Long before Black Economic Empowerment – or, for that matter, black rule in South Africa – Richard Maponya dreamed of opening a shopping mall.
Looking around Soweto, the self-made black businessman lamented the teeming dormitory community’s lack of decent places to shop. “Here were people who were contributing to making Johannesburg what it was by giving their labour, and their environment hadn’t improved,” he says. “I always felt it was an absurd situation, and I felt the people of Soweto deserved better.”
