Richard John Pelwana Maponya, GCOB,The Presidency - Republic of South Africa - Grand Counsellor of The Order of the Baobab in Gold
/ref> (24 December 1920 – 6 January 2020) was a South African entrepreneur and

property developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw Real Estate, land and the sale of developed land or parce ...

best known for building a business empire despite the restrictions of

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

and his determination to see the

Soweto Soweto () is a Township (South Africa), township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western T ...

township develop economically.

Early career

Born in Maponya Hill north of Limpopo, attended his primary school in Spitzkop and went to complete his Matric in Ga- Mamabolo. At the age of 24, during World War II,zwtetet
Up from apartheid, Soweto millionaire a role model - AP
/ref> he moved to Alexandra township in Johannesburg to take up a teaching post. When he got to Joburg, he bumped into his relative who told him there is a Department Store in Johannesburg CBD that is looking for a well educated black South African. He then took a job as a merchandiser in the department store. After three months into the job, he got promoted as a buyer for the store. He worked closely with his white manager in selecting clothes for black consumers. The clothes was selling at a fast pace, subsequently his manager became top sales man in the department store. He was later promoted as a CEO of the company. Due to joint efforts of reaching such a high position, his white manager couldn't promote him as operational manager due to racial discrimination laws in South Africa. In gratitude, the manager sold Maponya soiled clothing and offcuts, which he resold in Soweto. With the capital acquired he attempted to open a clothing retailer in Soweto, but was blocked by the government's refusal to grant him a licence, despite intervention by the law firm created by Oliver Tambo and

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

. Instead, in the early 1950s, Maponya and his wife Marina (a cousin of Nelson Mandela) established the Dube Hygienic Dairy, which employed a fleet of boys on bicycles to deliver milk to customers in Soweto who had no access to electricity or refrigeration.Soweto Rising, Maverick magazine, volume 2, issue 2 By the 1970s the retail empire had grown to include several general stores, car dealerships and filling stations.

Political activity

During the 1960s and 1970s Maponya was a member of the Urban Bantu Council. He resigned in 1977, shortly after youth affiliated with the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC) requested that he do so, and shortly before the council offices were burnt to the ground. In the 1960s he was a founding member and the first president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) and likewise the founder and chairman of the African Chamber of Commerce. But some consider his boldest political move to have been his choice of horse-racing colors. As the first black person to be granted such colors in South Africa, Maponya chose green, gold and black, the colors of the ANC.

Maponya Mall

On 27 September 2007 Richard Maponya opened the

Maponya Mall Maponya Mall is a shopping centre in Soweto, Pimville, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bo ...

in Soweto. It holds more than 200 stores and a cinema complex. Maponya acquired the land where the mall is situated in 1979, at first as a 100-year lease. In 1994, after several attempts, he acquired it outright. Various attempts to finance construction failed until Maponya's holding company entered into a joint venture with Zenprop Property Holdings.

Death

He died of old age on 6 January 2020 at the age of 99. He was laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery on Tuesday 14 January 2020.

Awards

* Grand Counselor of the Baobab, April 2007 *Honorary Doctorate, Durban University of Technology, April 2015. *Pioneer Award, South African Council of Shopping Centres, 2013.

References