Impact Partner Content / Absa

We all know that South Africa urgently needs jobs, but where are these jobs going to come from? The results of the South African Women Entrepreneurs Job Creators Research Survey are out now – and it’s official, women entrepreneurs are vital job creators, both now and in the future! A special 1 hour live webinar event will be held on the morning of Tuesday 31 August 2021 to share the findings of this important research study. 

The South African Women Entrepreneurs Job Creators Research Survey was undertaken by Lioness Data (the research and insights unit of Lionesses of Africa, in partnership with New York University, and in collaboration with Absa. Dr Linda Zuze, Research Director at Lioness Data, will be presenting her top level analysis of the survey findings at the live webinar event on the morning of Tuesday 31 August 2021. Bongiwe Gangeni, Deputy CEO, Absa Retail and Business Bank, will be sharing her perspectives; and Melanie Hawken, founder and ceo of Lionesses of Africa will be providing some context to the research together with insights from the Lionesses community of women entrepreneurs. 

The webinar will have a panel discussion featuring some of South Africa’s leading women entrepreneurs, including Margaret Hirsch, executive director, Hirsch’s Group; Indrani Govender, founder, Ricinz Construction; Jodi Fittinghoff, co-owner, Jodam Manufacturers; Annie Sibindi Muronda, founder, Rufaro Garments; and Siwela Masoga, founder, Siwela Wines. They will be sharing their thoughts on their own roles as job creators, and the challenges facing South Africa to create much needed jobs, particularly for young people.

If you would like to join us for this important research results Webinar on Tuesday 31 August, book your free seat here:

Vantage Properties is a Botswana-based PropTech startup founded by Sethebe Manake, and focused on real estate data analytics and automated property valuations. The company simplifies access to real estate expertise and information to drive informed decision making. Through its online platform, it gives the ordinary person power to extract value from their property assets. Vantage has developed the platform gosmartvalue.com that is set to change the real estate landscape forever by giving users the choice to automatically value their property or instruct a qualified and registered valuer to carry out a detailed valuation. Over and above valuations, gosmartvalue.com provides various market research reports covering various locations around the country that help guide real estate decision-making. 

The foundations of gosmartvalue.com lie in extensive data analytics of various sources that we have used for market research and portfolio performance analysis. With records over 50 000 covering transactions, locality amenities, crimes rates, land use types from reliable and trusted data sources, we provide reports that are objective and only based on real registered and validated activity. Buyers, Investors and Financier all slash their costs by over 50% by using gosmartvalue and further reduce their risk exposure by using supporting simple market reports .

Typical valuations take into account the same set of variables; location, plot size, bedrooms, bathrooms, other property features and the state of the property. The gosmartvalue.com algorithm takes into account the size of the built up area, age and other factors that influence value such as crime rates, amenities, demographics, liquidity of the buyer market for that locality as well as prevailing lending trends. It  empowers customers, while many other companies are still finding their footing in the digital arena, using the information they have to empower their clients, gosmartvalue.com stays ahead of the curve, translating data into tangible benefits. Sellers and buyers alike generally use the same set of tools and methods for determining the value of properties. With the increased insight provided by its reports, clients get more information, and therefore more power, when it comes to negotiating deals with even experienced sellers. Both regular buyers and property developers have negotiated using exclusive data from these reports, and in doing so, have saved plenty Pulas and are ensured a better ROI.

Speaking about what makes the gosmartvalue.com platform different, founder Sethebe Manake says: “We understand that in this fast paced uncertain environment financiers cannot afford to wait until things settle down, in fact the impact of COVID19 on real estate is yet to be fully felt. A proactive lender is reviewing risk with the perspective of continuing funding and still cushion the foreseeable loss. Our Valuation and Market Reports are detailed and specific to the needs of the client.”

“Providing information that makes it easier to adjust risk per location, per locality, per property type based on the real performance and market insights that are quantitative. We give the credit and product team the ammunition to deliver solutions that are relevant, realistic, accurate and financially beneficial.”

