Basetsana Kumalo Entrepreneur profile
Name: Basetsana Kumalo
Business: Basetsana Woman Investment Holdings Pty Ltd
Tswelopele productions
Connect TV
Uzalile Investments
Travel with Flair
Website: www.basetsanakumalo.com
Basetsana Khumalo has a wide entrepreneurial reach, it stretches through broadcasting, media, travel, mining and property. She describes herself as someone who easily gets bored, hence her vast interests. She was 20 years old when it all started. She entered and won Miss South Africa in 1994, at a notable time in South African history. She went on perform well on the Miss World stage earning a spot as 1st runner up in the competition.
She is the executive chair and CEO of Basetsana Woman Investment Holdings, the executive chair of Tswelopele Productions, the co-founder of Connect TV, the director of Uzalile Investments and the director of Travel with Flair. She wears many more hats as a philanthropist and brand ambassador. She is passionate about education, her desire to lead by example led her to pursuing qualifications at various institutions, namely; UNISA, Havard University, Damelin and Yale. One of her most notable awards she has received is the Young Global Leader award honoured by the Economic Forum.
Humble beginnings
Basetsana grew up in Soweto, being brought up by her mother who was a teacher and her father who was a bus driver. Her hard working, enterprising parents instilled the same values on her. Although she didn’t know which career path she will follow she was certain that she didn’t want to be poor. She sold boiled eggs after school, sold lollipops at school while other kids enjoyed break time, her and her sisters sold ice-cream and sandwiches on weekends at soccer stadiums.
Hard times
In 2003 her father passed away and in 2006 her mother passed away. Growing up, she was daddy’s little girl raised by parents she describes as incredible. She felt she couldn’t breath without her parents and felt depressed; but their passing ignited a desire in her to keep their legacy alive. She went on to experience more gut wrenching personal loss when she had 8 miscarriages between 2007 and 2012. Basetsana had always dreamt about having a big family, at the time, they only had one child. Basetsana Kumalo and her husband didn’t give up and it finally paid off, today, they have three children. Despite having so many titles and accolades to her name, her favourite role to play is that of a wife and a mother.
In March 2016 after falling at her sons school, she was wheelchair bound for three months and continued with physiotherapy thereafter in order to recover. She made a good recovery but was left with a permanent limp. The limp has put a limit to some physical activities, yet she still continues to do whatever she can and gives it her all. Health and physical fitness is important to her to ensure that she is fit and healthy for her kids.
Career
Basetsana was invited to do an interview as Miss South Africa in 1994. The interview was for a fitness pilot programme. Her now business partner Patience Stevens was interviewing her and asked her to do a promo for the pilot, Basetsana did it in one take. Recognizing that she had good presenting skills Patience told her about Top Billing. When she started presenting for Top Billing it was produced by SABC 3. She got the idea to make Top Billing an independent production. Her pitch was successful and earned herself a contract to produce the show under Tswelopele Productions.
She took a chance and it paid off, the entrepreneurial spirit that she had when she was little was re-ignited. She went on to chase other opportunities. Basetsana joined travel agency, Travel and Fair in 2001 teaming up with her sister. Connect TV is a digital content and television production company. Basetsana Woman Investment Holdings is mainly focused on property, media and IT. Tswelopele Productions is a TV production company, it produces shows like Top Billing, Top Travel and Pasella. Uzalile Investments is a woman owned co-mining company.
Values
Basetsana Kumalo believes that when the going gets tough, it’s passion that will push you through. She also believes that surrounding yourself with people who are better than you will make you sharper and a better leader. She doesn’t believe in careless spending, investing back into the business needs to be top priority. When Basetsana had an idea to privatise Top Billing she took action and made it a reality. She encourages young people with dreams and ideas to continue to pursue them and not just sit with ideas and choose not to do anything about them.
Lebo Gunguluza Entrepreneur Profile
Name: Lebo Gunguluza
Business: Gunguluza Enterprises and Media group
Website: new.gemgroup.co.za
Lebo Gunguluza is the founder and executive chairman of a multi-million rand empire, Gunguluza Enterprises and Media group (GEM). He has a couple of notable accolades to his name, such as the Bethseda Business Award for the role he plays in the development of entrepreneurship in South Africa and the Millionaires Club Leadership Award. His entrepreneurial journey was not without obstacles, twice in his career he went from having it all to losing it all. His resilience and remarkable come back story launched his career as a business speaker. Amongst other work he does within and outside GEM group, he is a start-up investor and a turn-around strategist. You might have also seen him on your TV screens as one of the judges from Dragons’ Den South Africa.
Humble beginnings
Lebo Gunguluza was born in Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth in a township called Magxaki. The shack he was born in was right behind a funeral parlour. In one television interview he jokingly said, “I was born in a shack, behind dead people”. His circumstances were far from ideal. Life got a bit harder when he was 6 years old, his father passed away. His mother struggled to make ends meet with her nurses salary. Due to the bad financial situation she enrolled him in a rural school called Thubalethu. There were some boycotts at the school, this might have contributed to him repeating some of his grades.
His mother became concerned and used the inheritance money that was reserved for his tertiary education to pay for his school fees at a private school called Woodridge College. He was at Woodridge College from Grade 9 up until he finished his matric at the age of 20. He remembers being teased about being the oldest in class and for not being able to speak English. It took him about two years to learn English, and he quickly redeemed himself when he won a schools competition. Out of 10 000 participants from various schools he came out top.
Around the time he finished school he set three goals for himself: to be a millionaire by the age of 25, to be a multi-millionaire by the age of 35, and to be a billionaire by the age of 45. He was fresh out of school and it was now time to chase his dreams.
Career
He started off his career promoting African language stations for the SABC. He continued to take on different roles still in the media, entertainment and advertising space where he built quite a reputation for himself. At the age of 27 with no start up capital, with just an event organizing deal with Yfm, he made his first million through an event he organized called kwaito storm.
From his club ownership and management ventures he started managing artists like Mandoza and Kwaito group Chiskop, but soon realized that’s it’s not a good space to work in because he wanted to invest in an environment that’s more secure. He then ventured into the corporate space and opened a company called Corporate Fusion – a corporate communication and events company. Under this company he launched the Soweto Awards and other awards ceremonies that made him a couple of millions. He made some bad financial decisions and ended up losing a lot of money. He opened another business with his brother called GIDE, a youth development and career guidance company.
Seeing that the group of businesses is growing, in 2002 he founded the GEM group. It was more focused on event management at that time, before it evolved to what it is today – integrated media, communications and hospitality. The GEM group was a huge success making a turn-over of millions. Again, he started making bad financial decisions. He admitted to hiring some of his staff based on their looks and not based on their talents or the skills they bring. He was also caught up in the life of living lavish. Neglecting his business led to some serious consequences, within a few months he was deep in debt. His survival instincts kicked in, he sold his business premises to pay some of his debt and invest in a Primi Piatti Italian restaurant. He couldn’t pay off all of his debt, he still owed about 3 million. The 3 million was generated from Primi Piatti and around that time he started investing in the communications sector.
Values
Lebo Gunguluza believes that when resources are limited you must always remember that creativity is unlimited. When you don’t have funding, you need to use your creativity to still get what you want. He also believes that when you commit you are bound to get some results.