Apple doesn’t fall far from tree

LEAVING A FOOTPRINT: Frank Buyanga is walking in his father’s shoes, a man who also ran several businesses but he has gone a notch higher by investing in multiple businesses across the continent and the UK.

THE apple does not fall far from the tree.

Johannesburg-based global entrepreneur Frank Buyanga, 37, seems to have taken a leaf out of his father’s book, as his dad ran several businesses, including a clothing factory, in Zimbabwe.

Buyanga, who has interests in property and finance, has taken his business acumen to another level and invested in numerous businesses across the continent, as well as the UK. He has made South Africa his base.

Despite the strides he has already made, Buyanga is showing no signs of slowing down.

His latest initiative is the African Medallion Group (AMG), which aims to raise awareness of wealth creation and wealth inclusion wrong fellow Africans.

The AMG, among other things, will create a stock market that will include all 54 African countries.

“I don’t believe there’s any currency in Africa that has more value than the medallion. I’ve started writing to all African presidents telling them about the medallion,” Buyanga said.

The medallion dollar coin is a physical coin that takes the form of a hybrid crypto currency, like bitcoin. It can be used as a store of wealth and aims to open up the African borders to trade.

The Hamilton Property Holdings founder has lived in a number of countries including the UK, Dubai, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Wherever he has lived, he has left a footprint in terms of business.

“My calling is to make this world a better place. I exist to solve problems; I don’t exist to make money,” he said.

Buyanga has a degree in economics and finance from North London University and has put his knowledge to use over the past 19 years in the business entrepreneurship arena, achieving much success.

Buyanga was destined to excel in the business world after showing signs of passion for trade while a junior in high school, albeit in a mischievous way then.

“My parents used to lock the phone at home when they would travel. So, over time, I learnt that you could do tap-dialling to make phone calls,” he said.

Buyanga took the roguish skill to boarding school where senior boys used a pay phone to make calls.

“I noticed that people at school used to pay money to make calls so I thought I could get that money from them.

“So one day I went out of the hostel at night and I cut off the phone line and I connected a receiver that I had. So, instead of them putting the money into the phone, I started charging them,” the enthusiastic businessman said.

Buyanga also got his friends at school to get discounts at the tuck shop and he would resell to fellow pupils for a profit. He singles out his commerce teacher as his favourite. He believes what he taught him cultivated his business skills.

But his childhood and school days were not always rosy. He recalls the day his mother called him to the servants’ quarters to tell him their lives would no longer be the same because of a debt the family owed a bank.

“I had my first encounter with the sheriff at the age of 15 when they came to collect my parents’ vehicles,” he said.

As if that was not enough, one of his teachers wrote him off, saying he would not make it to university.

But the fighter that he is, Buyanga soldiered on and turned his life around dramatically. By 2000, aged 21, when lots of whites were fleeing Zimbabwe, Buyanga took advantage and started buying properties in his home country.

All the way up: Frank Buyanga

“I started buying properties in Zimbabwe in 2000. I had already been buying properties in London. At the time, they were going for £80000 (R1m) but now you cannot get them for that price. They are much higher,” he said.

Buyanga at some point distributed condoms imported from China in Zimbabwe.

“I was distributing condoms in Zimbabwe at petrol stations. In fact, I was one of the first people to have broadband access in 2006. I never used to sleep, I was on the internet from 5pm to 6am the next morning doing research,” Buyanga said.

His inspiration to import condoms came after seeing that Africa had the highest prevalence of HIV-Aids. “I decided to venture into the business to reduce the prevalence.”

In 2004, he started a money-lending business in neighbouring Zambia.

Three years later, the serial entrepreneur set up a property investment company in South Africa.

He has invested in property from corner to corner in Johannesburg and Cape Town and is now eyeing the Free State.

However, his life has not been a walk in the park as he revealed how he struggled in his first year in university, only managing to pass two modules.

“I had to tell my sister that I would be coming to second-year classes but I told her not to tell anyone. So I had to do first-year and second-year classes.”

In 2014, the audacious entrepreneur wrote a letter to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, telling him exactly what he needed to do to save the country’s ailing economy.

Two years prior to that, he was trapped in South Africa after Interpol issued him with a so-called “red notice” in February 2012.

This is issued to a person subject to an arrest warrant or one who is required to serve a sentence. At the root of it all was his money-lending business in Zimbabwe. Buyanga’s borrowers had secured their loans with their homes.

Every now and again, defaulters refused to give up their houses, leading to litigation and growing disgruntlement.

He hired an international lawyer who has represented Muammar Gaddafi’s children and the Democratic Republic of Congo leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, against war crimes, Nick Kaufman, who fought tooth and nail for the matter to be resolved.

Kaufman argued that the red notice offends the Interpol constitution in that it was tainted by political motives and offended the rules of Interpol in that it was essentially designed to coerce a resolution to what was effectively a civil case.

The successful entrepreneur singled out Nicholas Vingirayi, a former Zimbabwean banker, as one of the people that mentored him.

“I met him in church. He is one of the most important people I have met in my life,” he said.

Buyanga said his heart was saddened one day when he was serving as church secretary.

“I used to go and collect money as the church secretary. I remember there was a lady who came to me and asked me to pray for her. The same lady who gave me $50 (R660) was walking home and I was driving out in my Mercedes-Benz, wearing my suit. I just couldn’t do it so I stopped going to church,” Buyanga said.

He said the level of poverty he saw in the church and how the church took money from the people was appalling.

“I don’t believe churches should be taking money from people. I’ve always been about adding value, creating institutions that add value to people,” he said.

While he has been rated one of the youngest millionaires in South Africa, Buyanga said for him it has never been about money.

“This whole millionaire thing is overrated now more than ever before. I doubt it will ever be about money but it’s about adding value. It’s about keeping one’s principles and building institutions that help people,” he said.

Buyanga has assisted a young South African woman manufacturing sanitary pads. Her vision is to distribute these for free in schools for the benefit of the less privileged.

“I have a mentorship programme for young people who reach out to me in terms of programming their lives,” Buyanga said.

His Hamilton Foundation distributes blankets in Alexandra and also takes care of the child-headed homes. “We pay fees for some of them.”

With such determination, Buyanga is yet to make much more impact in and beyond the continent.

He visits the gym every second day to keep fit and to pass time. By Ntombi Nkosi

thenewage.co.za