Old Mutual On The Money
Old Mutual On The Money
Lehlohonolo Mofokeng on legacy, shared knowledge, and preparing your family for the future
Building something for your family is meaningful but making sure it lasts beyond your lifetime takes planning and intent.
In this episode of On the Money, entrepreneur Lehlohonolo Mofokeng joins Old Mutual’s Financial Education Programme Manager, Thabo Hollo, to unpack why so many South African family businesses and income streams collapse when the person who built them is no longer there to lead.
From corner shops where only one person knew the ropes to households where financial decisions live with a single parent, Lehlohonolo reflects on the power of sharing knowledge early so the next generation can continue what you’ve started. It’s a practical, honest look at what legacy really requires.
Thanks for listening! Interested in getting more financial education? Visit our website for free resources. You can follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
THABO HOLLO [00:05] :
Hello and welcome to Old Mutual On The Money, my name is Thabo Hollo. In South Africa, we are told that the world of entrepreneurship is a very important world yet in can be very daunting. Today we are joined by one of the success stories, Phoka.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [00:23] :
Ntate.
THABO HOLLO [00:24] :
How are you my good sir?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [00:26] :
I’m all good thank you sir.
THABO HOLLO [00:26] :
Thank you, thank you. that’s what we are told. We are told that the world of entrepreneurship can be very tough, it takes more than just skin in the game to make it work. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [00:41] :
Thanks for having me Old Mutual On The Money. My name is Lehlohonolo Mofokeng from Soweto. I’m an entrepreneur, I’ve been in the entrepreneur space for almost now, I think 22 years. I had an opportunity of being through a university, I did a B.Sc in I.T because I was born in, in, in an entrepreneurial family. My dad's background and his brothers and sisters, they're only the, the, the business side of things. So, yes, I had an opportunity of, uh, working in one of the, the, the, the, the groomers of, of entrepreneurs, which was Umsobomvu Youth Fund, and that's where, again, I mean, being born from a family of entrepreneurs now, I was then in the university of entrepreneurs. So I learned a lot from there. And then yes, 22 years later, I mean, I'm still in the game, I’m still in the game.
THABO HOLLO [01:44] :
You’re still in the game, you’re still in the game and I suppose family is important, but let's focus a little bit on that family background. Would you say you did not have any other option but you go the entrepreneurial role given that family is like that, everybody is involved and that seems to be the, if not the only way to go ahead in life. Would you say the major driver to your role of entrepreneurship, was around the issue of family?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [02:10] :
Yes it was. I mean I've seen what my family has done for the community and I've seen what the business has done or even the entrepreneurship has done for them. I mean all of them it's they at some point in their lives they did work an 8 to 5 but then they branched into the entrepreneurial space because I mean I think the calling was there you know but with any other entrepreneur, the, the story is different. You know, they, they started from 8:00 to 5:00, then they branched out because they saw a need and, just to answer you, it's because I've seen what the, the family has done because now you create jobs, you know, you uplift the community. So for me it was a no brainer because I could see the value that it brought to, to the whole scheme of things.
THABO HOLLO [02:58] :
Brilliant. Let's pause there a moment for family, would you say, you spoke about it often? Was it part of the daily discussion, the topic of business growing up, was there some sort of a hand over if you want to call it that of the business to say son, this is how a business is run. Was it part of the daily at home?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [03:21] :
You know unfortunately it was not. It was a mix of two, but unfortunately it was not a daily talk to be honest with you, you know back in the day it was not as now whereby you can sit with your son or your daughter, you'd be like, hey man, what you want to do when you grow up? You know? Because now, you know, these days it's kids, they are more liberated, you know, they'll tell you they want to be a singer or they want to be an amapiano artist, you know, But then with us, it was all about schooling. You know, with anything else, they'll say no school because, you know, if you want to get a doctor or you want to be a lawyer, whatever the case. But in terms of daily talks around business, we didn't have that, however. I think as me growing up because I grew up being in part of their business. After school, I'll go to visit my auntie had a Kota business, a fast food business. We used to sell Kota to schools. Then my uncle had a taxi business / he had a I'll call it a, a canopy business. My dad had a car servicing, my other uncle had a tent business. So somehow I found a way and without them asking me after school, I'll go visit this other one and then I'll get to see how they get to run their business you know.
