Adv Thuli Madonsela Public protector
‘Iknow that our focus is women,’ says Advocate Madonsela, ‘but my brother really inspires me. When everyone rushed into tenderpreneurship, he didn’t. He is an accountant who really focused on doing things the right way. He never went beyond his means – he moved back to Soweto so he could use our house as a base for his operations; he drives a basic car. So he’s one person I truly admire. And that comes from what he saw in my father.’ Their father was a small trader who expanded into the back rooms of garages – ‘without getting a cent from the bank’. Her father and brother’s approach, she says, was to look after the cents so the rands looked after themselves.
Adv Madonsela admires many women for their entrepreneurial spirit, but – ‘without diminishing the achievements of other women’ – she singles out Jane Raphaely and the Wiphold (Women’s Investment Portfolio Holdings Limited) women. Of media mogul Raphaely, whom she met at an Oprah event, she says: ‘I could just sense that she was sitting back and letting others shine. You wouldn’t have known that she was at the centre of things. But if you read her book, you see how quiet dignity and grace helped her to achieve.’
Louisa Mojela and Gloria Serobe started Wiphold as BEE gained traction. And again, Adv Madonsela says, they didn’t go the tenderpreneurship route; they went the route of really working hard. But what she particularly admires is their way of ‘lifting as you rise. While they’ve been adding value for themselves, they’ve also been investing in students and small businesswomen in rural areas. When you take other people with you, you might not rise like a shooting star – that’s easier when you’re carrying only your own weight. But it’s not sustainable.’
A significant side effect of empowering other women is increasing belief in women. ‘Instead of being the sole example of female excellence, you create multiple examples, reducing negative stereotypes of women,’ she says.
South Africa is a great place for entrepreneurs. ‘It is under-explored, a sleeping giant, due to exclusion from the world because of apartheid. There are far more opportunities here than in countries that have always operated in a globalised environment. We have challenges, but then again, entrepreneurs are problem solvers. Even the energy crisis is an opportunity – there’s potential to make money out of green energy. Hopefully somebody will invent a quiet generator!’
As you’d expect, Adv Madonsela has much to say about integrity and best practice in business. ‘It’s about sustainability. If your practices are unethical, you may have temporary gains, but in the long term it could hurt your business. Businesses must understand citizenship: you can’t degrade the environment – this could be via corruption or collusion in price fixing. A poisoned environment will come back to hurt you – and your children. People need to treat each other fairly, justly and professionally; if that doesn’t happen, it becomes a dog-eat-dog world – which is an unstable world.’
When you take other people with you, you might not rise like a shooting star – that’s easier when you’re carrying only your own weight. But it’s not sustainable.