“We pool data from various national digital and physical sources, all trusted and verified including: National Deeds Office, Various Local Authorities and Planning Authorities, Department of Country and Regional Planning, Department of Surveys and Mapping, Central Statistics Office, Botswana Police Service and the Bank of Botswana. We also use various digital tools such as Google Earth. We analyse, collate and organize all the data into a format that is user friendly, simple to understand and relevant, saving you countless hours and thousands of Pula.”

Speaking about the aspirations for the new platform, Sethebe says:

“We want to be expand into other countries across the continent, because there is still a lot of market opacity in real estate and we want to bring in the transparency, and open up the opportunities to more people.”

She adds: “Real Estate is a very important asset and we need to empower our people to benefit the most from this asset. We are very excited to bring this to the market, and we look forward to growth as we go into more markets and cover more countries.”

Anyone interested in knowing more about the new gosmartvalue.com platform can contact Sethebe via email smanake@vantagepropertiesbw.com  or visit the website www.gosmartvalue.com or social media:

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | EMAIL  smanake@vantagepropertiesbw.com

Award-winning cattle and crop farmer Solomon Masango farms in the rolling hills of the Carolina district of Mpumalanga. Producing maize, soya beans and dry beans in a conservation-farming, rotation system, his cattle help to further optimised profits. And while his impressive farming business has seen him rake in the farming awards, the road from being a mineworker to a top farmer hasn’t always been easy. Today the struggle to secure land that he can call his own, and where he can build his farming business to its true potential, still continues for this inspiring farmer. 

In 2000 Solomon Masango presented his future wife’s family with seven cows to pay her lobola. The family accepted four cows as part payment but wanted cash for the remaining portion of Maria’s lobola. Once the cash was paid, Solomon kept the three cows the family rejected and these animals formed the small, but solid, cornerstone of his farming business.

In 2015, a decade and a half later, Solomon was selected as the 2015 Grain SA/ABSA/John Deere Financial New Era Commercial Farmer of the Year. He farms 1 500ha, on three farms, with 600ha under grain and the remainder used for grazing. He owns a paid-up fleet of tractors, planters and harvesters and runs 300 crossbred cows, 11 Bonsmara bulls and two Boran bulls, 120 goats and a few sheep. 

• 

• 

Good lessons learnt young

Solomon says his path to success was not an easy one and came with a generous quota of blood, sweat and tears. His father died before he was born, and he was raised by his mother. He left school in Grade 7 and moved to Pretoria to find work so that he could help his mother.

In the Jacaranda city he worked in garden services and did other odd jobs. But Solomon – a man with drive and ambition – was on the move and with the help of a client, who became his sponsor, he got his matric. After matric Solomon registered with the University of South Africa for an accounting degree, which he did not finish due to a lack of funds. “I wanted to become a chartered accountant, but I dropped out in my second year because of money problems,” recalls Solomon.

In 1995, he landed a job as a truck driver for Benicon Opencast Mining, a company providing mining services, including drilling, mining, cutting, blasting, crushing and rehabilitation. A few months into the job Solomon approached the company’s management and asked if he could study. They obliged by putting him through a blasting course. 

Once he completed the course, Solomon was promoted and worked as a blaster for several years. “With a better income my life started to improve,” he says. But there was a fire burning in Solomon’s heart and he studied further until he got a blasting engineer’s qualification.

In 1999, Benicon retrenched some of its workers and Solomon was moved to an associate company, African Explosive Limited, which serviced De Beers’ diamond mining operation in Musina. There he specialised in blasting, from the design and planning stages through to execution. In 2003 he was promoted again and moved to Rustenburg, blasting in various mines for platinum, chrome and steel.

Then, in 2004 things went sour for him with the company. “I was overlooked for a more senior post in Tanzania with better perks and salary. They chose a white junior employee who didn’t have the qualifications and experience I had for that post,” he recalls. “I was so upset that I decided to leave.”

In November 2004 he resigned. Although company management asked him to reconsider Solomon was no longer interested in staying on.

Going solo

It would have been easy enough, given his experience and qualifications, to find another job, but Solomon decided he’d rather start his own business. “There was no guarantee that what had happened to me once, would not happen again,” he explains. 