THABO HOLLO [04:30] :
So you picked up quite a few lessons out of that.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [04:32] :
That’s correct and you understand it, It was a mixed business, so I'll understand, ok, this one runs in different ways, this one, this one is more corporate, this one is more on the lower LSM you know, so I would be able to mix the two. Yes, to be honest with you, I won't lie to you, only probably when I was maybe after varsity, I started now engaging with my dad, with my uncle.
THABO HOLLO [04:50] :
Now talking serious business.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [04:53] :
That’s correct yes.
THABO HOLLO [04:54] :
Let's go back to that. Let's talk about money then. You are exposed to different businesses, I'm sure you see money flowing up and down. In terms of talking about money, was there any, I understand you didn't talk about business, but what about money? Like hey man, you don’t have money! Did you have those kind of discussions with the with the folks at home?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [05:14] :
And actually I did. So what happened is my dad leave the money for now, go to school. You know, sometimes I'll come back and be like, I remember when we started doing the recording of CD’s, you know, I'll buy empty CD’s, you know, sell it because it was a big thing. People were recording on that and I came up with an idea as well before then when computers were still big because in terms of, you know, like your normal LCD, I came up with a, I bought this equipment, we used to repair keyboards because keyboards when they clogged dust, you can't get to work efficiently. So my dad would be like, you know what, this thing is disturbing you, you know? Just leave this thing a bit. Yeah. Go to school you know, so with my uncle it was different. I mean, my, my uncle, he was, he was from the hood and my uncle, he was not, he had street cred. So he’d say, look, let your dad push you that, which is good if that's your fall back plan. But I want to teach you how we do it in the real life. This is the real life. And it really, really helped me because he showed me another side, well, side of the world that we I didn't get to see, you know, he would take me to probably the informal segments. And that's where we used to probably, you know “Banana Kar”? There was this thing ‘Banana Kar’ whereby you bring bottles and the, and that goes to show me, you know two sides of the world to say, ok look, this is how you need to balance it. So with them it really helped me. We had one from that had street cred, the one had a corporate, you know, so it kind of balanced.
THABO HOLLO [06:44] :
So you so you had the best, the best of both worlds.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [06:47] :
And it checked out, it checked out.
THABO HOLLO [06:54] :
Absolutely, and still on money. Would you say your earlier interactions with money has informed in another way your future relationship with money? What have you learned, at least from your earlier age that would inform how you manage your money, right now?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [07:07] :
Yeah so this is how we used to do, you know when you go to school, you’d get pocket money right? You get, you'll get your 10 rand right. So my dad, he was that guy to say 10 rand, at least save 5 rands. You heard of that money Box? We used to have a Piggy Bank. But now with my uncle it was different. With my uncle you need to earn it. Yeah, right. But he never said to me come, come and work with me or come help me, it was up to you. So what happens is, after we’d go out with the ‘Banana Kar’, there’s bottles, you need to segment them by colour, right, all of that and then clean the van you know? Then he'll never give me the money, he'll save it for me right, then only the end of the week he’ll be like ‘Hey! Here’s your 50 bucks’, but this 50 bucks for me to double it, I need you to do 1,2,3. So what happened is this it's, it's he, he then taught me I think more than anything, the respect for money and start saving at an, at a, because I'll come to him and say I want a Carvella or I want a bicycle, you know, and he'll be like, no, you need to save up towards that. And then he'll never say, he'll say to you, you saved 800 grand, but the bicycle is 1.6, so it's fine it's 50/50 I’ll buy it for you, but you get to earn it. So with my dad it was go to school, there’s your lunch money, you save it, whatever you do with your money, you do whatever you want to do. So, so, so from the early age yes, they did help us in terms of respecting money and saving at an earlier age and understanding the whole monetary value behind it.
