Dondo Mogajane, the Chief Executive Officer of the Moti Group, made a choice in 2022 to leave the public sector for a chance to try his hand in the private sector. After nearly two decades as a public servant, his new career has been challenging, but he and the Moti Group are starting to reap the rich rewards. BBQ’s Ralph Staniforth sat down with Mogajane to discuss his new role, the state of South Africa, and how Africa as a continent can make a serious global play.
The Moti Group is a diversified group of companies whose core purpose lies in driving sustainable economic development across Southern Africa.
The group is home to a wide range of businesses spanning amongst others property development, motor vehicle trading, aviation and mining and beneficiation.
At the helm as Chief Executive Officer is Dondo Mogajane, who many will remember from his role as the Director General of National Treasury, which came to an end in June 2022 when he decided against renewing his contract and instead to try his hand at a new role in the private sector.
Having taken over from Moti Group founder and business maverick, Zunaid Moti, who decided to step down from operations to focus on his Zimbabwe operation, African Chrome Fields and his own philanthropic activities through Moti Cares, the 53-year old Dondo Mogajane has spent the last 10 months driving the organisation’s strategy in a bid to build upon its incredible track record of achievements in the business world. It’s phenomenal growth can be attributed to a blend of strategic mergers and high-quality acquisitions, as well as identifying untapped opportunities for new business ventures.
The group enjoys a strong reputation for innovation, with world class operations and leading technology. It is committed to socially responsible investments that benefit economies, people, and the environment, emphasising sustainable development in every part of its business.
The rise of Dondo Mogajane
Mogajane completed his first degree in 1991–a honours in Public Finance–before joining the University of Durban Westville as a part-time lecturer and residence manager in 1992. In 1997, after five years of working at the university, Mogajane returned to Gauteng. The return to Gauteng saw him join Technicon SA as a junior lecturer, where he taught local government finance and public finance.”This is when my career started to really take shape,” he remembers. After two years at Technicon SA, Mogajane joined National Treasury in 1999. “At the time, I was doing some consulting work for various government departments when I was still at Technicon SA. It was around public finance and local government finance, so that’s when I started showing an interest in government–and that’s been my life ever since. I am a public management graduate, so political science, economics, and public management were always my space from the very early days of my career,” he recalls.
Mogajane began serving in the intergovernmental relations section of the Treasury as Senior Budget Analyst, looking after both municipalities and provinces.
“My career then grew in the Treasury. I did a whole lot of things. I joined many divisions. I was in the budget office, the inter-governmental relations division, public finance and in the international economics section,” he says. His expertise saw him spend nearly three years as a Senior Advisor at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., USA on the board representing South Africa. His mandate from 2007 to 2010 was to secure a $3.75 billion loan for Eskom, “playing politics on the ground, lobbying everyone possible within the World Bank system and the board to get the loan”.
From there, Mogajane progressed at Treasury into the role of Chief of Staff, Chief Operations Officer and then Deputy Director General responsible for public finance, working in Pravin Gordhan’s office along the way.
Then, in 2017, the Brits-born public servant became Director General of Treasury. “I had a very complete understanding of the A-Z of Treasury in terms of its work, so when I got the job as Director General in 2017, I had all that it took to succeed at the pinnacle of the public service as a DG in Treasury,” he proudly says.
Once his first term as Director General came to end, Mogajane decided against renewing his contract. His career next took a different path as he took over the reins at the Moti Group as CEO. This is where we find him now, making waves in the private sector.
The big move to the private sector
The decision to move into the private sector was an easy one for Mogajane. After serving his country for 23 years, it was time for a change, leaving behind the stress a position such as Director General of Treasury brings with it.
After initial discussions with the Moti Group about their vision for the future had taken place, Mogajane was sold on the fact that he would have more license to truly stamp his authority on the business and help shape the group.
Mogajane was also asked to help mentor the group’s Executive Director Mikaeel Moti, who is the son of Moti Group founder Zunaid Moti. This added responsibility, in addition to being the CEO, was right up Mogajane’s street.
“This was a very, very enticing opportunity and experience that Mr Moti was offering. Given the diversity of what the Moti Group is all about and the sectors that it is involved in, it was obviously going to be new for me, but I just saw that as a new challenge in my life. I am 53 now, so you can imagine that I’ll almost be at retirement age in the next couple of years, but I thought, why not? Why not come and just start something new, interesting, and not as hectic as it was in the government?” he says.
Part of his key responsibilities in the CEO role is to focus on governance and compliance, as well as giving Mikaeel the mentoring he needs to one day take over from his father.
As far as his mentorship role goes, Mogajane believes that Zunaid Moti “could not think of any other person other than me to come and help.”
“I am able to build bridges, introduce him (Mikaeel) to the real South Africa, both via a corporate South African understanding and how the Moti Group can be an important economic contributor and a standalone corporate entity,” he says.