He worked in the taxi industry for a short while, but the industry did not feel “right” for him, so he sold some of his taxis and bought buses to start a school transport business. 

Meanwhile, Solomon’s herd of cattle had grown from three cows to 45. “I had moved them from home and was grazing them on rented land on a farm near Breyten,” recalls Solomon. “After some thought, I decided to move into farming fulltime and I quit the transport business.” By 2009 his cattle numbers had increased to 60 cows. 

Taking a brave step, he sold off all his buses and bought a second-hand tractor. His plan was to plant a few hectares for cattle feed and to make some bales. In the same year his community’s restitution claim was successful and six farms in the Moedig area were returned to the community.

Solomon leased communal land and moved all his cattle to Moedig, where he planted a 50ha block of maize using his second-hand tractor. “I started with 50ha on the farm and worked my tractor two shifts to get the planting done. I had just hired my first employee who worked the day shifts while I worked the night shifts,” laughs Solomon.

The timing was right and after a good season, he made enough money to buy a second tractor. The following season, he increased his planted acreage to 100ha. At this time he was introduced to Afgri who gave him production credit and put him in touch with his mentor, Nick Basson.

Always eager to learn, Solomon began to attend farming courses, including those offered by Grain SA. In 2015 Solomon was named the Grain SA/ABSA/John Deere Financial New Era Commercial Farmer of the Year and won a John Deere tractor as a prize.

“Instead of bringing joy, the tractor became a source of new problems. Members of the CPA (community property association) laid claim to the tractor on the grounds that as it was their farm, the tractor belonged to the community,” says Solomon. The argument progressed to a stage that the community kicked him off the portion he rented.

Expansion through problem-solving

In 2016 Solomon approached a neighbouring CPA that was also granted their land through a restitution claim. He was given a lease for 180ha of arable land. “The farm was in a bad state and needed a lot of work to bring it back to production,” says Solomon.

In 2018 Solomon’s application for a government farm through LRAD was granted and he was given a 30-year lease on an 858ha government-owned farm outside Belfast. He now had a little more than 300ha of grain producing land. On the Moedig CPA farm, Solomon still occupied a portion of land directly linked to his family.

“My great grandfather, my grandfather and my father are buried on that farm and their graves are still there. I told them they cannot remove me from that portion,” says Solomon. He runs livestock and plants 80ha on the farm.

He leases another 300ha from farmers near Breyton, which brings his grain production to 600ha under maize, soya beans and dry beans. In these lands, 25% is planted to white maize, 25% to yellow maize, 40% to soya beans and 10% to dry beans in rotation.

No-till production

Solomon plants from mid-October to mid-December. Maize and soya beans are generally in before December. “I plant the dry beans by mid-December because they don’t need a lot of rain. It should be late in the season with no danger of rain when pod formation begins. Rain during pod formation will seriously decrease yields,” explains Solomon. The regional rainfall is between 600mm and 800mm a year. 

Solomon is a no-till farmer so there is no land preparation. “I use two no-till 6- and 10-row planters, which need big tractors with lots of kilowatt capacity. After planting I spray with Roundup to kill existing weeds that will compete with my germinating plants,” he explains. Only Roundup-ready soya bean seed is used.

“I don’t use Roundup-ready maize because of the difficulty of spraying off the remains of the past harvest, which may have germinated by the time you plant,” he explains.

Solomon says although he has cattle grazing on the maize stover his lands need no ripping as there is very little compaction. “Many people say that cattle compact the soil, but I have a different view on this. As a rule, cattle graze in camps where they trample plants continuously, but still, the grass grows,” argues Solomon.

His opinion is that cattle help to work residues into the soil through trampling. He adds that the soil also benefits from the urine and dung of the animals. 

According to Solomon, the good thing about no-till is that minimal disturbance means moisture is retained in the soil, unlike the conventional way of turning soil and allowing air through it that dries it, killing most of the living organisms underneath.

“These organisms help to maintain the integrity of your soil structure. The earthworms underneath the surface feed on old crop residues and loosen the soil. These underground organisms do a very important job for free, and save me a lot of diesel,” he adds. 