THABO HOLLO [08:36] :
Value, the real value of it. So would you say at this current state you are more of a saver than a spender of money?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [08:45] :
Yeah. So to be honest with you, it's, and I'll touch on this, COVID has shown us that saving it's a good idea. You know, you need that, that safety net, you need that basket. So I'll, I'll in, in in a nutshell, it's, they say it's safe for rainy days, right? So, yes, you can be a person that gets to save, it's nothing wrong being a spender. I mean, sometimes it's just thank yourself, right? By that nice thing that you want, but saving it, it really helps in terms of those rainy days, you are able to tap into that. I mean COVID showed us that when things started slowing down, a lot of people they got, a bit shaky to say, I didn't have money saved enough. I didn't have money for that. So yeah.
THABO HOLLO [09:35] :
So, so saving, saving is important.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [09:36] :
70/30
THABO HOLLO [09:38] :
So spend a bit and spoil yourself and then say save, save a lot.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [09:40] :
There you go.
THABO HOLLO [09:41] :
Let's go back to, to the issue of entrepreneurship, particularly township entrepreneurship. It's a it's a word that is banded around now. Everybody's talking about what is your view in terms of where they, where we are in terms of the state of township economy? Is it something that you personally would recommend that people get into?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [10:00] :
I will definitely say that, 100 percent yeah, and, and I'll say this, I'll tell you this, you know, back in the days, I remember when I grew up, we never had malls in the townships you know the only thing that we’ll have, we’ll have a general shop at the corner and you'll have a lady that sells vegetables right. So now with the township economy growing, now you see a lot of malls coming to the township that should say something, you know, because then it's saying what they're doing is they are then bringing value to the township as in terms of, instead of you, uh, driving from, uh, Soweto to Southgate, Maponya showed us that to say, I can bring what, what, what Southgate has even better, I can bring it closer to your doorsteps. So what it then does is you don’t have to spend on your transport, save money on time in terms of uh, convenience. So township economy, I still say it has a biggest potential and it's still growing each and everyday
THABO HOLLO [11:08] :
And it's still, it's still, it's still the source of it is still the source of growth.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [11:10] :
It’s still the source of growth. We, it’s the one of the of the job creation drivers. Let's just be honest, you find a person that has small fish and chips or Kota place, they hire one or two people, right?
THABO HOLLO [11:27] :
That's employment creation.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [11:28] :
That’s correct. So you have hundreds of those, how many families that you that you're covered right there? And the nicest thing about it is the same employee that you have in doing you driving locality. They don't have to take taxis. So whatever that they are able to get every month, they don't have to spend money on it because they walk to work, you know. So, so with, with the township, we're not neglecting, we're not neglecting the, urban you know, but as in terms of the township economy, it's one of the biggest drivers of economy, we all know that.
THABO HOLLO [12:00] :
Having grown up in a township myself, one of the few observations that I've had, which is sad and unfortunate is, I remember those corner shops. Those little two, three shops that’s owned by Mr So and So and Mr Such and such, and sadly, the observation is once Mr So and So passes away they also somehow disappeared, right? What would you say is the lessons learned out of that? How critical is it to pass on the lessons and were you fortunate enough to learn some of these things given where you are at the moment?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [12:38] :
Yeah, you know the, the word that we always hear out there is legacy, yeah and, and I'm not trying to put race into it you know, the other different skin colour, they’ve mastered it. Because see, the thing is with legacy that there's a lot of things that that are tied legacy. So Mr So and So had a shop and he was the only sole runner of that shop. He knew all the suppliers, he knew all the suppliers, he knew basically all the operations, so he was the soul. His wife is in the house, she either works or doesn’t or she’s taking care of the children. The children don’t get to be part of the business because they’re at school. When they get back from school, they go back home and the father is working at the shop and when he is done he comes back home. Now, what is that happens is, Mr So and So, God forbid he passed away, nobody knows about the business, so what happens is that either the brother or maybe the son who's trying to take over the business, but it's late at that time because he doesn't know anything right? And again, remember, the father has relationships, because he knows that he can give that lady credit of sugar and mielie-meal, there’s a relationship. He has a book that he keeps record in. He passes, nobody knows about it, that money is gone it needs to be written off. So Mrs So and So comes, the child is running the business and tells him that his father used to give her credit for food and the son says they don’t do that. So the relationship is not there. So continuity is not there. We can talk about legacy, it starts from, it starts from if I can just say the family or the kids either being part of this as it grows. Because look at the Jews. When the child comes back from school, they go home to do homework, after that they go to the shop.
