Nomagcinasana “Gcina” Mdlankomo grew up under the stand of her mother’s fruit and vegetable stall at the taxi rank in Langa, a township in Cape Town. The youngest of twelve children, she recalls being overlooked. “I was kind of forgotten there. I was enrolled in school very late,” she says.
But her unusual upbringing instilled in her a deep love of business that later helped the family survive and helped turn Gcina into the thriving property business owner that she is today.
Gcina’s childhood ended abruptly when her father died and her mother fell seriously ill. At just 15 years old, she found herself the breadwinner of the family. She had always traded sweets and trinkets at school, but it was no longer a choice but it became a matter of survival.
She began selling second-hand clothes over weekends, initially using her father’s extensive wardrobe, and later building a buying club with other traders that brought in containers full of clothes from the East. She helped her sister set up an eatery at her home and she built up a small fleet of taxis, among other ventures. However, when she attempted to expand from transporting school children to serving commuters she was hounded out of the industry by local violent criminals.
Despite the setbacks Gcina never stopped trading. “It is the only thing that ever made sense to me,” she says. “That drive has always been in me.”
The remarkable thing about Gcina’s journey is that, throughout one of the most challenging periods of her life, she never gave up on her education. Straight after completing her matric, she enrolled herself in a Public Administration degree and funded her studies herself.
She started working for the municipality of Cape Town as a stepping stone towards a business career. The main factor that kept her in employment were the medical aid benefits that allowed her to enroll her ailing mother as a dependent.
Given her receptiveness to any business opportunity that came along, it is not surprising that Gcina got pulled into the property industry after she purchased and paid off her own house in Mandalay, a working-class family suburb of Cape Town.
What began as just another revenue stream as she started renting out rooms quickly became a passion for Gcina, and soon she purchased the property next door and converted it into rental accommodation. Determined to deepen her understanding of the sector, she immersed herself in learning as much as she could about the industry and started networking with a group called Township Developers. At her job with the City of Cape Town she avoided promotions and chose staff training courses that would enhance her business skills.
One such course was project management, which helped her successfully manage the construction and renovation work on her properties. At a networking event she attended, she heard a presentation by Business Partners Limited that showed Gcina a way to rise to a whole new level in the property industry. Business Partners Limited explained its willingness to support entrepreneurs with a strong business acumen and viable business ideas.
Unlike traditional banks, Business Partners Limited is willing to consider 100 percent finance if the venture justifies it. “I met with them and I ticked all the boxes,” says Gcina. She set about finding a suitable building that she could turn into student accommodation, a sector in high demand in Cape Town. After first considering a building in Claremont that would have required minimal refurbishment, Gcina found a rundown block of three flats in Bellville.
Over and above providing the finance to purchase the property, Business Partners Limited offered Gcina a loan to renovate it. She chose, however, to finance the refurbishment out of her own income streams. “I love the fact that I can put my own stamp on the project,” she says.
The renovations of the flats are almost complete, says Gcina, who sees this venture as only the beginning of a property business she believes will grow far beyond the township fruit and vegetable stand where her entrepreneurial journey first began.
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