'The military-style management of the past must be changed to include black males and females in top positions'

TRANSNET executive director Mafika Mkwanazi puts on two hats every day when he walks into his office at the Paul Kruger Building in Wolmarans Street, Johannesburg. And they both take up an equal amount of time in his long and busy day.

These two functions, he explains, are improving the profitability of the various divisions he is in charge of, particularly Spoornet, and transformation.

"There will be more accountability, so people won't be able to hide behind non-profit operations. By the end of December, income at Spoornet was R93-million down on budget, but cost savings more than covered this. We will make good profits in the next four to five years and staff salaries will be adjusted to compensate."

On the other hand, transformation is vital, he says, because the military-style management of the past must be changed to include black males and females in top positions. "We must change the culture of this business. The new Labour Relations Act will help, but this is just the beginning. Clean governance of Transnet is my aim and I will give strong guidelines on these issues. I want to make Spoornet an organisation people will be proud to be with. I hope to achieve this in the next four-and-a-half years before my current contract ends."

The 42-year-old Mkwanazi, gives the impression of being a serious executive, dedicated to his task. He insists that changes introduced at Spoornet this month could have been implemented in 1994 if plans had been followed through.

Mkwanazi completed his matric at Orlando High School in 1972 and enrolled at the University of Zululand where he graduated with a BSc (mathematics) in 1978. He then moved to the University of Natal and obtained a BSc (engineering) in 1984.

Mkwanazi has followed a diverse career path. His first job was as a mathematics and science teacher at the Anchor Senior Secondary School in Soweto. This stint lasted only 6 months and he used this time to complete the final two courses for his BSc at the University of Natal. The same year, he joined the Kriel coal mine as a graduate engineer. He started as an artisan, progressed to foreman and then general engineering superintendent.

In those dismal days, the Mines Act prevented him from gaining a Government Competency Certificate, so he left to join SA Breweries in 1986. A year spent learning all the aspects of beer brewing was followed by a move to the packaging division, where he was in charge of four lines.

A Management Development Programme from the Witwatersrand University followed in 1987.

He then left South Africa and spent three years at pharmaceutical group Bristol Myers in Philadelphia in the US where he served time as factory manager and eventually plant manager. During his stay, he was awarded a diploma in Strategies of Successful Business Management from the Wharton Business School.

In late 1992, he came home and joined BMW where he was initially in charge of quality assurance and was partly responsible for the granting of the ISO 9000 certificate. When he left BMW, he was manager of the engine plant.

At the beginning of 1995, he moved into the transport sector, becoming chief executive of Metro Rail. In April this year he assumed his current position as executive director of Transnet in charge of Metro, Viamex, Chemical Services and Spoornet.

Married to Kelebogile with a 10-year-old son, Zwelakhe, and eight-year-old daughter, Zama, Mkwanazi lists his outside interests as boxing, soccer and tennis, all of which he played in his junior years. He still "plays the odd game of tennis". A keen DIY exponent, he built two houses, one in Soweto and another in Natalspruit, "but today I don't have the time, or maybe I'm just too lazy."

Don Robertson

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