis this means that companies need to demonstrate a stronger
edge in their value proposition. The return on investment and payback periods
also need to be more compelling before a company can win capital support,” said
Botha.
With the long-term goal to leave the world
a better place, Botha aims to help Sequoia invest in market-leading companies
that will transform the world and leave a legacy.
“I helped build PayPal into a global force.
The company serves almost 100-million users around the world and has an annual
turnover to USD 2bn just ten years after it started.
“YouTube is used by more than 350-million
people around the globe every month. Both these companies have had a worldwide
impact and I want to replicate those experiences. The natural consequence of
this goal is that we generate handsome financial returns for our investors,”
said Botha.
When not working, Botha likes to indulge in
soccer, watching rugby, and little things that keep him close to his Afrikaner
heritage (he is the grandson of former South Africa foreign affairs minister,
Pik Botha), such as making biltong.
Although he has little time
for reading anything other than science journals, Botha says his all time
favourite read is Duiwelskloof by
Andre Brink.
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