Heritage Issue

Inside

O U R H E R I T A G E I S S U E

Cover Story

Tumi Sole

Working tirelessly to rectify the social and political injustices that ordinary South Africans face.

Q&A

Lele Chikowi

Founder of Ntozinhle Brand which easily translates to beautiful things from IsiZulu.

Profile

Vincent Kheswa

Poet, writer, published author, motivational speaker and teacher (among other things).

E D I T O R ' SN O T E

In the course of editing the magazine each month, I often find an unexpected theme that organically rises to the surface, although we theme each and every edition. It’s as if the writing muses are working their own magic, handing us a gift that we hadn’t anticipated but that we eagerly welcome. These organic elements arise simply from people telling their stories with truth. And in my experience, when profiling people - I try by all means to do very little editing because I want the reader to experience the unedited version of the person who is being interviewed.

And bearing in mind the Heritage theme, it dawned on me that every issue has a story that speaks to people’s identity. I’ve interviewed entrepreneurs who are so passionate about what they do that they admit that it becomes an extension of who they are. I had a chat with a fierce and tenacious female entrepreneur last month and I remember her saying: “I cannot separate what I do for a living from who I am.”

I have spoken to entrepreneurs outside the boarders of South Africa who say that they are working tirelessly because they want to witness Africa rise. And every other entrepreneur and trailblazer that I have spoken to cannot express their love for what they do and how they got where they are without sharing the story of where they come from. And it’s in that moment that I realised that everything issue has an underlying tone that speaks to heritage.

A story about who people are, where they come from and who they ought to become. And so my recollection of all of these instances made me realise just how beautiful heritage is. The South African story is part of our heritage, our history is part of our heritage, being African is part of our heritage. We really cannot separate these things from who we are. I am proud to be a part of a team that has created a platform that allows business aspirants, entrepreneurs and trailblazers to tell their story with pride.

I hope that you can draw great inspiration from these stories, just as I do when I am interviewing some of these African stars.

Happy Heritage month, enjoy!

Baradi Moletsane

Tumi Sole

COUNTRY DUTY

BY BARADI MOLETSANE

startupAFRICA’s heritage theme was partially inspired by Founder of the #CountryDuty Movement, Corporate Attorney and Social Media Activist, Tumi Sole - a force to be reckoned with. Tumi is working tirelessly to rectify the social and political injustices that ordinary South Africans face every day.

Our first encounter of Tumi, will undoubtedly go down as one of startupAFRICA’s most memorable interviews. Engaging him affirmed one of my favourite quotes by John C Maxwell – “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” In saying so, Maxwell explains that understanding leadership and actually leading are two different activities, and that the key to transforming yourself from someone who understands leadership to a person who successfully leads in the real world is character.

Speaking of character, I can only admit that my encounter of Tumi was exemplary of it. He afforded us so much of his character the minute he walked through the door until he left the building to honour his next engagement.

Prior to his arrival, he had sent a text message (at a reasonable time) to inform us that he’d be roughly 10 minutes late, which wasn’t bad at all, bearing in mind that it took my Assignment Editor and I an additional 30 minutes (later than our scheduled time) to get to the photo-shoot destination. The studio is nestled in the heart of the suburb and the roads that led us there were never ending. It was a maze really. I would have been surprised if anyone made it on time. And it didn’t help that traffic surrounding that area was at an all-time stand still that afternoon.

Tumi arrived a little under seven minutes late, but humbled himself and apologised.

While my Assignment Editor was preparing to document my conversation with Tumi, I was itching to ask him about the very much talked about – Country Duty and what the core objective of this movement was.

“And so, you being the face of Country Duty, do you find that many a times people…” – and in that moment he took a moment to rectify my assumption.

“Although I am the founder of Country Duty, I need people to understand that the movement is not about Tumi Sole. Behind Country Duty is a tenacious team that’s working hard to try and curb and eradicate social injustices in our country.”

1

Many people may know the popular #CountryDuty, however, they may not know the founder. Who are you and what do you do?

I am Tumi Sole, a Corporate Attorney by day and Social Media Activist by day.

