Khaya Sakawuli is one of the few entrepreneurs who can claim that he is exactly the same age as his business. In the year he was born, his mother Nothusile started selling vetkoeks to the school that he would later attend in the small village close to Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape.
What started as a modest vetkoek venture has grown into a thriving property business based in Pretoria and Gqeberha with assets worth nearly R60 million. Khaya’s vision is to expand the business to R100 million in assets and hand it over to the third generation of Sakawuli’s. Today, he runs Sakawuli’s Properties CC and Msinyane Investments together with his son Viwe.
“We come from a very entrepreneurial family. My mother never worked for anyone else,” says Khaya, recalling how Nothusile’s vetkoek business grew into a village shop. His father Alfred, left his migrant-labour job to join the business, helping it grow further. Later Khaya’s older brother Sicelo, armed with a BCom degree transformed the shop into a supermarket.
Khaya followed in Sicelo’s footsteps by studying for a BCom degree but carved his own path while Sicelo managed the family business. After completing his honours degree, Khaya gained valuable experience working in the finance division of Truworths and the operations division of Transnet, building a strong foundation for his entrepreneurial journey.
Khaya then started building his own quarry business in Umtata in the early 2000s while still assisting Sicelo in growing the family business further by buying and letting commercial properties in Cofimvaba to the likes of the retail giant Boxer, KFC, SASSA and the Department of Employment and Labour. When Sicelo’s health deteriorated, Khaya stepped in to take over the family business in 2006.
With Khaya’s quarry business flourishing, he found it relatively easy to raise finance whenever the family business needed it for a new acquisition or development. “I featured as a person at the bank, not just as a number,” he recalls.
However, in 2018, Khaya experienced a major setback. A dispute between the government and the license holder he had an agreement with declared the quarry license as invalid. The fallout was severe and Khaya lost not only huge amounts that he had invested in his quarry operations, but also his standing at the banks, closing the expansion finance for the family business.
After unsuccessful attempts with the banks and government development-finance organisations, Khaya then made contact with Business Partners Limited. Their approach was refreshingly different. “Banks want to see an application form. Business Partners Limited first want to listen to your idea to understand it and make sure that it is feasible,” says Khaya. “Bankers are procedurally driven. Business Partners Limited investment officers, on the other hand, are deal makers who are enthusiastic about discovering entrepreneurs.”
The collaboration with Business Partners Limited proved to be a breakthrough. Khaya secured a loan of R8 million with which he added a pristine property with a long-term tenant in Graaff-Reinet (Robert Sobukwe Town) to the family’s portfolio. He is currently negotiating with Business Partners Limited for bigger developments on vacant land in Gqeberha owned by Sakawuli’s Properties.
This move bring Khaya closer to his goal of building a property portfolio worth R100 million. With his son Viwe working as operations manager, the Sakawuli legacy is set to continue with future generations who proudly run a business that predates them.
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