Is Ze Nxumalo The Next Black Billionaire?

The modern day Patrice Motsepe and his questionable business dealings.

On 9 October 2021, Dr. Tamaryn Green and Ze Nxumalo held what some called the ‘wedding of the weekend’ and others ‘wedding of the year’. The umembeso ceremony — which signifies the joining of two families coupled with the exchanging of gifts was an absolute wonder to watch. Set on the backdrop of Cape Town’s beautiful scenery, it truly was a sight to behold. The pictures and videos went viral on social media with tons of articles written on it.

One of the things that stood out the most during the wedding weekend was the anonymity of the groom who is significantly less known than his wife who is the Miss South Africa 2018. However, just like his role models — President Cyril Ramaphosa and Patrice Motsepe — Nxumalo’s business journey raises some questions.

Nxumalo was born in June of 1993 (which makes him 28 this year) and matriculated from Kearsney College in 2010. He went to Wits University where he enrolled for a law degree following in the footsteps of his role model President Ramaphosa and this is where the entrepreneurship bug bit. Keep this information in mind.

The first business venture the budding businessman went into was getting cars to operate on the Uber platform. He started out with one car and a driver and by the end of 2014 had 4 cars with 8 drivers working 24 hours a day. Nxumalo owned and managed the business and did not drive any of the cars himself. He mentioned in a News 24 interview that he closed the business partly because the market became saturated and profits dipped. Uber in South Africa really took off in the 2015 period which is when Nxumalo closed the business. This means he would have had 1 year worth of experience in the passenger transport business.

Nxumalo terminated his studies at Wits University to pursue his business interests full time.

SA Taxi Holdings (Pty) Ltd is a company that provides financing to the taxi industry. Transaction Capital Ltd holds the majority share in SA Taxi, this will come up later. Nxumalo became an independent advisor to SA Taxi shortly after closing his Uber business and this would have been approximately in the 2015 period where he would have been 22.

I’m conscious not to perpetuate ageist notions of competence but I do want to question how someone in their early twenties with only a year worth of experience in the e-hailing business with no tertiary qualification became an independent advisor to the largest provider of financing in the taxi industry in South Africa.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Probably the most interesting of Nxumalo’s moves in the business world was becoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ensure Security in 2015. Nxumalo was approached to purchase a 35% stake in the business and became CEO of the company shortly after joining.

According to the current CEO of Ensure Security, Kyle Connolly, the company was started in 2011 by Kyle with his dad and brother. Assuming the Connollys were the only shareholders and directors of the company, three white men being the shareholders and directors of a company looking to expand was definitely not a good look for their diversity and B-BBEE scorecard. Nxumalo being “offered” to buy 35% of the business and becoming CEO shortly after seems to have been a B-BBEE representation deal to me.

I wish to remind the reader that in 2015 when Nxumalo became shareholder and CEO of Ensure Security (a company that had been active for 5 years) he had a little bit over a year of experience in business.

How did Nxumalo even come in contact with the Connollys? As mentioned earlier Nxumalo was in Kearsney College from 2004–2010. Guess who also went to Kearsney College? Yep, Kyle Connolly — the current CEO and co-founder of Ensure Security. According to the Kearsney College Old Boys list, there are 2 other Connolly boys who went to the school. Sean Connolly matriculated in 1999 and Thomas Connolly in 1980. I’m not saying these are the father and brother of Kyle Connolly but we all know old private schools work on legacy admissions.

Although there is no clear evidence that Nxumalo was offered the shares because of a close relationship with the Connollys, his proximity to the family from them being Old Boys must have had an impact. The private school proximity scored Nxumalo an Executive post at 22.

On a lighter note, Nxumalo won the ‘Most Stylish Businessman’ award at the 2019 SA Style Awards. I would urge the reader to google his name and scroll through the ‘images’ section of the search.

Back to the business, SA Taxi Foundation is the corporate social investment arm of SA Taxi, Nxumalo is listed as one of the the three active directors of the foundation. Remember this is the SA Taxi from where Nxumalo provided advisory/consulting services.

Now that we have established that Nxumalo is a Kearsney Old Boy, would someone with the same work ethic without a tertiary qualification who lives in a township and went to a township high school be able to walk into the offices of SA Taxi as an advisor at 22? I doubt it. His background as an Old Boy who is the child of academics certainly aided in him being able to access those kind of spaces and be taken seriously in those boardrooms.

Nxumalo is a shareholder at Sebenza Wifi, a company that provides wifi services to taxis. I don’t know if Sebenza Wifi does any business directly with SA Taxi however, if the two companies are to do business seeing as Sebenza wants to put wifi in taxis, what are the ethics of Nxumalo being influential at SA Taxi and also being shareholder at Sebenza Wifi?

Remember Transaction Capital, the owners of SA Taxi? According to the Transaction Capital 2020 Sustainability Report, Transaction Capital provides support through the provision of office space, including desks and IT infrastructure to a company called TC Kwande which is a debt recovery call center business.

The ‘TC’ in TC Kwande clearly stands for Transaction Capital although the company does not claim an official ownership over the company. It only claims to provide ‘support’. Nxumalo is listed as one of two directors of the company with the other being Mayihlome Tshwete, the son of Pamela and Steve Tshwete who are prominent politicians. Mayihlome himself spent a significant part of his working life employed by the government.

Nxumalo has established multiple businesses off his shoe in the door as an advisor to SA Taxi. His business strategy of entering businesses through B-BBEE deals and using one opportunity to turn it into multiple business opportunities comes straight out of the Ramaphosa and Motsepe play book.

Like Ramaphosa and Motsepe, Nxumalo has stakes in my other businesses which he holds through his investment company, ZIG Holdings.

It is common cause that both Ramaphosa and Mostsepe had to enter into ethically questionable business relationships in order to build their wealth. I wonder if Nxumalo thinks about the ethics of the business relationships he enters into.

Let’s get into some socio-politics for a bit. When looking at the prominent black billionaires of post-Apartheid South Africa — Ramaphosa and Motsepe — a most prominent feature are the conventionally attractive, academically accomplished and career orientated women who are their wives.

I am not interested in policing people’s desires or who they choose to partner with but it is very interesting that Nxumalo’s love life mirrors that of his role models. They married conventionally attractive women who are medical doctors. Nxumalo did the exact same thing in marrying a former beauty queen and medical doctor, Dr. Tamaryn Green.

Nxumalo’s choice of a life partner will work to his advantage in the business world as we know there is a certain respect that is afforded to men in a patriarchal business world who have conventionally attractive partners who also happen to have ‘respectable’ careers.

It is not abundantly clear how politically connected Nxumalo is. His wedding did not have a lot of visible politicians. The most politically connected person in his proximity appears to be Mayihlome Tshwete. I should also add that at some point he was National Head of Sponsorship for the Progressive Youth In Business which is a forum established by the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA). The PYA is an alliance of the ANC Youth League, Young Communist League and in the case of Wits University also includes the Muslim Students Association. Obviously, the PYA is a political organization so the Progressive Youth in Business cannot entirely divorce themselves from politics. Nxumalo’s time in the organization may make him politically connected to a degree.

Zesimdumise Nxumalo’s short 7 years in business has seen exponential growth, much like Ramapahosa and Motsepe who experienced lots of growth within a very short period of time. He has his hands in many pies just like his role models and the wife to match. Is Ze Nxumalo the next black billionaire?