First Black Miller puts Ventersburg on the map

From a very young age Xolani knew food was the way to success. On his eighth birthday his father, Victor, gave him a bag of oranges to share with his friends. Although he did share a few with his friends, he decided to sell the rest to earn some money. That first bag was quickly followed by the second and then the third and so forth. A businessman in the making!

 

He was so committed that every day after school, from 15:30 until 23:00 when the last train pulled into the station, he sold a whole range of products at the train station, including food, sweets and perfume.

This even helped to motivate him academically. “I was always first in my class,” he remembers proudly.

 

Because of the riots in Soweto years ago, his father sent him to Lady Frey in the Eastern Cape. As a 12-year-old he was there for only a year and learned to mill in the traditional and manual way. He explained that it is called Ngqusha, “where you stamp the maize until it becomes samp.”

 

Xolani is very happy about his Senwes connection. Through the company’s joint ventures he has a credit limit that has been set at R600 000. He is especially grateful because “finances are the one thing that holds us back.” He added that good support develops his business and Senwes’ as well. “It is nice to see people putting their money where their mouths are.” 

 

Xolani has a lot of working experience and decided four years ago, in 2011, to set up his own milling plant. After initially struggling to obtain financing, he eventually obtained it and decided upon the operation in Ventersburg, called Ventersburg Boeremeule.

 

He set up Lethabo Milling with a loan from Absa and he used the plant to produce about 10 000 tons of maize per annum for Massmart selling his maize at Makro, Cash & Carry and Cambridge. He even passed the food safety audit at the very first attempt this year on 27 August. His successes made headlines in numerous publications and he even visited parliament earlier this year.

 

Another first for Xolani is that 53% of his staff are women - a first in the industry.  What’s more, all his employees are local people. The 50-year-old Xolani also invests in his staff and some are in the process of becoming qualified millers. He also does motivational talks at organisations and schools. This included a visit with the graduates of Senwes recently. In addition he has identified four black millers and offers them help and advice along the way.

 

Xolani is very confident about his maize meal as it compares very well with competitive products. “Once people taste our maize meal, they don’t want to eat any other maize.”

 

Xolani’s family lives in Roodepoort. He has been married to his wife Thembi for 8 years but has known her for two decades. They have two children, Mpilo (10) and Nonkululeko (7).

 

His face lights up as I ask about the logo of Lethabo Milling. He starts by saying “It means happiness or joy”. The logo is a maize cob with the leaves opening up to the sun shining over it. The red in the logo represents the blood of Jesus. “I asked God to lead and guide me. I prayed for it.”

 

“Christmas is a peaceful and joyous (lethabo) time. Let’s not indulge in negative substances. Let’s walk and drive safely.”