He says no-till per hectare costs are lower than the costs involved with tilling in the conventional manner. “Crop rotation also saves a lot of money, especially on fertiliser,” explains Solomon. He does not fertilise his beans but rather opts to use the inoculation method while still getting 3t/ha from his soya beans and 1t/ha from dry beans. Maize yields range from 8t/ha to 9t/ha (dryland). “One needs a yield of at least 4t/ha for maize, or 1t/ha of soya beans to break even. Anything above that is profit,” says Solomon. He plants fewer hectares of dry beans because of the high labour requirements.

Solomon puts down fertiliser at a rate of 300kg/ha on his maize. He follows up with 250kg/ha of nitrogen-based top dressing. “When I plant the soya beans in that block the following year, I don’t fertilise. Soya beans are not heavy feeders and the available nutrients are sufficient,” explains Solomon. He says beans, which are legumes, fix nitrogen in the soil where it can be used by the next maize crop. 

He harvests from April to July and markets his maize and beans through Afgri. He sells the white maize and a portion of the yellow maize to a private miller in his area. His deal with the miller is a good one because there are no storage and handling fees, which means a good profit.

“I have a contract to sell Afgri 75% of my soya beans at a price fixed at planting; the other 25% is sold to them using the Safex price,” he explains.

• 

• 

Land challenges 

Solomon is looking for a farm where he can get better security of tenure as he is currently facing challenges on the two farms that form a big part of his operation. “I’ve been leasing from the CPA for six years now and every year I have to reapply. I need more certainty for my business,” says Solomon.

He originally leased the land for R30 000 a year but last year the CPA demanded R300 per hectare per month, which worked out to R360 000 a year. “I had to involve the department and through that intervention, we settled on R90 000 per annum. From the 180ha I leased from the CPA I had to drop to 100 ha,” explains Solomon. 

On the farm he leases from the government, Solomon faces problems of vandalism and uncertainty. The farm is next to a mine and there are rumours that the mine wants the farm to expand its operations, an event that could happen within five years.

“I can’t make any significant changes or investments with this possibility looming over me,” says Solomon. The farm also shares a border fence with the mine, which is regularly cut by thieves that steal from the mine’s diesel supply.

“Every other day I must fix the fence after they’ve cut it to enter and exit the mine. I have to fix the fences because I have livestock and they need protection,” he explains. 

Despite the challenges, Solomon is optimistic about his business and the future of farming in South Africa. “I always tell myself one thing and that is that even with the challenges, I’m surviving and doing okay. This is what keeps me going,” he says.

by Laura Camacho

When you don’t say anything at a meeting, the assumption is you have nothing to say.  If you seriously want to raise your Leadership Presence quotient, start speaking up at every meeting. Here are three easier ways to speak up, when you feel so nervous your voice may be shaking.

1. Ask a question

You may feel so out of your league that you fear asking a question that makes you look stupid. Even if that were to happen, which is super highly unlikely, it’s better to ask a non-brilliant question than not to ask any question at all. The point is for you to become comfortable speaking up at meetings, even before people start asking for your point of view. Train yourself by speaking up, however briefly, at every possible meeting.

The easiest question is to clarify. You can ask this, even if you’re 99.99% sure you already understand. Ask it like this, “Just to clarify, what you’re saying is that we should be able to launch this by Q1 next year, even though we’re 8 weeks behind as of right now?”

2. Affirm and add

This practice is a practical extension of the “Yes, and” taught in improv theatre. You affirm what the other person just said, by restating it in your own words. Then add. You can add encouragement, you can add a variation, you can even extend or redirect the proposed idea. 

Examples

Susan says: “I think we need to have the preliminary budget ready for committee by two weeks from today.”

Simple Affirm and Add Agreement

You affirm and add: “Having the next preliminary budget ready for committee in two weeks is totally doable. I see no problem with that. 

Affirm and Add Extension

“Having the next preliminary budget ready for committee in two weeks is totally doable. In fact, I can show you a pretty strong draft next Wednesday so you know how it’s developing.”

Either ask a question or use Affirm and Add to speak up at every possible meeting. Eventually, people will expect to hear from you.