By Fiona Wakelin & Koketso Mamabolo
Archimedes said if you give him a big enough lever he could lift the earth. It’s all about leverage. If you find the right point, and the right lever, you can move anything. And with the help of others, to paraphrase the old saying, you can move even more. Throughout his life, Dr Reuel J. Khoza, one of the South African business world’s most erudite thinkers and respected entrepreneurs, seems to have found the right lever when he needed it. A brilliant student turned inspiring teacher who found a home in the corporate world, one he has furnished with passion and academic rigor, Dr Khoza is fluent in several languages but is most adept at an old language which goes beyond words: the language of family, kinship, camaraderie, ubuntu.
He’s an Africanist and a prolific writer with a career that is an incredible feat of alchemy, combining high ethical standards, business acumen and a work ethic refined through mission-school education and the guidance of his evangelist father. He’s not just a moral authority but a technical one too, having served as Mervyn King’s deputy for the drafting of the King III and King IV reports, setting the framework for corporate governance in South Africa. If integrity was a person, they would be farming avocadoes, macadamia nuts and pears, making music as a labour of love, like Dr Khoza, a man who holds kinship dearly, a custodian of eternal values.
An activist teacher in the C-suite
Beginning with an undergraduate degree in psychology, Dr Khoza’s academic record and abilities as a teacher propelled him to a faculty position just as South African student politics were about to reach a fever pitch.
It’s not surprising that such a man, whose overarching philosophy has its foundations in a collectivist mindset, which naturally provides an ideological framework for human rights, found himself crafting poems and lyrics which gave life to the students’ moral cause.
University management took exception and so ended Dr Khoza’s first pedagogical journey, in 1974.
He joined Unilever, spending four years as marketing assistant and product manager, before obtaining a scholarship from Shell Oil South Africa to pursue his Master’s in marketing in the United Kingdom. After working for the multinational, upon his return to South Africa, he decided to venture out alone in the business world, a brave and risky decision in a time when the efforts of black entrepreneurs were stifled by a system working against them, an atmosphere which motivated him to join the Black Management Forum.
He brought his collectivist spirit with him into his marketing and management consultancy, looking deeply into ubuntu and applying it to corporate culture and leaders. What follows is a career that would be the envy of any business professional.
Dr Khoza has chaired the boards of Nedbank, Assupol, the Private Investment Corporation, and chaired during the Eskom the Mandela and Mbeki administrations, and was president of the Institute of Directors Southern Africa in 2001. He is currently the chair of Dzana Investments, a private equity firm run by Nkateko Khoza, his eldest daughter, which invests mainly in the technology sector.
He has also served on the board of directors of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Standard Bank, IBM South Africa, Old Mutual, Liberty Life Group and Nampak, with the list continuing to grow.
Read the full story in the 24th edition of Impumelelo: Top Empowerment and find out why Dr Khoza believes a great leader is like a conductor and why he has no choice but to hope for a better future for South Africa.
