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As a small boy one of his main tasks was to herd his grandfather’s cattle. Forty to fifty years
later his pastoral responsibilities had expanded somewhat to include the chairmanship of some of
South Africa’s major companies, and board membership of others. From herd-boy to business magnate -
this is the personal narrative of Reuel Khoza.
This story began in the lowveld, not far from the Kruger National Park. Born of humble parents, he grew
up in a nurturing, extended family environment. Both his father and grandfather were lay preachers -
and both passed on to Reuel wise counsel, proper codes of behaviour, human values, and a stress on
discipline and hard work. In his family indolence was not tolerated. As a child he was not allowed
to get up after sunrise. And daily tasks at the homestead often kept him busy until sunset.
Reuel Khoza would also have an early taste of working-class life - during school vacations labouring as
a gardener at a mission station, as a street sweeper, as a delivery man at a game lodge. Such experiences,
together with inculcated values, laid the foundation for a successful business career.
There was, too, a hunger for education - a passion for psychology, a talent for African languages, a love
of literature, and an interest in music. This zest for learning brought him success at what was then the
University of the North, where he obtained an honours degree in psychology. There, too, he lectured after
completing his degree. But these were the days of university apartheid and student protests - and when
students used some of Reuel’s lyrics and poems to enliven their protests, he was fired from his post.
While this ended a budding academic career, it marked the beginning of a life in business which has run for
over 30 years. Starting out as a management trainee at Unilever in the mid-1970s, and soon becoming the
company’s brand manager at a time when few South African companies were appointing black managers.
Further postgraduate study overseas enhanced his standing in the business world: a masters degree at the
University of Lancaster, a doctorate at the University of Warwick, as well as courses taken at the Harvard
Business School and the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Increasingly well qualified and with solid business experience Reuel Khoza could have expected to work his
way up the corporate ladder. Instead, in 1981, like a true entrepreneur, he took a risk and established his
own marketing consultancy, Coordinated Marketing - this at a time when the business sector was reluctant to
engage black consultants. But he defied the odds, and leading companies became his clients - Shell, Ford,
Firestone, IBM, South African Airways, to name a few.
Over two decades or so, from the mid-1980s, Reuel Khoza would be propelled into the upper echelons of the
South African business sector - coming to chair more than a dozen companies, not to mention over twenty
directorships. Among the companies chaired have been the Nedcor Group, Murray and Roberts Cementation,
ESKOM Holdings, Glaxo-Smith Kline, and Sun Air. He has served on the board of such companies as IBM,
Standard Bank, Vodacom, Norwich Life, Old Mutual, Nampak and Sasol. On top of this he heads his own private
investment firm, AKA Capital, which he was instrumental in establishing in 2001.
It does not end there: a founding member and past director of the Black Management Forum; president of the
Institute of Directors in 2001; founding chairperson of NEPAD’s Business Group; member of South Africa’s
Presidential Economic Advisory Panel. Not surprisingly, business awards have been showered upon Reuel Khoza.
How, one might ask, can one person manage all this? Perhaps it was that work ethic instilled in him by his
elders during his childhood days working in the fields. There must, too, have been a strong personal drive,
but this has been tempered by an enduring commitment to fundamental human values. One of his ongoing concerns
has been to promote a black African leadership that is in accord with the philosophy of ubuntu - African humanism.
He impresses on the next generation of African leaders that they need to be, in his words, “at the cutting edge
of a leadership whose defining features are probity, humility, integrity, compassion and caring”, and that their
primary pursuit should be “noble causes and the common good”.
Add to this an underlying wisdom that informs his work - never has he forgotten the words of his late father who
used to say that in any situation one needs a certain amount of “intelligent ignorance” - sit back and listen
before acting. Belonging to a tight-knit family network has been crucial to Reuel Khoza’s success. He duly
acknowledges the role of his parents, of his wife, Mumsy, who provided a launch-pad for his career, and recognises
the support and advice that has come from other members of his extended family.
Today Rhodes University honours not only a remarkable business person, but also a writer - a poet and author
of two books - a philosopher, a psychologist, and a visionary African humanist whose outlook and life’s work
has been informed by a strong sense of integrity, by a humble style of leadership, and by committed service
to his country.
Mr Chancellor, I have the honour to ask you to confer on Reuel Jethro Khoza the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.
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