#CountryDuty is a Civil Society Movement, I refer to it as the “movement of the people”. Essentially, it’s not only a social media awareness initiative which asks unpopular questions, but also solution-driver that allows ordinary people to raise their voices. In essence, #CountryDuty is about accountability. Holding leaders, institutions, political parties, businesses accountable for their doings.

Country duty consists of a team of roughly 12, all of which come from various professional backgrounds. I have Lawyers, Accountants, Doctors – you name it. The most important thing to note is that our mission is to afford the people of our country to voice out their grievances, share solutions to various social and socio-political issues etc.

Also, it’s about national pride. Being South African is part of our heritage, bearing in mind our history and how far we have come as a people.

2

And what would you say is your favourite part about Country Duty?

It’s the little things that we can do for people, that can potentially change their lives tremendously. One of my favourite stories to tell is the one about the young lady, Dr. Zee.

Someone of Facebook put up a post saying that there’s a young lady who is a medic and that she needs R60 000 to graduate.

I was then contacted by another doctor on Twitter (via DM) who reached out to me and said: “Listen, I see what you guys do, can I ask that you please help this girl graduate?”

We then took it upon ourselves to inform the social media masses about her needs, using the Country Duty hashtag to drive conversation and disseminate the narrative.

The word spread like a wild fire. We had people coming forward pledging different amounts of money and in less than 48 hours, the funds were raised and she was able to graduate.

"Country duty consists of a team of roughly 12, all of which come from various professional backgrounds"

3

Is Country Duty aligned to any political parties?

Not at all. I get asked this a lot because the minute we challenge and berate a specific political party, people will naturally assume that we’re for their opposition and what people don’t get is that we’re not here to align ourselves to any organisations. Our members have different political views, however, those views are not necessarily those of #CountryDuty.

Q&A with Lele

Tell us about who you are and what you do for a living.

My name is Sphelele Chikowi (fondly known as Lele), I am the founder of Ntozinhle Brand which easily translates to beautiful things from IsiZulu – in honour of my belated dear friend. Seven years ago, after being diagnosed with a debilitating bloodclot in my brain, I was put on a disability grant, which I declined. Supported by my family and the faith I had in myself, I recovered regained my speech and mobility. A new journey was ensued , beginning with a hair salon in Chiawelo. After two years I entered the world of photography and it was at this point a more organic entrepreneurial journey began.

After receiving numerous compliments on my accessory choices at shoots, that’s when I saw an opportunity for traditional tribal accessories, starting from the boot of my car. I then moved to trading from a stall at the popular LoCrate Market in Soweto, saving enough capital to build my first store called The Fashion Mkhukhu (Shack) at home in Phiri Street Orlando West, not far from the famous Vilikazi Street, year later NtoZinhle Accessories was born and we have since evolved from just providing accessories to introducing Basetsana which is our women clothing brand under the NtoZinhle brand.

What is your definition of an entrepreneur?

Anyone who sets up a business in hope of living a better life and make profit in the process.

Please share with us one of your childhood memories that you can never forget.

Well it’s a sad one, when I was 10 my grandma sent me to buy a few groceries and on my way back was hit by a car- not a major incident. This driver took me home and gave my grandma money for me to go to a clinic the following day. The next day I got up early so I could go to the clinic and to realise that the money was stolen, and my grandma accused me of stealing it and gave me a good hiding and to think my body was still in pain from the accident.

Which tribe are you from and what do you love about it?

I am Zulu from the sunny province of KwaZulu Natal and I love the fact that we are such a colourful and rich (rich in culture) and we love to sing and dance.

What does heritage mean to you?

Heritage to me means being able to celebrate our intangible attributes we have inherited from my forefathers and preserving that for the future generations to come and celebrating who we are without fear of being judged.

For me being African means being proudly born in Africa and embracing it, with Globalization we have became aware or learnt that being African means a few other things, being tolerant of other Nations, even after decades of colonialism, we managed to forgive and move on without holding grudges.

We have the rare ability to learn different languages in order to survive in a foreign country and last but not least, UNITY!

