PROFILE: KG MOHLALA

A RELENTLESS PURSUIT TO FIND HIMSELF LED TO A SIDE CAREER IN HOME IMPROVEMENT FOR WITS CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT KGAOGELO 'KG' MOHLALA (BACC 2010, HDIP ACC 2011).

BY HEATHER DUGMORE

When Kgaogelo, known simply as “KG”, bought his first apartment in Northgate, Johannesburg at the same time as his friend, Themba Palagangwe, bought his house, they discovered they thrived on designing and renovating their homes, and an entrepreneurial side career in homeflipping was born.

They initially specialised in feature and custom-painted walls after receiving positive feedback when they posted a photo of themselves on Instagram, sitting on a couch in KG’s apartment with a feature wall they had done as a backdrop. People wanted to know who had done the wall and that’s when they realised they were onto something. From then on, Instagram, Facebook and word-of-mouth became their advertising platform, and the commissions started rolling in.

“YouTube became our best friend and greatest teacher – I’m a handy guy but I literally learned how to paint, install and renovate watching videos. My other teacher was my late father Michael Mohlala, who was an electrician by trade but could literally do anything and everything with his hands. My father, my brother and I built most of our home in KwaThema ourselves. After school was a manual labour shift for us and he was a perfectionist, so we paid our dues. I didn’t know then how much it would assist me now.”

For inspiration, KG and Themba look everywhere – on social media, in magazines, at expos, in books about the history of design and architecture. “This is how our personal style developed. Combined with our accountancy skills and my legal studies, it worked well.” KG qualified as a CA doing his articles at Deloitte and obtained a BCom Law degree from Unisa while Themba has a BAcc degree from UCT and MBA from GIBS Business School.

As their business grew, they branched out from interior finishes to architectural reconfigurations and new builds in collaboration with architects and engineers. It paved the way for increasingly ambitious projects, including branching into construction – their first jobs include a duplex and office studio. “We are now in our fifth year of homeflipping and we’ve considerably widened our skills and supplier network. My life partner Lonwabo Mavuso (BA DA 2010, PDM 2017), has been a catalyst in connecting us to some great young designers. He runs a research and insights company with a core focus on the creative industry worldwide called Andani Africa.

“We get commissions from all over the country – in the cities, suburbs and townships. We both still do it part time in the evenings, early mornings and on weekends, as we have full-time jobs.”

KG is the financial accounting manager for Siyanda Bakgatla Platinum Mine in Limpopo. It requires spending most of the week in Limpopo and overseeing the homeflipping after hours and on weekends. Themba is the Joburg-based GM of Governance and Transformation for the South African Insurance Association.

“It means getting up at 5am and sometimes 3am to get the work done. Themba works deep into the night so it’s a compatible difference as I can then continue what he’s been working on when I awaken.”

Spare time is a foreign concept for KG but he says he’s learning to be deliberate about taking short breaks, catching up with friends, going to the gym and jogging. He also loves cooking and spending time somewhere in nature. “I enjoy going to natural environments, even if it’s just a quick trip to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens or Emmarentia Dam. Where I grew up there was only paving all around, not a strand of grass in our yard, but when I went to Wits I started appreciating greenery and gardens. Later when I made a bit of cash, I explored natural environments and places further afield.”

What has helped ease the homeflippers’ pressure a bit is they now have teams working for them. “Once work has been commissioned and proposals signed off by clients, we brief all our teams in terms of the duties that lie ahead. We have a project manager for each commission, and we are regularly sent videos of their progress. Themba generally oversees all the quality control midweek. He goes on site after hours. With lockdown I’ve been doing the same as I’ve been in Joburg for most of the year.”

The lockdown period has boosted their business as people increasingly realise they need more comfortable and adaptable work from home spaces. “Most of our work is in Joburg but we also do virtual consultations far and wide. We recently designed for a client in Namibia.”

KG believes that what makes them attractive is that they are “entry-level affordable”, which means a far greater number of people can afford to make changes to their environments, big or small. “As accountants we find ways to cut costs and work with strict budgets while maintaining high quality work.”

KG and Themba pride themselves on giving their clients more than what they want. “We really listen to their brief and work with them. Many times clients actually don’t know what they want. Adaptability is core because clients come from different backgrounds and therefore relate differently. If your client is in the townships, then you need to speak the language people speak and understand what they need.”

An example is a project they did at a grandmother’s township home. “Her grandchildren came together to have her home renovated. It turned out we couldn’t change the inside because the 87-year-young lady would not let us touch her furniture because her late husband had bought it for her 30 years ago. So what we did was give the exterior of the building a facelift. Handing over the home to Gogo was truly one of the most special experiences I have encountered in my life. The love for one another as a family was so evident. It became apparent to us that this was a send-off for Gogo as she passed on a couple of months later.”

One of their biggest jobs was a home in Sandton. “We played around with different paint tones, patterns and textures, and a range of wallpapers and art pieces and we even landed up moving the staircase as it was cutting the house in half. The client battled to commit, so we said ‘we’ll do it and if you don’t like it, we’ll change it’. Fortunately, he liked it.”

KG says they have learnt hard lessons along the way that they hope to help other people avoid. Rule number one, he says, is never to take shortcuts. In terms of growing a business, he says it’s tempting to accept jobs for which you have no experience. “When we first started out, a client wanted us to make decisions about breaking down walls in a double-storey house. We have since learnt which are the structure and support-bearing walls but we know when something is beyond us. In this business, there are risks that are definitely not worth taking!”

KG Mohlala doing a victory dance on graduation day.

MEN'S RES

O-Week at Men’s Res was quite a jam. I hated it but I also loved it. I hated it because you are woken up at 2am and told to run 5km across Wits with water thrown at you at every turn while being screamed at. It felt like torture but at the same time it was fun as we were doing it as a group of about 200 and there was wonderful camaraderie. The first two guys I met, with whom I am still friends, are Ndumiso Mkabinde (BEconSc 2011), who studied mathematics and statistics and is now a successful entrepreneur, and Maswazi Nkosi (BAccSc 2010), now a CA.

THE JACARANDA TREES

The jacaranda trees in blossom were always amazing but equally a reminder that exams were nigh. One of the myths that stuck with me is that if one of the flowers falls on you, it meant good luck for the exams. I remember chilling under the trees waiting for a flower or two to fall on me but it never happened, which might explain why I failed some of my tests! But I still passed and got my degree so it worked out well for me regardless!