THABO HOLLO [14:23] :
To the business.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [14:24] :
They sweep the floors, rolling pizza dough, he's learning the business at that age.
THABO HOLLO [14:30] :
Oh wow.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [14:24] :
By the time the father retires or passes away, so what happens is he's able to run the business because he knows the business. So yes, issue of continuity is a very important one.
THABO HOLLO [14:39] :
Critical.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [14:39] :
It is critical.
THABO HOLLO [14:39] :
Building legacy, building continuity is critical. We’ve grown, we've mastered the art of the township economy, entrepreneurship. Now we venture into other things. Student accommodation.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [14:53] :
There you go. Yes.
THABO HOLLO [14:53] :
Many other things. Tell me about your journey into going beyond just the corner shop in the township. What is it been like?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [15:01] :
Yeah, so I'll give you an example. I'm a case in point. So what happened is post me leaving Umsobomvu Youth Fund. I’ve got my degree now. Now I have... Now I've got my jacket now. Yeah, I've graduated right now. So I managed to get into an IT company because I had a B.Sc background, a very successful IT company, almost eight to five years. Yeah, unfortunately things happened, we had a fallout. But in that fallout, I started diversifying. That's where now I started a shisanyama because it was a trending thing at that time. I started the shisanyama called the Bafokeng Corner, right? So, because I saw the need, I'm like, okay, look, there’s shisanyama, but there's few elements that I can able to add value into the shisanyama. Build it up 2015. Today we are 10 years. In that 10 years, I started building Mutla Holdings. It's a holding company that I had, which is still here. So in that holding company, then I started having, now it's Bafokeng Corner, it’s a shisanyama, it’s a carwash, it's a chilling place, it has a nightlife. All is good. But now the proceeds from there, I started having Bafokeng properties. So I had an opportunity when I was then, where Bafokeng Corner is managed to buy the property, right? So bought the properties. I'm like, okay, look, I can start doing insourcing. Why do I have to go rent? Then I started looking into property. Then started the property portfolio, started buying houses, turned some of them to BNBs, some of them to student accommodation, others commercial. Then from that I started having a Bafokeng Auto Centre. Auto centre is basically, it's basically a mix of a tire fitment centre and a service centre. Then the spin off from that, I saw a need, I'm like, I'm getting Bidvest that comes and, and get, do sanitation for me. I'm like, no, let me do insourcing. Then I started having Bafokeng Hygiene and Facilities. And I'm doing my own hygiene. I'm doing my own electricity, electricity, plumbing. I'm doing everything insourcing. So now what I'm doing, I'm creating jobs. Now it's another, it's another element. Then I started, um, from there, then I had, I had the farm, the farm village. So basically there it was like a restaurant / a B&B. Yeah. Like with the element of farmers, farmers market. Even if I'm not doing farming, but I'm bringing, wanted to bring farmers and then able to bring that into, the space. And then now that I have the property space, now I have a Mutla Holdings, now I have all those elements. It's like, okay, cool. All is well, right? I mean, my Booming 747, it's on autopilot. Everything is running smoothly. I have my processes, I have my employees, everything is running smoothly, right? Then COVID happened. Yeah, then it’s crash landing now. Not just less soft landing, crash landing. Yeah, no crash lending, right? So had to lose a lot of business, had to close some of the business, had to let go of people. So with all that said is Mutla Holdings is still there, we’re in the process of rebuilding. So now going back to what you said is in terms of savings. Saving that safety net that I had you're cashing it out. But now COVID took long to turn things around.
THABO HOLLO [18:32] :
To recover.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [18:33] :
To recover. So yeah, some of the things we end up holding. So you, you suspend this you suspend that up until you're able to come up.
THABO HOLLO [18:42] :
Yeah, but, but out of, out of COVID, surely there must be lessons. I like your story of diversifying businesses right.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [18:50] :
That's correct.
THABO HOLLO [18:42] :
In terms of COVID and diversifying, what would you say are the lessons that we can take into the nation and should COVID 2025 God forbid, I’m praying that it doesn’t happen.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [19:02] :
Hey! Touch wood. Touch wood.
