When Mike Nkuna was 22 he was in awe of Johannesburg’s Carlton Centre. At the time all he knew was life in Tshiawelo, Soweto.
The sight of the 50-storey building gave him a chance to dream, and to build an empire. This week part of that dream lay shattered.
Looters had ravaged the two malls he owns in Soweto, Jabulani Mall with its 109 shops and Protea Glen Mall with more than 90.
Nkuna, 68, executive chair and founder of Masingita Property Investment Holdings, now owns his own skyscraper, the Masingita Towers, in Sandton, and 14 malls across Gauteng and Limpopo.
On Friday, he spoke to the Sunday Times from Morocco. Nkuna, an ardent football fan, is a shareholder in Kaizer Chiefs. On Wednesday he travelled with the team, who played Al Ahly of Egypt last night in Casablanca, venue for Africa’s Champions League final. “I needed a bit of cheer,” he said.
Work on repairing the malls has begun with his twin sons Lesley and Esley Nkuna at the helm. The attacks on his malls began on Monday and carried on through the night. By Tuesday morning, looters had targeted Jabulani Mall. At 6.30am Nkuna went to try to reason with them.
He said the police station across the road had locked its gate as looters came past.
When he reached Protea Glen Mall, part of it had been set alight. Nkuna found local volunteers to fight the blaze. By Friday a cleanup began. Lesley said the losses had not yet been calculated. Nkuna said he was not giving up.
“It is devastating, having worked my way up and having this work destroyed,” he said.
“I’ve thought about waiting for insurance to pay and then enjoying my retirement. I’m a pensioner. But no, if I do that I would be a coward. “What about the people in this community who don’t have the means I have? I was blessed with a good brain and a creative mind. I don’t normally think of myself and I don’t think of money only. I must live and let go. I am a leader.”
He said it would be a big task to convince tenants to come back to Soweto. The government needed to step up, he said.
“This country is a good country but we don’t have a decisive leader.
“What happened reminded me of Soweto in 1976 [the Soweto uprising] where we struggled [against] apartheid. The ANC came with a strategy. We didn’t have guns, so our only plan was to be destructive.
“The plan was to burn beer halls and municipal buildings. Black residents couldn’t own their own homes so we had to rent from the municipality. We burnt things but [the ANC] gave direction that you don’t burn schools, libraries and corner shops owned by black entrepreneurs.”
He never thought he would see this destruction in a democracy.
“I also understand that the unemployment rate is so high. Unemployment goes into the stomach. How do we expect people to be without food? In the past we were not an inclusive society but we had jobs and there was infrastructure. Now the democracy is inclusive but there are no jobs or infrastructure.”
Nkuna is proud of his upbringing, a son of the second of his father’s four wives. It taught him to be competitive, he said.
In 1979 he started work in his father’s butchery, then moved to construction, bought a plot of land and built a small shopping complex in Soweto in 1986.What helped him become a billionaire businessman was his vision for opening malls in the townships, allowing people to buy near their homes rather than travel far.
“Everything starts with a dream,” he said, recalling his first sight of the Carlton Centre. “But you must work for it. We will rebuild.”
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