Businessman Richard Maponya was laid to rest earlier today. The pioneering Soweto businessman died last week at the age of 99. Maponya Mall was built by Maponya in 2007. The Maponya family co-owns the mall with JSE-listed property company Redefine. We’ll speak to Monalisa Sam, First Centre Manager at Maponya Mall.
Guest: Monalisa Sam, First Centre Manager at Maponya Mall, 082 957 5581
• You worked under him for 2 years. What type of a boss was he?
• He also mentored you, what kind of lessons did he impart to you?
• What’s your most memorable moment with him?
• What lessons can young entrepreneurs draw from his life if they want to emulate and do better than him?
Background info:
Richard John Pelwana Maponya, GCOB,[1] (24 December 1920[1] – 6 January 2020[2]) was a South African entrepreneur and property developer best known for building a business empire despite the restrictions of apartheid and his determination to see the Soweto township develop economically.
Born in Thlabine, near Lenyenye (about 20km west of Tzaneen), Maponya, at the age of 24,[3] then a teacher, took a job as a stock taker at a clothing maker and subsequently won a promotion for both himself and his white manager. In gratitude, the manager sold Maponya soiled clothing and offcuts, which he resold in Soweto. With the capital acquired he attempted to open a clothing retailer in Soweto, but was blocked by the government's refusal to grant him a licence—–despite intervention by the law firm created by Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.[4] Instead, in the early 1950s, Maponya and his wife Marina (a cousin of Nelson Mandela) established the Dube Hygienic Dairy, which employed a fleet of boys on bicycles to deliver milk to customers in Soweto who had no access to electricity or refrigeration.[5] By the 1970s the retail empire had grown to include several general stores, car dealerships and filling stations.[4]
On 27 September 2007 Richard Maponya opened the Maponya Mall in Soweto. It holds more than 2