Mumsy scales the heights
ESKOM POWERS MAGNATE
JUST three years ago, entrepreneur Mumsy Swanepoel owned three businesses and employed 20 people.
Today, the 55-year-old adventurous businesswoman runs a group of businesses that employ 812 people and operates in five sectors.
The Mulanga group of businesses is involved in the accommodation, security, construction, farming and transportation sectors.
Swanepoel has an army of 720 security guards, 55 cleaners who work for the accommodation business and six drivers for her small fleet of five luxury buses. Her security services for Medupi and accommodation for 268 workers at Grinaker LTE are worth over R80-million.
Mulanga also provides security services to private companies, a municipality, clinics and schools. On Tuesday, her company was awarded a contract to install and manage close circuit television cameras in the City of Tshwane.
Swanepoel also has a stake in a company that constructs thermal-insulated houses.
Swanepoel, however, was not always an entrepreneur.
She worked for the Department of Labour since 1980.
In 2004 while she was still employed there, she became an entrepreneur when she entered into a partnership with another entrepreneur when they acquired a Pick n Pay franchise in Lephalale, Limpopo.
She resigned from her job as a regional manager in 2007 to venture into business on a full- time basis. “I sold my stake last December to focus on my other businesses,” she told Sowetan during an interview in her offices in Lephalale, formerly Ellisras.
Her rapid rise to success is largely thanks to power provider Eskom ’ s empowerment programme. She was for one year enrolled in the contractors training academy at the University of Limpopo, Turfloop campus, in Mankweng.
The intensive programme teaches entrepreneurs about procurement, business administration and accounting, among others. Forming part of the Medupi ’ s Legacy Programme, the course, which has empowered 38 entrepreneurs – 96% of whom are youth from Limpopo – aims to make entrepreneurs more efficient in running their businesses.
A person should at least have matric and have a business to qualify for the programme.
“The knowledge that I got from the programme has, excuse the pun, made my business grow like nobody ’ s business,” she chuckled. Swanepoel, who hails from Thohoyandou in Venda, said her success had nothing to do with her marriage to an Afrikaner man.
“I became an entrepreneur because I enjoy working hard outside the office,” she said.
Her security company has also grown to the extent that her technician has developed software that allows homeowners to switch on lights and irrigation systems from their mobile devices. She says she wants to grow her portfolio of businesses in the next five years.