Sechaba ka’Nkosi
Remember Musa Myeni? He was the Inkatha Freedom Party firebrand who once threatened to unleash 150 000 Zulu impis on Gauteng to deal with township residents. That was during the violence in the early 1990s between IFP-aligned hostel dwellers and youths on the Reef.
Seven years later, he has substituted his political ideology with a passion for the most powerful black economic empowerment enterprise in KwaZulu- Natal – a venture he thinks has the potential to become one of the biggest in South Africa.
These days Myeni sits at Uthungulu Investment Holdings’s posh headquarters in Richards Bay. He is the company’s executive chair.
His brief is to ensure that the millions of rands the company has raised from about 3 000 individual black shareholders in rural KwaZulu- Natal is invested in areas of potential growth.
He is driving Uthungulu’s R5,4-billion investment into the same kind of projects other black economic ventures in the new South Africa have targeted: information technology, financial services and a stake in the unbundling petroleum industry.
Myeni and his lieutenants have high hopes that the Independent Broadcasting Authority will award them a licence for a radio station aimed at rural communities in the province.
Uthungulu also spends millions of rands in 76 rural and semi-urban areas in KwaZulu- Natal to boost emerging entrepreneurs.
It has grouped construction workers and women into small companies and helps them access government tenders.
It is precisely this passion for the development and empowerment of rural communities that has led Myeni to drop his political rhetoric of the past.
“If we are serious about rural development, we have to make sure rural communities themselves are part of that development,” he says. “In that way, we would also ensure money earmarked for them does not end up in the hands of a few conglomerates or urban-based companies. We have to make sure rural people profit out of these ventures.”
Myeni launched Uthungulu single- handedly in 1996. He resigned from his seat as the only IFP member of the provincial legislature in Gauteng in February last year, when he registered the company.
Uthungulu now owns a 20% shareholding in the KwaZulu-Natal chapter of Tsogo Sun Investments, which won the biggest casino licence in Gauteng, and two others in Mpumalanga earlier this year.
Myeni is keeping his fingers crossed that his company will win a gambling licence in KwaZulu-Natal.
He hopes the partnership with Tsogo Sun Investments will lead to further ventures, particularly with small businesses in the battle-scarred province.
“I like working with small and medium enterprises. My mission is more to ensure that they are not condemned to remain small business, but grow into powerful conglomerates within their own rights.
“If you can raise prospects for jobs in KwaZulu-Natal, you would be addressing the violence that is tearing the province apart.”
Uthungulu’s directors specifically targeted KwaZulu-Natal because they believed it is not as saturated with black companies as Gauteng is. But more than anything else, Myeni says, the province was chosen because it is “the only gateway to Africa”.
He cites features such as Durban’s status as the busiest harbour in Africa and Richards Bay’s as the largest.
Myeni says the tourism potential of the province is proof that it can compete equally with Gauteng and the Western Cape as the biggest player in the economy. But, he adds, politicians first have to address the rampant violence.
Uthungulu’s operations stretch from urban Newcastle to rural Nongoma. Four of its nine directors are women.
Myeni still regards himself as an IFP member and denies he left politics after he fell out of favour with the party’s top brass because of his moderate views. He says he quietly abandoned politics because he saw his role in yet another revolution.
“What I discovered was that the vote alone was not enough for our people. They don’t eat it. What they want now is an ability to transform from workers and tools in the economy to active participants.
“They have the ability and all they need now is someone to nurture that potential into something.”