THABO HOLLO [19:03] :
What are the things that we need to take out of diversifying the businesses, and waiting for the pandemic into the next level?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [19:11] :
Look, I'll say this. We must never stop diversifying. Never stop. Yeah. If it wasn't for diversification, I wouldn't be here. I would have closed everything. So with a bit of one rand getting there, two rand there, you put it together, you rebuild this one, you move to this one and then. Now what COVID has taught me, COVID has taught me that one shouldn't stop marketing. You shouldn't stop marketing because now the client that you have, that you have and what COVID has been done for me as well, it has made me to think outside the box. We have to think outside the box. You know, things that we never used to do we started doing it because COVID showed us that actually, no, you know, I don't, I don't really need a bigger van, you know, I can get a scooter. You know, certain things you, you downgrade, but they make sense. So yeah, so then thinking outside the box uh, with the case in point, it's I started seeing that, uh, is it because I used to concentrate on the higher LSM, All right, You know, I'm like, no man, you know what, there's a lower LSM market that one can tap into irrespective of another COVID comes in, I'll still stay afloat because all the business that we have yet because what was the word that we had, what were they called? The nurses and remember there was a there's a term that they had whereby they those ones were allowed to work, right. Yeah.
THABO HOLLO [20:41] :
Essential services?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [19:11] :
Essential services. I was not part of the essential services so I had to sit at home. I mean, I mean like shisanyama we can do without it. So the only essential service that I had which was like 0.5, it was the car one, the auto centre because, the JMPD’s and all that they needed to yeah. But however it has then showed me to say we need to find that service whether irrespective of what happens you know? So that either selling bread, you need to sell bread, people need to eat. COVID has taught me that you need that business. Irrespective what happens, it will always open.
THABO HOLLO [21:17] :
Diversifying, staying afloat even in the midst of a pandemic. Let's talk about debt right. We know that debt can sink you, but at the same time, we, we carry a whole lot of debt in the business environment. What is your relationship with debt?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [21:38] :
You know, two, two things, and I'll start with the with the most uncomfortable one. It's not easy to owe a person or either to owe an entity. It's not easy. Umm, passed COVID, I'm still, I'm still owing right. So what then happened is when that happens is you, you get to shut down because when you owe a lot of people, you get to shut down because now you the phone rings you don't want to answer it.
THABO HOLLO [22:08] :
You start screening calls.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [22:09] :
You start screening calls right. I’ll answer yours because I can see that it’s Bra Thibos so I answer it because I don’t owe him So with one still recovering from, from COVID and recovering the business as well, the debt is still there, however the lessons learned that I’ve had is don’t be scared to negotiate, don't be scared and to talk to your creditor don’t. And that's one thing that the bad mistake that I did was that because now I owe you and if I don’t talk to you, you’ll like this guy is not taking this serious, right? The bank calls you, Sir you’re owing on your car, come lets talk about it and make a plan. Because now it's, it's heavy when you owe a lot of people, but now you don't think of that. So but my advice is when you're in that state open up, open up. Yeah. I mean, no, no, nobody's going to take you to jail. Nobody's going to hurt you, you know? Yeah. Sit down with them and say sir I owe you 100 rand, you know, can I do 0.80 cent every month? Yeah. At least I'm paying towards something. Even the banks had that three months freeze or whatever that they call it, holiday.
THABO HOLLO [23:19] :
Oh yes, payment holidays.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [23:19] :
Payment holidays, you know, because they could tell people are not able, people are not working anyway, all of that. So it's, it's, it has taught me those two things, you know. Don't be scared to open up.
THABO HOLLO [23:36] :
Face it.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [23:36] :
It never rings forever. It never rings forever, yes.