What’s the one unpleasant thing that you have experienced in this career that you want to share with people?

certain body shape or size. If you don’t wear Make Up or wear Brazilian hair or have a certain ascent, you have to work four times more to prove you can do it.

What’s the one thing that makes your blood boil?

Theft, I hate dishonesty, and even my beaders know that I hate it when they buy raw material from unregistered suppliers. Theft is a spirit and if they use stolen Raw Material they are bringing the same spirits to my business.

What is this chapter in your life called?

What does it mean to beAfrican?

The Fashion industry can be verycruel sometimes, if you are not a

“I was Never Ready”

Meet

Vincent Kheswa

By Baradi Moletsane

The startupAFRICA team managed to catch up with Vincent Kheswa, a poet, a writer, a published author, a motivational speaker and teacher (amongst other things), who serves in the NWU Vaal Alumni Committee.

In addition to everything, Vincent

is currently working for Standard Bank as a Senior Analyst in Data Profiling under Data Quality Management.

He is the founder of Simply Vincent, a campaign set to inspire young black people to discover their purpose in life through the works of projects, seminars corporate presentations, education, music, books and articles. Vincent is also the founder of the NWU/Absa

BMI Student Marketing Campaign, which awards bursaries to students with a previously disadvantaged background who want to pursue a career in Business Mathematics and Informatics (BMI). And did we mention that he has contributed towards the establishment of Standard Bank Rosebank Toastmasters Club – Moving Forward? Trailblazer much? Yeah!

You seem to be winging it in your career, need I ask more? Any other recent achievements you wish to share with us?

Yes, I just recently published a book titled, “Is South Africa ready for a Female President? History of African Female Leaders.”

What is your definition of an entrepreneur?

A person who commercially provides solutions to people’s problems.

Three words that best describe you?

Humble. Intelligent. Visionary.

Please share with us one of your childhood memories that you can never forget.

My first childhood memory is from my primary school [Motlotlo Primary School] in standard 3 when I challenged my Maths teacher to solve Mathematical problems differently, the name of the teacher was Mr. Motale. He strongly advised against the methods I used because they were deemed to be complex and difficult, but for some odd reason I found them to be very easy and interesting, I enjoyed them. I remember being the 1st learner in my primary school to wear a school tie. I managed to influenced my friends to follow, and from that point onwards, a school tie was incorporated as part of the official school uniform of Motlotlo Primary School in Zone 14.

Another one of my memories is my small savings as a child. I used to save my R1 lunch money every day for a month, so I could have R20 to stock up sweets and Crack–a –Snack at Zone 10 Industrial, to sell at school and that was the only way I could generate income to get by.

Which tribe are you from?

Issue 27 | 234

I am from the Zulu Tribe, from a clan of Zwane who originate from the iNgwe people. The Zwanes are royalty of the iNgwe people, who also gave birth to other royalty clans like uCebekhulu, uPhikela, and the great uMangethe.

H I K E M A G A Z I N E

What does heritage mean to you?

The word “heritage” has the same origins as the word “inheritance”, and to me, it has a lot to do with what we inherit as descendants of our forefathers. It is not only limited to traditional customs or religious affiliations that are passed over to us by our parents, in fact, it goes deeper than that. As heirs of a Kingdom that is meant to govern the Earth, and Africa as a whole, our true heritage, or rather “inheritance” is the knowledge carried by our ancestors that revealed the true identity of

our royalty, and understanding of the elements of the Earth, as well as Spirituality, and how this knowledge shaped and molded our way of living.

Matthew 5: 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” This verse marks the true essence of our heritage, because being meek has nothing to do with being weak, but rather being disciplined and submissive to the principles of nature.

Our Heritage is not what we wear or what we eat as Basotho, AmaZulu, Batswana, or

collectively as Abantu. The true celebration of our Heritage is not only learning and remembering our African History, which is not slavery, but applying the knowledge found in our history to shape the future of our destinies.

Your favourite quote?

“A person who fails to see the ultimate, becomes a slave to the immediate.”

Farewell to Africa's son, Kofi Annan