In April 2022, just over ten years after they founded BongoHive, Zambia’s first innovation and technology hub, Lukonga Lindunda, Simunza Muyangana and Silumesii Maboshe were planning for the next ten years. Based in the country’s capital, Lusaka, BongoHive had a social purpose: to create systemic and lasting social change for Zambians. The three colleagues were satisfied that BongoHive had made great strides in achieving this. But the venture was now bigger and more complex, with four business units. Should they focus on one as the growth area? Indeed, was BongoHive’s current business model appropriate to securing its industry leadership position in the future? Were there other opportunities for innovation that their venture could explore? They wanted to ensure a sustainable future for BongoHive so that it could continue to deliver on its social goals.

Categories: Africa, Emerging Markets, Technopreneurship, Start-ups, Innovation Hubs, Technology Hubs

No. Pages: 15

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In June 2020, Ken Njoroge and Bolaji Akinboro[1], co-founders and co-CEOs of Cellulant, a Pan-African financial technology (fintech) company that provided a digital payment infrastructure, had important decisions to make regarding the future of their company. The digital payment environment in Africa had always been competitive and challenging, and it had only become more challenging with the impact of COVID-19. Their vision was for Cellulant to be the digital partner of choice for every business in Africa that had the need to collect cashless payments. They now had to decide how best to respond to the changing needs of Cellulant’s own customers – the banks and merchants – so that, in turn, these customers could respond to the changing needs of their customers.

[1] Akinboro had since resigned from the company.

Categories: Innovation, technology, fintech  

No. Pages: 20

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In May 2022, Christina Close, co-owner with Natalie Matthews of Love Jacaranda, a blanket retailer based in Johannesburg, was halfway through a two-month freelance job setting up a new digital venture in Cape Town. Since leaving her business transformation position at an international telecommunications operator, to work full-time on Love Jacaranda in September 2021, she had begun to feel lonely working by herself all day. “It is such fun to work with people again and do something really mentally challenging, and it’s so cool just to hang out,” she said during a telephone conversation to Natalie. She wondered if this was the beginning of her return to corporate, or whether she would remain focused on Love Jacaranda.

Categories: Career Management, Personal Leadership

No. Pages: 12

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By March 2021, two years had passed since Deloitte South Africa (SA) had released its Transparency Report which detailed its journey of self-reflection as a firm and the ways in which it intended to rebuild trust and restore professionalism. Since 2017, the firm had lost R3 billion ($204 million) in revenue, and suffered significant reputational damage, after being caught up in several scandals involving corruption and unethical conduct. The report detailed the progress the firm had made in rebuilding itself, enhancing the quality of its work and restoring good governance. Had Deloitte SA done enough to acknowledge and rectify its ethical and governance lapses, and restore trust?

Categories: Ethics, Governance   

No. Pages: 20

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It was the night before Wits Business School (WBS) economics professor, Eve Smith, was to teach a case for the first time ever in her 12 years as a university lecturer. As she thought about the session the next morning, her major concerns were whether the case would achieve her objective of integrating the theory that she had presented in the previous lecturers, and whether she would be able to keep the discussion focussed so that the session would cover all the necessary material.

No. Pages: 4 

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It was the night before Wits Business School (WBS) economics professor, Eve Smith, was to teach a case for the first time ever in her 12 years as a university lecturer. As she thought about the session the next morning, her major concerns were whether the case would achieve her objective of integrating the theory that she had presented in the previous lecturers, and whether she would be able to keep the discussion focussed so that the session would cover all the necessary material.

No. Pages: 4 

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In July 1997, Maurice Radebe moved from a successful, eight-year career at Shell Oil South Africa to take up the position of retail manager at Exel Petroleum, a black economic empowerment (BEE) company newly started by energy and chemical company Sasol Oil and a consortium of black shareholders. His career prospects at Shell had been good. But South Africa was at an interesting juncture in its history, spirits were high because of the successful 1994 elections, and BEE was in its infancy. Radebe was intrigued about the opportunities in this new space and felt impelled to explore them further. Sitting in his sparsely furnished office in Rivonia (north of Johannesburg), Radebe wondered how to ensure the success of a new venture that would have to compete against the major global oil brands.

Categories: BEE, Strategy,

No of pages: 13 pages

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From her office on her farm in the Eden District of South Africa’s Western Cape province, Wendy Crane, who had for many years been involved in the conservation efforts of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), drank in the view of the Langeberg Mountains. Her pleasure was a bit diminished by the knowledge that, like so many parts of the GCBR, this area’s environment was under threat.

She was preparing for a meeting in March 2017 of the board of the non-profit company (NPC) that sought to initiate and coordinate activities that would achieve the goals of the GCBR. The NPC board members wanted the organisation to be self-sustaining when it came to core costs. To this end, the board had established Gouritz Enterprises as a social enterprise that would be responsible for profit-driven activities which would fund the NPC’s core costs. The enterprise had not yet started work in any formal way, and Crane was not sure if establishing a separate profit-driven entity was the best way of achieving the self-financing goal.

No of pages: 14 pages

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On 18 June 2019, the Gauteng High Court “set aside and declared unlawful all the decision-making processes through which Eskom had concluded [a] contract with McKinsey”. The contract in question had resulted from McKinsey South Africa's turnaround proposal to the struggling electricity utility in February 2015. Although McKinsey SA had experienced difficulties with a Transnet contract in 2013, the organisation had decided that working with Eskom, its client since 2005, on this project was a risk worth taking. Subsequent events and the high court judgement meant that the partners at McKinsey SA had to assess the lessons learned from this project before embarking on further projects with South African state-owned entities (SOEs).

Categories: Ethics, Governance   

No. Pages: 16

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This is a background note on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in South Africa. The note defines and explains PPPs as an alternative service delivery option for the public sector, highlighting the legislation that governs PPPs and the Project Cycle. The debate for and against the PPP option for service delivery and PPP performance are examined.

No. Pages: 24  

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Six months had passed since the South African government had gazetted draft regulations on salt content in food. Now, in December 2012, the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, was reviewing the submissions received on the proposed laws. As the comments had come in from individuals, corporates, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academics, the public health sector and civil society, Motsoaledi had realised that he would be facing some resistance to his department’s proposals. Yet, he had long felt that the health and broader socio-economic impacts of excessive salt consumption in South Africa were too high, and that salt intake should therefore be brought in line with international best practice. The question was whether it was better to regulate or motivate?

No of pages: 20

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In October 2012, Dr Kenneth Ross, professional fellow at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia and chairperson of the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) Scientific Committee, was busy analysing the combined results of the SACMEQ III research conducted on the 15 participating African countries. He had to determine which factors made a difference to the quality of education in primary schools in southern and eastern Africa. The analysis would assist him in advising the ministers of education from the participating countries on which factors were most influential in the success of a primary education system in Africa.

No of pages: 30

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Between 2014 and 2017 the management team of the South African division of global software company, Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP), managed to exploit loopholes in the group’s integrity management systems so as to take advantage of the influence that members of the Gupta family had over state machinery and land lucrative contracts with state-owned enterprises, Transnet and Eskom. These activities might have gone undetected had they not been exposed by whistle blowers in mid-2017. When SAP’s own investigations showed the leaked information to be true, CEO, Bill McDermott and the company’s executive team had to decide how best to respond in order to prevent similar dishonesty in the future.

Categories: Ethics, Governance   

No. Pages: 10

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