THABO HOLLO [23:39] :
True, true. The one thing though Phoka, that I wonder if, if, and then you will you exposed to the world and you let me know and the world of insurance in case of unforeseen, uh, pandemics, right. How prevalent is the, the insurance in, in particularly in the township economy, for instance, whether, whether we like it or not, things like floods, they do affect us in the township, the pandemics they do. Are we aware as business people of the products of insurance that could help us navigate that. Is it something that is even a consideration in your space?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [24:18] :
I think we are aware. I don’t want to lie to you, from individual rights to entrepreneurial, we are aware of insurances in whatever form. However, there’s challenges, right? So let's say you take Lehlohonolo who can be able to get Old Mutual to come and do an assessment of his business. They give you insurance, they give you asset finance or insurance, vehicle insurance, they can group it as a business. Lehlohonolo is able to afford that 3000 rand to 4000 rand to cover that right. Now you have Tshepo at the corner who has a small business, it’s running. But now can he be able to afford the insurance? He knows that he needs it. He has a van, he has stock, if anything had to happen to the business, he's aware of that. So for me, it's, you know, the likes of Old Mutual, they need to do they, need to give, how can I call it? What is the name I'm looking for? Umm, let’s say insurance 101. Do those small seminars in the townships, invite business owners, to say actually insurance, it is affordable. We can we can tailor make it.
THABO HOLLO [25:41] :
For your, for your own business.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [25:41] :
Yes, when we think of business insurance, we think of thousands of rands. But they can pay 400rand. That will cover theft, fire. I mean, we had a riot. What, not riot, uh looting what was that?
THABO HOLLO [25:57] :
Yes, absolutely! I remember that.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [25:58] :
A lot of businesses suffered. Can you can imagine there’s big, I wouldn't name them big franchisors that that didn't have insurance. Yeah, their shops closed. Yeah. My brother, you own X&Y, ‘my brother I didn’t have insurance, I thought something like this would never, ever happen’, you know? So, uh, we are aware of insurances, but sometimes you get to be afraid because you're thinking it's, it's of thousands, yeah, it's a big thing. So same thing with, with individuals. Individuals know that these days you need to have a funeral policy, you need to have a life cover, there's a lot of people who don't have that because we’re afraid that it’s expensive or I don’t have that 800rand but you need the cover you know? Yeah. So yes.
THABO HOLLO [26:43] :
It’s needed, what we need to work on is getting to those those spaces where we conduct these seminars to get the business people particularly in the township environment, about insurance.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [26:55] :
Yeah and, and when you, even Old Mutual you do it, I mean from, from my two cents worth, when they do it they need to do it in a small scale. So let's say they go to Mapetla in Soweto. Get businesses in Mapetla, yeah, you know, get them in a hall and then so you get that interaction so that you're able to sit with ntate Thabo and Lehlohonolo individually and yeah, because sometimes on a larger scale, sometimes it gets overwhelming,
THABO HOLLO [27:23] :
We might not get it.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [27:24] :
And some people are shy to able to come to a consultant because sometimes insurance, not sometimes, insurance is personal. You know, there's a lot of things that that forms part of the insurance so in small groups like that it adds value, you know, because you'll have invited individuals and business owners in that particular area. I'm telling you.
THABO HOLLO [27:43] :
No it makes sense. It makes absolute sense. Let’s rewind a bit Phoka. I want us to go back. When we started the conversation, you told me that, uh, in the olden days, discussions regarding money were very touchy, now you are where you are, you have a future. Do you think going forward, your relationship in terms of money and your generation, the generation that follows, is it important to talk about money and when do we start? Do we start when they’re older, when they're old? When do you want start having those conversations? How important is that conversation with your, the generation that comes after you?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [28:24] :
The time is now. The time is yesterday actually not even now.
THABO HOLLO [28:28] :
The time is yesterday?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [28:24] :
Yes, and because you know, there is a term, they say new money, new money. That’s a dangerous term. Because new money it's, it's giving the problem that you're seeing now. Because now you get exposed and being exposed, you don't have to be being from a millionaire or a rich family because now when you get exposed at a later stage, you don’t understand, you don’t see the value. So when you started from a younger age, like for instance now it’s, the nicest thing now even now with banks they have bank cards for children, even in colours, they used to have that. Let’s leave piggy banks, because piggy banks were a way of teaching us, when we had 5 rand or 2 rand, to put it in you know. Right now the value of money has grown a little bit in the sense that I mean of note 10 rand is one rand of back in the days. So now it's, we need to start teaching them now to say here's a bank account right. So your allowance for the month is 1000 rand. Of the allowance to remember it’s pocket money and then you have 400 left over. So what do you do with the 400? We take 200 and put it on the card and the other 200 is yours if you want to go to movies and stuff like that. I'm just saying. So basically you start showing the element of saving. Now what it then does is this person grows with that element that I need to respect money, that’s number 1. Now you see value of it. Because then they see that my 200 rand, by the end of the year is 2,400 and that PlayStation that I said I was asking for, at least I have some savings. Then he will respect that PlayStation because he has money invested in it you know? Right now he can't just say give me a PlayStation, you buy it along with the games. So he needs to know that I'm part of this. I need to make sure that I take care of it. So yes, teaching them about money is of yesterday.
