Phosa goes the full circle Mathews Phosa

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Phosa goes the full circle

Mathews Phosa and Trevor Mashabane


Cape Town It's a small loan in the context of the country's economy, but many small beginnings have led to big things in the past.

The R10 million loan recently granted by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to Mathews Phosa's Skonkwane Holdings is not his first incursion into the business world.

This former ANC politician previously had business operations largely in the property industry, where he and several black business groups formed Colliers Siza.

Colliers Siza and Ikwezi Holdings are involved particularly in the development of business opportunities in Soweto. His involvement in property gave Phosa a strong base in the construction industry.

Skonkwane is now highly active in this industry and wishes to take building work to the population by selling cement and bricks in the most remote corners of the townships, and more importantl,y in the rural areas.
Skonkwane currently operates 59 brand-name hardware stores throughout the country. The aim is to expand operations with a further 37 outlets. This growth is supported by the takeover of 44 stores in the former Bonus Building Supplies group's stable.

Phosa says there are great opportunities for Bonus employees who lost their jobs to play a useful role in Skonkwane.

He explains that Skonkwane was formed years ago in Swaziland by the McSeveney family. After he quit politics, Phosa became a Skonkwane shareholder. He says he was aware of great potential for expansion in the business.

``We now have the largest retail hardware business in the country. Thanks to the IDC, we can come to the assistance of the pensioner, the jobless and the old lady who has to walk miles between Kokstad and Matatiele to buy her building requirements in the town, such as spades and cement, and then has to get them back home again.

``Now they no longer have to be concerned about criminals. We bring the lowest prices to them.''
He emphasised that more and more opportunities were arising for people to become entrepreneurs.
``We can't leave this to the government. We know the IDC won't let us down.''

Phosa is known as something of a polyglot. He knows eight languages, including Portuguese, Zulu and Tswana. He also speaks Afrikaans fluently and faultlessly, and writes Afrikaans poetry.

It is sometimes rather strange to remind oneself that this man who speaks such pure Afrikaans was formally not only an ordinary underground ANC member, but also a formidable military strategist.

During most of the turbulent '80s he was in Maputo where he served as the regional manager in the ANC's politico-military committee. The destabilisation of the former Eastern Transvaal was his task.

But this all belongs to the past. Now he is in the business world.

``The business world is actually messy. We must be successful. Now is the opportunity to grow. At Skonkwane we first of all have to consolidate, but we are already looking at expansions in Botswana and Namibia. They want us there. Job creation is very important for me. We must create more entrepreneurs.''
Phosa says he is actually not new to the business world. He was involved in it earlier, before he qualified as an attorney at the University of the North. After his father's death, he worked as a clerk at a construction company during his vacations.

He is still an attorney in Nelspruit, but comes to Johannesburg regularly as part of his consultation work for KPMG. ``As a businessman, I am now actually back where I started. I just have to get to know the place better.'' News24