Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June/ July 2019 | Page 13

CHRISTO WIESE
From rags to riches
‘When I grew up as a child in the platteland - to see to
a child of colour in anything but hand-me-downs was an
exception. Then PEP Stores appeared, and today to see a
child in tatters is the exception. Because PEP Stores made it
possible for parents on a tight budget to dress their kids. We
take for granted that we grew up with new shoes and a clean
shirt. You have no idea what it does to a person’s sense of self
and dignity to dress neatly. It’s amazing.’
Despite recent economic challenges, the core businesses of
Wiese’s brag book are holding up valiantly and he believes the
economy is five years away from a complete transformation.
‘I tend to focus on the positive, on the opportunities, rather
than the headwinds. We’re all aware of the challenges, my
argument to people thinking of emigrating is: Where are
you going where you don’t have these issues. Look at all the
angst in Europe, for example. Where do you go where you are
problem-free?
‘When I look at South Africa, the way General Smuts
articulated South Africa resonates deeply with me. He said
South Africa is this peculiar country where things are never
as good as they should be, but never as bad as they could be.’
According to Wiese, South Africa is chock-a-block with
advantages.
‘We have natural resources, wonderful climate, we’re not at
war with anybody and looking particularly through the eyes of
a retailer – we have a young population. Our age demographic
is very favourable for economic growth. But, then, we need
to employ the right policies and those are pretty obvious and
in fact, the way forward had been spelled out in the National
Development Plan. If we just follow those guidelines, this
country will be transformed.’
On How He Became one of SA’s Most
Successful Entrepreneurs:
Wiese received his BA and LLB degrees from Stellenbosch
University and practiced at the Cape Bar before he became
a director at Pepkor, the discount clothing chain his family
helped found. In 1979 Pepkor bought eight supermarkets in
Cape Town for R1 million, called Shoprite. Wiese then helped
Shoprite acquire distributor Senta and in 1997 acquired the
struggling OK Bazaars from SA Breweries for the now famous
amount of R1 (it had cost SAB an estimated R1-billion in
capital injection). Today, Pepkor operates around 2266 retail
stores in Southern Africa, with a turnover of R64.2 billion for
the year ending September 2018. Shoprite has 2738 outlets in
15 countries across Africa and the Indian Oceans islands and
sold R75.8 billion’s worth of merchandise in 2018.
When called a ‘Master Dealmaker,’ Wiese waves his hand
dismissively and says he prefers to call it ‘building businesses’.
But it’s probably more accurate to call it ‘building empires.’ On
what shaped him as a businessman, the first trait he mentions
is his risk appetitie, saying that it’s something of a personality
trait of his. ‘Secondly, I come from a part of the world, the
Kalahari, where when I was a child, it was still pioneering
country. And their people just had to go out and make things
work, it’s not an easy part of the world to make a living, it’s a
harsh place.
“
Companies first of all should start
looking at their own employees,
doing a survey to see where they
can help. And generally, each
and every South African knows
somebody they can assist to
acquire a title deed.
“
‘Those of us who are positive and optimistic about SA
and its future are always on the lookout for silver bullets
and sometimes find some that appear so obvious. A project
which gives title deeds to between 7 and 11 million ‘owners’ of
properties, must be such a silver bullet, says Wiese.
‘It appears so simple that by the stroke of a pen you can
give those people title, because they are perceived as owners
by the community. They have every ownership right except
the document. It can be the most transformative economic
initiative in South Africa,’ says Wiese.
Wiese says he made a speech in Upington a while ago
where he told his audience that he agreed with one thing
Julius Malema, the leader of the EFF said. ‘He made a speech
at some point in Limpopo where he said that white people
should realise that black people also want to be owners. There’s
a dignity attached to be the owner of something.’
Wiese initially became involved in charitable causes
through his children when his son had a health scare. ‘I
became very aware of the Red Cross Children’s Hospital and
I asked if they needed anything and at that stage they didn’t
have an ICU, and we donated it, named after my wife, that’s
how I became involved. That’s how these things happen.’
‘For an initiative like Khaya Lam, it is much more than
charity, it’s driven by a philosophy,’ says Wiese.
Wiese says that ‘companies first of all should start looking
at their own employees, doing a survey to see where they can
help. And generally, each and every South African knows
somebody they can assist to acquire a title deed. I think for the
whole of Africa this can be an enormously important issue.’
During the morning’s conversation Wiese often came back
to the issue of dignity. Offering ownership is currently on the
agenda, but the businesses he’s built over the last 50 years have
created a sense of dignity for many of their customers.
According to Wiese, growing up in a business household
was also a major influence in his business career: ‘My parents
were small businesspeople, so I was aware that business gives
opportunities, that there are risks, but above all you have to
work very hard, and that you have to be passionate about what
you are doing.’
My mother always articulated it this way, she’d say ‘Those
people are people with rigting, with a sense of direction. I just
knew I had to have goals and apply myself.’
Taking risks has always been part of his DNA, according
to the book Christo Wiese - Risk And Riches by TJ Strydom.
Putting half of his visible wealth into a single share at age 75
is just the latest example of his risk taking.
Strydom wrote in the book:
‘His business philosophy, developed decades earlier
with [his cousin] Renier van Rooyen at Pep Stores, can be
summed up in five principles: faith, positive thinking, hard
work, enthusiasm and compassion. When he wants to invest
in a business, he looks for a company focused on the cash
consumer and with a strong management team. Management
needs to have ‘skin in the game’, he says, and the business has
to display a nearly unlimited growth potential. It needs to
generate strong cash flows.
Wiese trained himself to be a dealmaker extraordinaire.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JUNE/JULY 2019
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