THABO HOLLO [30:26] :
Fantastic. So we must start yesterday. Let's talk about the future. Mutla Holdings.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [30:30] :
Yes, Sir.
THABO HOLLO [30:30] :
What next? Where do we go from here?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [30:31] :
I spoke of crash landing.
THABO HOLLO [30:35] :
Oh yes, you’ve crash landed. Are we rebuilding the plane now?
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [30:37] :
Yeah, my 747 crashed. So I'm coming back with the Airbus now. I'm coming back with the Airbus A38. A38. No, no, no. The Rolls Royce engines now they need to kick it so with a lot of lessons I've learned, you know past COVID or the post COVID, now it has shown me that one needs to do these things differently and one is to find a niche. It's good to diversify, but one needs to find a niche. So I'll give you an example right now it's, I saw a need so, Bafokeng Corner we sell a lot of meat, because we buy a lot of meat, so we end up having carcasses as in bones. So what we do is we used to, not we used to, we cut bones, so in the community we give them bones. So it started to get to a point whereby come Tuesday there's a long queue and I can't give everybody bones. Because now some people are coming from White City and I used to do it for the community, but now because I don't have a database or whatever. So people started fighting because of those bones. Up until one elderly lady said to me Lehlohonolo, sell the bones to us. We’ll buy them, you’ll limit this whole thing of congestion. Then this is now post COVID, now thinking outside the box and we're like no man, you know what, there's an opportunity that I'm seeing here. So one of the entities that I have now is I have Day By Day Foods. So Day By Day Food basically it’s I'm doing offal offerings. So when I say offal, anything that has to do with intestines, gizzards, trotters, sheep head right? I'm selling I'm, I've opened a company that does that. So now what it then does is, it has shown me that there's an LSM that I was neglecting. So now those bones and all of that I’m putting there as a package so concentrating on that LSM. And it's working very well because with the economy at this point in time it's affordability is a bit of a crisis. So now it’s the offal, I've added the eggs, I've added the chickens, then I'm adding I'm doing a bigger confectionery in terms of bread. So now it's I've made a value add to a point, that when you buy offal for 100 rand, that’s perhaps feet, gizzards, etc for a 100 rands, I give you 6 eggs for free. You know. So when you buy for 150 I give you a value meal. So I've done value meals for 30 rands. Yes Bafokeng is still there because it serves a different LSM. But now this LSM I'm selling at, a person can walk in and buy a plate of food for 30 rand trust me they appreciate that. They appreciate it. You come there right now at one of our concept stores, it's working wonders. To a point right now it's I'm going out there for scalability I want you to scale it out so that every location has its own. So Mutla Holdings, it's, it will grow where we left it before COVID. The auto centre will all reopen again. Bafokeng Corner will grow, Day By Day as well, will start serving people of a different LSM. So basically the diversification is not only on one LSM it’s throughout.
THABO HOLLO [33:54] :
Now we've touching different markets.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [30:57] :
All market yes.
THABO HOLLO [33:58] :
Fantastic. Phoka, I want to thank you. I thank you very much. Thank you very much. Very inspiring. I must say thank you very much. Particularly growing from the dust of the township to a literal empire now.
LEHLOHONOLO MOFOKENG [34:11] :
That's correct.
THABO HOLLO [34:12] :
That's fantastic. We heard that. So building a legacy absolutely critical. Handing over to the next generation imperative. When you are in debt, talk to your debtors. Do not run away from credit. It can build you. But most importantly, when that plane crashes, you can rebuild it and start from scratch. We learned that from Bafokeng. Thank you.