Davin Phillips Is At The Centre of Bonang’s Problems
The question on everyone’s mind is, “how did Bonang let this happen?” Here’s how.
Up until this past week, Davin Phillips was a PR executive virtually unknown in the public domain. Bonang Matheba on the other hand is one of the biggest names in South African entertainment, the true epitome of a household name. So how did the biggest name in entertainment get strong-armed by a PR executive? The answer lies in the boring world of business enterprises.
In March 2019, the media mogul launched the much anticipated House of BNG MCC which came first in a Brute and Brute Rose. The launch was spectacular, garnering much media attention. After the official announcement and launch party (which was a star-studded affair), Bonang went on a local press tour to promote her latest business venture which significantly increased the visibility of the brand. The name “House of BNG” itself pulls very strongly from Bonang’s name. She also does a good job with promoting the MCC on her social media to the extent that it is known as “Bonang’s Champaign”.
During one of her stints in New York, Matheba went on the popular Breakfast Club where she was interviewed and promoted the MCC. She also promoted it in other events she had done outside South Africa. House of BNG is the official celebration partner for the Ms. South Africa pageant. This is largely because Bonang has hosted the ceremony and has a long standing partnership with telecommunications giant Cell C which has also been the official sponsor of the pageant.
I labor on this to illustrate just how much the brand of the MCC is tied to Matheba the person and for you to make your own conclusions about whether the brand can survive without her active involvement.
Now let’s deal with the business structure of the MCC which is really at the center of the controversy.
The question of ownership lies with the registration of the trademark of House of BNG. Whoever owns the trademark has the right to produce and sell the MCC under the name “House of BNG”. It is not unusual in business operations that the owner of the trademark will outsource production and sales of the product — which is what seems to have been done in this case.
Vino Ventures (Pty) Ltd is tasked with the production of the MCC while sale has been contracted out first to Woolworths as the end seller and I believe clubs and restaurants can procure for sale in large quantities directly from the supplier. The MCC is now available at a wide range of end user sellers. According to CIPC reports Davin Chad Phillips is one of the directors of said Vino Ventures and Matheba is not.
Those of you who were on Twitter in January 2018 are well acquainted with the ‘girls with vineyards’ saga where Matheba tweeted “…Girls with Vineyards” which caused a major stir on social media where users speculated whether Matheba has bought a vineyard. The interesting thing is, Vino Ventures was registered in February 2017, exactly one year before the infamous tweet. Could it be that the company was set up specially for the House of BNG deal?
A lot happens in the 2017–2018 period so keep up with me.
In November 2017, Matheba announces joining Celebrity Services Africa (CSA) as her official management and representation. In the official press release she states that the company will be representing her “entertainment, fashion, entrepreneurship and philanthropy” ventures. The entrepreneurship part is very important to remember here.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Davin Phillips was the Executive Director of CSA at the time and he was announced as Matheba’s official manager. As you can guess, Phillips is a director of CSA.
So to tie everything in, Phillips established Vino Ventures in February 2017 before signing Matheba to his management company in November of that year. But, from the January 2018 ‘girls with vineyards’ saga we can assume that talks to establish the MCC had been in place for at least a year.
When the ownership saga broke out involving Matheba and CSA, the company reported that Matheba is well aware that they own any and all products developed under their name. You also remember the statement quoted earlier that CSA would represent Matheba in her entrepreneurial ventures? It seems CSA has a legitimate claim over House of BNG as it was developed while Matheba was under their management and Philips is both director of the company that “developed” it (CSA) and the company that actually makes it (Vino Ventures).
Davin Phillips has strategically placed himself at the center of House of BNG and has control over pretty much the entire decision making process of the business.
I must make some admissions here. I have been an avid Bonang ‘stan’ for well over a decade now. She mesmerized me as the presenter of popular Friday night music show LIVE on SABC 1 and I have been hooked on her ever since. I desperately did not want to believe the rumors that she was just a face of the brand and had no real ownership but I fear the rumors may have been true.
CSA has commented to media houses that under the deal, Matheba would only be entitled to a percentage of the sale of every unit of House of BNG, and that she has been able to make millions off that while the business has suffered losses. It is almost unheard of in business that someone who is a shareholder of a brand would be entitled to a percentage of the sales of each unit. Shareholders have a common understanding on the sharing of risks and rewards and ordinarily would not agree to a deal where one shareholder is effectively shielded from the risk of the venture not being profitable. This leads me further to think that Matheba does not actually hold any ownership over House of BNG. I must give credit to Matheba for ensuring that she gets paid as long as there is a House of BNG unit sold. I just doubt that this is a deal that would out-live her.
There are other interesting companies within the House of BNG ecosystem. According to CIPC records, Matheba is the sole director of two companies called ‘BNG South Africa’ and ‘Bonang Matheba Trademarks’.
The full nature of the business deal for House of BNG is not available to the public and all we have to go on is what the parties to the agreement have told us.
Bonang Matheba Trademarks was established in November 2019 after the MCC had been launched to the public. My first hunch is that this company does not actually hold any rights over House of BNG but it is possible that such a right would have been transferred to Matheba after the launch. The company also could have been formed to hold other trademarks outside of House of BNG, we don’t actually know.
It is also not clear where the BNG South Africa company fits into the picture. My best bet is that this is the company through which Matheba holds the right to receive royalties for every unit of the MCC sold however this is pure speculation.
As the relationship between Matheba, Phillips and CSA has officially broken down it will be very interesting to watch how this unfolds from an ownership perspective. What does it mean for Matheba to be strong-armed out of the brand? Does she continue earning royalties for units sold? How Davin Phillips works his way out of this one will surely be interesting to watch.
