Richard Maponya

Richard Maponya trained as a teacher before taking a job as a stock taker at a Johannesburg clothing manufacturer, where he began reselling material offcuts in Soweto, saving enough capital to attempt opening his own clothing shop.

Apartheid-era laws restricted business licences for Black South Africans, and Maponya's application was initially blocked despite hiring the law firm of Mandela and Tambo to assist him. He was ultimately granted authorisation only to sell basic daily necessities, launching a milk delivery business in 1952 that employed workers on bicycles.

From this beginning, Maponya built a remarkably diverse business empire across decades — spanning groceries, funeral services, transport, car dealerships and property — repeatedly resisting apartheid-era attempts to restrict or seize his ventures, and becoming the head of the first Black-owned company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

In 2007, after a 27-year struggle to secure land and funding, Maponya realised his lifelong dream when Nelson Mandela personally opened Maponya Mall in Soweto, a 65,000 square metre, R650 million development that became one of South Africa's most significant symbols of post-apartheid Black economic achievement.