Nozala CE Salukazi Dakile-Hlongwane wanted to put to rest the idea that the mining sector was a no-go area for women. So she pulled on overalls and learnt to drive a 100 t mining truck. That kind of willingness to muck in hasn't gone unnoticed.
"Technology has made it possible for women to work in previously male-dominated industries such as mining and energy," she says.
Dakile-Hlongwane is planning to take Nozala where few women have dared to venture in SA. "We'd like 80% of our portfolio to be in resources and our portfolios to provide the company with a strong revenue stream," she says.
The mining industry's contribution to SA's GDP is about R80bn/year and the mining charter and scorecard states that historically disadvantaged South Africans' participation in mining companies has to be 15% in five years and 26% in 10 years - at an ownership of equity level.
Nozala's investments in resources include stakes in Kumba Resources, through the Tiso Consortium; and Excel/Sasol, through Naledi Petroleum. The Kumba investment has generated more than R2m so far for the Rural Women's Movement, one of Nozala's broad-based shareholders. "We want to target growing industries where government has created a suitable environment through regulation for empowerment companies," says Dakile-Hlongwane.
Nozala's focus on resources is two-pronged: through investments in resources companies; and in resource services.
Nozala's other investments in Educor; Curamed; Radio Jacaranda; Tsebo (formerly Fedics); and through the Nexus Connexion, the second network operator; form Nozala's private equity portfolio and are meant to support the cash-hungry resources centre.
The recent buyback of shares owned by institutional shareholders in Nozala has left Nozala broad based, 100%-owned by women and ready for further acquisitions.
"The way most of our empowerment companies were funded [using special purpose vehicles in the 1990s], meant institutional investors actually owned most of Nozala," says Dakile-Hlongwane. "We wanted to change that."
The R104m institutional share buyback was funded through excess cash and the realisation of investments. The co-founders now hold about 30% of the new company. The Nozala Trust helps fund and develop women's start-up businesses and holds about 36%. A staff share scheme holds 10%. Empowerment shareholders, such as the Rural Women's Movement, Workers' Investment Company, Itumeleng Women's Investments, Akhona Investments, Workers' Investment Corp , Umanyano Lwentandazo Lwamanina, Katekani, Mmathari and the Muthande Society for the Aged will hold, collectively, 24%.
"We've made it our mission to broaden the base of empowerment," says Dawn Mokhobo, a founding member of Nozala. These empowerment shareholders represent more than 500 000 individuals, of which most are rural women.
A listing of Nozala is not on the cards. "We don't want to make the same mistake of listing a broadly focused investment company," says Dakile-Hlongwane.
"The case for listing an investment company seems flawed. Why would anyone want to buy shares in Kumba, through Nozala Investments, for example, when it then gets exposure to a number of other investments?"
