FACE TO FACE
A
s a qualified mining engineer, Makhado worked
at an Anglo Ashanti mine, and his trips to work
and home were always accompanied by trucks.
Like an epiphany, it made sense to him and trucking it was.
Prodeliver provides logistics and mining services, including
transportation of commodities, palletised goods, and various
other materials to both private and public sectors. “We
provide a variety of heavy trucking equipment to the mining
industry,” he says. Prodeliver offers its transport solutions
to producers, receivers, manufacturers, and suppliers. The
company has tautliner trucks, volume trucks, side tipper
trucks, as well as flat-deck trailer trucks. Among other
commodities, the company transports steel, timber, cables,
pipes, cement, tools, and equipment.
Makhado has a BSc honours degree in mining
engineering from Wits University and is a member of the
Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), Association
of Mine Managers South Africa (AMMSA), South African
Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), Wits
University Mining Engineers Association (WUMEA), and
1000’s Men. Coming together with his partners to realise
the dream of running a business, they bought a truck
and opened their doors. “I can say I have always been an
entrepreneur because throughout my life, I have always been
selling,” Makhado says. He shares that it was his mom who
instilled the entrepreneurial spirit in him — he used to sell
with her at home and after school.
Start-ups need a lot of attention — when not nurtured, it
could be to their detriment. “Our line of business is highly
capital intensive, so not having funding for resources we
need has been challenging. However, we have now found
ourselves at a point where we have more demand than
supply,” he says. He describes himself as a high-risk taker
and is happy with where he is now.
The business was run while they were still employed;
however, circumstances led Makhado to resign and focus
on the business. “The moment I started working full time
on the business, that is when it started gaining momentum,”
he says. They are part of the Black Umbrellas, an enterprise
development incubation organisation partnering with the
private sector, government, and civil society to address the
low levels of entrepreneurship and high failure rate of 100%
black-owned emerging businesses in the African continent.
“The incubation provides mentorship, business training
including legal, marketing, audited financial statements,
and so on, and a mentor is allocated to engage with often,”
he explains.
Taking the reins
As the CEO, he is responsible for making major decisions
and ensuring the day-to-day running of the business.
Striving for growth, he aims to increase company
resources. “We are looking at scaling and growing not only
our fleet and service offering, but our client base as well. We
want to open our own depot and work towards ultimately
having three depots in the country as well as our own
warehouse. We really want to make our mark in this field
and as such will be exploring other forms of transportation,
including drones,” adds Makhado. He hopes to see the
company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
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QUARRY SA | MAY/JUNE 2019_27