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Newsmaker Richard Maponya - Taking stock

Sitting in his northern suburbs, Gauteng home (bought in the 1980s through a trust with a 'white gentleman as a front'), Richard Maponya speaks of the 'back to square one' nature of his business career without any hint of bitterness – this despite butting heads with the apartheid government for over 30 years. Perhaps that's because he managed to leave as many bruises as he received.

'When I first tried to start a business in Soweto, the powers of the day told me I was "off my head". They said no black is allowed to own a business; we were temporary residents and privileged to be in an urban area and were there to serve industry.' This was in the 1950s, back when both Soweto and Maponya were young. 'We've watched each other grow,' confirms Maponya.

Trained in Pietersburg as a teacher in the 1940s, Maponya was ready to start his teaching career in Johannesburg when a cousin told him about a company looking for an 'educated black fellow' to look after clothing stock.

'My department dealt with mainly black businesses like mines and concession stores, and was known as the "kaffir truck". My boss, an English guy called Mr Bolton, liked me because I was so efficient.'

So efficient that the department was successful enough for the boss to be promoted.

Says Maponya: 'By then Mr Bolton was calling me "son" and I was selecting fabrics for clothing for the black consumer market too. When he left the department Mr Bolton organised that I got factory-soiled clothing so that I could continue selling on the side to make extra money.' He did and built up quite a bit of capital. When the benign Mr Bolton retired, the officially-organised agreement was removed and Maponya, angry, resigned.

'I wanted to start a clothing business in Soweto, but I couldn't get a licence. Eventually I went to a firm of lawyers in the CBD: Mandela Tambo. Nelson Mandela represented me and he was a strong and tenacious lawyer who could move a mountain! He got me a licence to trade.' Not, however, to sell clothes – which were considered luxury items and thus only saleable by whites – but to run a grocery store.

Maponya clarifies what the government's Control Certificate meant. 'It itemised specifically what foodstuffs we could sell – mealie meal, sugar, condensed milk and the like. If we'd been caught selling asparagus or tuna we'd have been in trouble as they were luxury items and not part of black workers' daily requirements. They used to raid us like we were selling drugs!'

But Maponya soldiered on diversifying into larger supermarkets and holding the Soweto franchise for General Motors until they disinvested after the 1976 riots. 'I'm the kind of man who never accepts a no. I'll keep knocking on the door.' Until he gets a yes.

The 21ha on which Maponya Mall is being built has been in Maponya's hands – albeit sometimes tenuously – for 26 years. In 1979 he negotiated for it with the West Rand Administration Board.

They offered it on a 100 year lease, then almost immediately dropped it to 30 years and told him to develop the land.

'Nobody would finance me and I knew the land would be taken from me,' says Maponya.

Apartheid was at its zenith, so he did the obvious thing: he employed a lawyer and summonsed the government. They withdrew before the case got to court. Then he started negotiating to buy the land freehold. It took a while – 15 years. It finally became his outright in, fittingly, 1994.

He's been trying to build a mall on the land for over 20 years. Barclays wanted to finance him but for various reasons – some political, some financial – it didn't happen. Later, a joint venture through Wooltru looked like a sure thing. Then in 1998 the rand crashed, Wooltru sold their property arm, and the deal fell through.

But then everything fell into place: the banks became willing – keen, even – to put up finance; Maponya entered into a 50/50 partnership with Zenprop Property Holdings (Pty) Ltd; and architects Bentel International Associates, who have been involved with the project alongside Maponya for over 20 years, created the design. Ground was broken for the 60 000m² mall last month.

It's taken a long time to see fruition, but this mall is what Maponya has been working towards his whole life.

'It is so exciting! I want to do something for Soweto and her citizens who have supported me for so long. And what is just as exciting is that in this time of so little employment, I'll be creating jobs right in Soweto.'

Maponya Mall is the hard-earned reward for a lifetime of not playing dead for a government that Maponya must have driven mad (not a long trip) with his obstinacy. 'This is my legacy to Soweto, and I've fought so hard for it, I decided it should bear my name!' Nobody's disagreeing.