Makwapa's rags-to-riches odyssey
Koketso Kgoboge | Friday December 20, 2019 13:36
For over four decades or blood, sweat and tears, Makwapa masterfully built a family business brand that started off with all the hallmarks of humble beginnings: a rickety 4X4 mobile tuck shop in the middle of a then still very much backward Palapye village.
His businesses have now kept pace with the fast growing village with the latest development of a multi-million Nonofo Hideouts Estates.
The P110 million Nonofo Hideouts would house 74 units inclusive of 49 elegant townhouses, 16 luxury apartments and nine single storey units is under construction. The sophisticated gated estate is located along the A1 Highway in Palapye.
Completion is anticipated by mid-2021. It would be complete with free Wi-Fi, all-round fibre optic connection, clubhouse, pool area and will be fully secured with guards and multiple surveillance cameras. The multi-residence is built on a 2.92 hectares of land. It’s a flagship of the Makwapa properties.
Now at the ripe old age of 81-year, the now well-heeled businessman is a far cry from a person who started off as a cobbler.
His mother detested the craft he inherited from his father, and hence cut him short.
Makwapa later worked in Lobatse, at the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) briefly as a cleaner. Four months into his first employment, Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak robbed him of a job.
He found another job in a Jewish shop and worked for various other Jewish businesspeople that controlled the Lobatse market.
He adopted business acumen from his observance of the Jewish bosses and Four-by-Four Tuck-shop was incepted.
Makwapa later worked for an independent South African contractor before the country gained Independence in 1966.
Prior to independence, the company owner closed shop and returned to South Africa. Makwapa would retrace his footsteps back to Palapye. While he minded his small tuck-shop, he met suppliers of his former Jewish bosses that also supplied R A Bailey, the business magnate in the village back then.
Makwapa struck a deal with the suppliers that led to him opening his first shop, Cosmetics, a fashion shop in 1976 and since then he never looked back.
“Business was good, people were fashionable in the olden days. The shop was located in the business centre next to the council offices,” he reminisced.
Makwapa became the first business settler at the Palapye Junction, formerly Patadikhibidu Lands before the construction of the Mahalapye-Serule highway. In fact, he learnt of the highway development when it was in the pipeline from some council officials and seized the opportunity.
“I was at the council offices to pay a fee for my lost and found cattle (Matimela) when I saw the map of a new highway that was planned to pass near the village on the notice board. It was all bushes but I knew there would be an opportunity at the highway.”
In 1978 he acquired a plot in the bushes that today is a booming economic hub of the village with state-of-the-art shopping complexes.
The brazen businessman later established Boiketlo Bottle Store and General Dealer. The only business that existed nearby was the BGI Service Station, the current Engine Filling Station.
He informed other businesspeople, Harry Stoneham and Botsalo Nsunge of the opportunity at the highway and they jumped into the bandwagon.
The trio, amongst a few others, was a group of locals that defied the status quo of the retail landscape that was dominated by foreign internationals in the village.
Two years down the line, the A1 Highway was came into existence and the Morupule A Power Station also started construction. The two projects boosted the business of the trio.
Nsunge provided accommodation for the Polish that constructed the power plant at Botsalo Hotel. Stoneham operated a service station at the current Caltex Filling Station; Makwapa was a one-stop-shop for groceries and a bottle store.
Over the years, the village business mogul transformed his business in line with the latest developments. The move to keep up with trends proved a masterstroke in keeping the business afloat.
Makwapa Investments evolved from building and operations to building and leasing in the mid-1980s at its Junction property.
The company developed a building for Dr. Smith who owned the first medical store, a shop for Cash Bazaar, a Bakery for Kgotla Autlwetse that supplied the entire Tswapong region with bread and a laundry shop for the late Tshelang Masisi amongst others.
The businesses attracted many other businesspeople that started taking note of the opportunities at the highway.
The developments gave birth to Palapye Junction that was known to the villagers as ‘ko dicrossong.’
When general dealer markets magnified and multi-national retailers like Spar Supermarket started emerging, the visionary businessman pulled the plug on retailing.
Multiple construction works that included the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), Morupule B Power Plant, police modern offices, glass factory, new bus/taxi terminal and other developments mushroomed.
Makwapa constructed a shopping complex valued at P4 million in 2001 to acquire a P4 million loan. It was another deliberate move to transition from a competitive retailing market to leasing.
The loan was used to construct a first double storey business in his area that was growing excessively prime. He attracted Choppies that became the anchor tenant on a 10-year renewable contract.
The building that also houses numerous offices and shops became just another stepping-stone to business advancement. In another transition in 2013, Makwapa Investments broke into hotelier business with a 45 bed Mathudi Shades.
The company has surged into the Gaborone hotelier market. They bought Winzo Inn at Mogoditshane that is currently under renovations The 30-roomed hotel would be a new addition to the Mathudi chain. Another is at planning stage on a four-hectare plot the company secured in Letlhakane.
In a tour of his new property, Makwapa who still walks fit for his age praised the transformation of the business to his sons.
He said he built the dynasty with his hands and needed no external funding to start the business.
“I collected river sand with my car, made my bricks and built my businesses. It was all hard work. I was introduced to sourcing loans by my sons when they completed studies,” he said, noting his children are behind the new investments.
The group general manager Matshidiso Makwapa said they have struck a partnership with Bank Gaborone for the new developments.
He said they are using cost effective and efficient new technology of construction known as Moladi Building for their new developments.
“Mid-2021 we would be done and we expect the project to be fully functional then,” he said, also revealing that by 2022 they would be breaking into Letlhakane market where they would be developing a state-of-the-art shopping complex, a hotel and a filling station on a four hectare space.