Making Sense of Cents: From sleeping under a tree to churning billions - man washing dishes restaurant

Senzo Tsabedze is not the name of a wake-up call to most people outside the transportation industry.
In fact, when people search for his name on the Internet, the most important thing is that his company recently signed a fleet contract with the Johannesburg Metro worth a billion rand.
However, in the province of pumalanga-
The natural businessman seems to have earned the reputation of the ground-breaking vandals, and the reason for this view became clear in an interview with City News.
Tsabedze, born in the village of Mshayazafe, the local municipality of Albert lutri, is the fourth of eight siblings, knowing from an early age that his family is better than in the community
His father is the only breadwinner working in the nearby Msauli asbestos mine.
However, Tsabedze started school at Sithuthukile Primary School and was promoted to Ekulindeni high school, and the bleak financial situation at home and the prospect of working in the mine forced him to finish grade 12, run away with friends near your friend's relatives, nelsleet.
Although he admits he has tried, he is not a typical rural child and has never played football, but he says he is not good at football.
"I prefer to spend time playing caddies at the golf course in the mine, or spend a little money picking up trash at the mine.
Also, my brother plays football well so I always compare with him, "he recalls with a smile how he fell in love with golf.
"After matric, I ran away from home because I was afraid to work underground," he said . " Running away from home seems to be an important turning point in his life, he added.
"I didn't tell anyone at home where I was going.
"My parents used to drink a lot, so they were worried about where my kids were and it wasn't really there," he said . ".
He entered the door at nelleprett. to-
Found a job in a Chinese restaurant, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.
He was hired 15 rupees a day at the scene and got off work after midnight, with neither a place to sleep nor enough transportation costs.
"I'll get off work at midnight and sleep under a big tree near Rob Ferreira hospital.
The manager asked me why I didn't change my clothes and I told her that luckily she gave me the garage and gave me a sleeping box and a blanket, I will take a shower in the maid's room.
I lived there for two months and moved to one-
"In a room cabin about 45 km kilometers from pinnal," he said . ".
His new residence is not safe, as robbers wait for commuters near the bus stop every day when paying wages.
"We got the cash so they will rob us and they will beat you if you don't have the cash," he said . ".
Due to the obligation to send money home on a regular basis and having to put robbers in the budget, three months later he chose to move to a friend's home in KaNyamazane, a town closer to the town.
After a year at a Chinese restaurant, he found a job in a new shopping mall, worked as a waiter in an Italian restaurant, and then moved to a five-
Star Hotels in Sabi.
"They took me to steenbos training to expose me to a variety of things-from wine of the same type, food to cutlery," he said of his two-year job, then joined a company running restaurants in Kruger National Park in 1999 as operations manager.
When he was there and stayed in the park, he got his first business break to provide linen for the hotel.
"I taught a player how to play golf at SA National Park and he told me about the opportunity.
They have been looking for services from black people, but few companies have submitted competitive bids.
This development prompted him to sign up for his first company, Siyenza Consulting, who, according to the company, obtained a three-year contract.
He quit his job.
He never looked back at his company.
His next break was that a person who had a contract to build several classrooms in a local school but was unable to complete the work provided him with a contract for the R150 000.
"In those days, you could buy the contract, so I bought the contract and sold it to a construction company for about R500 000," he said . ".
Due to the low profits of the R350 000, he began to look for similar transactions for contractors who could not complete the contract due to cash constraints.
"I bought another r24000 and sold it to the same construction company for the R900 000 price.
Then I went to the auction and bought two old trucks for the R160 000 price and rented them to the fleet management company for the monthly r35000 price, "he said.
Seeing the profit margin of the rental truck, Tsabedze has been increasing his fleet until he rents nine trucks.
While Siyenza died naturally, the savvy entrepreneur registered a fleet management company and obtained a Fleet Management government contract worth about 37 million at the Bush Buckridge local municipality.
However, as no guarantee was provided for bank loans, he had to work with a large dealer group in Mpumalanga to implement the project.
With the lessons and money gained from the contract, Tsabedze got more similar contracts on his own.
Afrirent now serves 26 cities with a stake in six car dealers and employs nearly 500 people.
Afrirent Holdings also has a financial services company that operates insurance, fuel supply companies, tracking companies, waste management companies, and hotel management companies.
It will open its first restaurant soon.
Tsabedze said that although he believes hard work is a key factor in success, this is only the third of the entire recipe.
"I would say that 30% of the effort and 70% of God because I am a religious person.
Otherwise, how do you explain from sleeping on the street to where I am now? ” he asked.
The most important thing to motivate him is his staff and his responsibility to them and their families.
He believes businesses need to rely less on government contract revenue.
"We rely too much on bidding, so now we are trying to reduce that.
"If we can do 50/50, that's fine, because most of our revenue now comes from bidding," he said . ".
Tsabedze says the biggest lesson he has learned in the business world is that honesty is the key.