From farm child to multi-millionaire, entrepreneur of the year Sisa Bikitsha will represent South Africa at the Californian awards, writes Sechaba ka’Nkosi Sisa Bikitsha refuses to see himself as a multi-millionaire. He still believes he is that ordinary rural boy who was sent by his folks to look after his grandparents — a tradition, he says, that was common in Butterworth. It was growing up in a missionary household where his grandfather was a priest that Bikitsha claims prepared him for the hardships he was soon to face after completing his matric.
Armed with his certificate, Bikitsha left the rural homestead to seek greener pastures in Johannesburg. This, he says, was an indirect statement separating the boys from the men. He had what he calls “a strange feeling” that he was destined to become something – perhaps a millionaire.
But what the city of gold offered him was the opposite. Within a few days the authorities declared him an illegal alien in the golden city (under the then Black Urban Areas Consolidation Act) and sent him back to Transkei. Again his determination to make it offered him a plan.
“I refused to leave Johannesburg. Instead I burnt my pass book because it had three stamps declaring me a vagrant. But without it I could not find any job in the formal sector, so I was forced to work as an agent for an undertaker to get a commission. I started visiting hospitals and government mortuaries to talk bereaved families into using my brother-in-law’s parlour to organise their funerals.
“This gave me enough money to start my own business, and it was only then that I came back to apply for a new pass in Transkei.”
More than 30 years later, this rural boy who started with nothing now commands an annual turnover of at least R15-million from his businesses in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, and R5-million from others he co-owns. He owns seven fast-food outlets trading under the name Mnandi, an exhaust and tyre fitting centre, a cold storage plant, a service station and two other businesses he owns jointly with friends.
It is this determination that saw him scooping up this year’s South African Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Sandton last week.
Stiff competition from established business personalities such as Piet Engelbrecht of Maclear Maize Milling and Michael Nunes of Mike’s Chicken did not deter him, because as he says, he was destined to reach the heights.
“I went into business not simply because I had money to invest. My mission was and is always to go in and make as much as possible. That’s it. Add to that passion and dedication, then you have a perfect combination,” says Bikitsha matter-of- factly.
Next month Bikitsha goes to California to represent South Africa at the Best Entrepreneur Under the Sun annual awards ceremony in Palm Springs, California. But more than that, Bikitsha’s mission is to lobby American entrepreneurs to form joint partnerships with local businesses.
He believes that local and black entrepreneurs in particular have a potential that has not been fully exploited.
As this year’s winner, he says he is the best ambassador for local business overseas. He jokes that had it not been for the previous dispensation, black South Africans “would be in total control of the economy” because they have a natural skill to defy the hardships.
But he turn serious when he relates his personal experiences as an entrepreneur. Many a time financial institutions refused to grant him loans because he was black and therefore a security risk.
Even when he offered his R300 000 house as security nobody was interested because township houses were worthless in the eyes of the authorities. The bantustans offered him no hope either for as long as he refused to support the ruling parties of the time.
He remembers when a friend had to offer his own house as security for Bikitsha to get a loan from a bank. Again his family did not forsake him when he sold his house to save one of his businesses that was going down.
That is why he insists his achievements are not his alone, but also those of the people he could count on during the hard times.
Throughout the interview, he emphasises his community, employees and his wife helped to make him what he is today.
“We have become a big but very close family with these people. Without them I would definitely not be where I am. Business is like marriage, you always come across challenges that test your commitment on a day-to-day basis.
“So if you have a will and love, chances are you will come out unscathed mainly because of the advice you get from those around you.”
The award he won last week is dedicated primarily to his employees, and then the community and his wife and four children.
He has employed specialists to train his workers to develop further and venture into their own businesses if possible. At the same time, the training places him at an advantage against his competitors.
In the Eastern Cape where he sells school uniforms, he has started a development programme for potential netballers at the local high school. He also funds other development programmes in KwaZulu-Natal and often donates about R400 000 a year to charity.
Asked how he felt about competing against people with a better education than his mere matric last week Bikitsha says he was never scared.
“I relied heavily on the fact that I have invested so much in my workforce that they became my strength. We are all assets to our company. If the company wins we all rejoice, if it loses, we all starve, so we have to pull as one.”
At 55, Bikitsha believes he has learnt enough to join the number of black entrepreneurs climbing the bandwagon of empowerment. He plans to relocate to Johannesburg soon to see if he can find any deal that would extend his empire to other ventures.