While it has taken some time to get into the new working culture that the private sector brings, Mogajane has been loving every second of the challenge.
His challenges have included getting to know new sectors such as mining, property development and aviation, but thanks to his plethora of experience and working for such a well-known South African entity, the adjustment has been smoother than he thought it would be.
“It has been a nice roller-coaster ride in the last ten months. I think there will be only good things coming from now by repositioning the group so that it is respected even more. Without boasting, I served the government with dignity, humility, and loyalty all my life. I am a hard worker, and I have always been a hard worker, so I felt that taking this challenge was not going to be too difficult for me.
“I understand the regulatory aspects of what a company like this has to comply with, whether it is financial regulations or compliance with banking law regulations. That for me is my strong point and I am bringing that into the Moti Group as chief executive officer,” he says with confidence.
The Moti Group as a key player
With the Moti Group being a diversified group of companies, excelling in various sectors is key to its strategy. With a strong footprint spanning diverse industries, the Moti Group has established itself as one of Southern Africa’s top players.
A major move by the Moti Group has been its involvement in lithium exploration in Zimbabwe through Pulserate Investments. While this is a relatively new avenue on a global scale, the demand for lithium is high, making this move a no-brainer in terms of future-proofing the group. You know the UPS you use during loadshedding? Well, many of those are powered by lithium batteries–so it makes so much sense purely from a local standpoint.
The fourth industrial revolution will further see the demand for mobile devices with internal power storage grow exponentially, with additional positive implications for lithium battery reliance. However, the chemical and physical properties of this unique commodity mean that it is also suitable for use in creating glass and glass ceramics, automotive parts, greases, metallurgy, polymer, and air treatment.
Mogajane, who holds a Master’s Degree in Public Management from the University of Maryland in the USA, believes that their involvement in lithium exploration has the potential to propel the Moti Group to new heights, pushing them alongside some of the big name players in mining.
Their reputation is also being strengthened thanks to strong working relationship with Anglo Platinum in terms of PGM operations in South Africa, and alongside a globally renowned Chinese-based EV battery manufacturer in Zimbabwe with the lithium exploration. The Moti Group also has interest in alluvial chromite ore in Zimbabwe through African Chrome Fields.
“These partners that we have are not small partners, which on its own is an important motivating factor for me. I aim to take this group to that level where we are not only known as partners with these projects, but are a dominant player in the mining space ourselves,” Mogajane explains.
“Obviously, we will have to rebuild our property portfolio space. Maybe in future we may even enter the financial services game, because that’s a strength I have and I understand the sector very well. We should be able to take advantage of the fact that I am here.
“We are a very young family group, a small family-owned company where we can do anything we desire. We are not listed, which gives us opportunities to flex our muscle in all the sectors, including new sectors that we may choose to get involved in. But, for now, mining is the centrepiece of our operations, both here in South Africa and in Zimbabwe.”
Expanding on potential future opportunities, Mogajane believes that there is major room for growth–which means an exciting future lies ahead for the Moti Group.
“Firstly, we need to enhance our property development work, which has always been an important portfolio within the group. Secondly, within the mining space, apart from PGMs and lithium exploration, we may want to start exploring options and opportunities related to other minerals in Zimbabwe, but that is still in its very early stages.
“I am dreaming big here, but that should not be impossible to achieve. So, for now, our property sector, expanding the mining operations, and the financial services are our short-, medium-, and long-term views of where we want to be at, respectively,” he adds. The Moti Group’s current property development portfolio includes amongst others the Icon@Hyde Park, Nondela Drakensberg Mountain Estate, Sandhurst Place, Cottonwoods, FuturExotics Lifestyle Emporium, and 106 – 108 4th Street, Parkmore.
We are a very young family group, a small family-owned company where we can do anything we desire
The state of the South African economy
The South African economy is not in a pretty place right now. Dreaded words such as ‘greylisting’ and ‘downgrades’ send shivers down the spine of all those determined to help the country succeed. It is far from ideal.
Mogajane is more than a bit worried about South Africa’s growth prospects, but admits that despite that, we have to be positive as South Africans if we are going to move forward.
“The reality is that we’ve got a lot going for us as a country, but the whole energy situation in South Africa is really causing a huge stagnation in the economy. Economic development and performance are both suffering, so I think if we fix the energy situation, certainty will emerge. Currently, businesses are not able to function properly. The mining sector is not able to function properly because of all the loadshedding that we have,” he avers.
“So I think solving our energy situation will address many opportunities that are there for the taking. I know on the government side they are talking about a whole lot of structural reforms that must be implemented and, as such, the problem of electricity has become structural. So, for me, it is important that we do that.
We can only really talk about three and five percent growth if we start addressing some of these structural constraints, including the energy constraints that we currently have.” A slightly brighter note for Mogajane is the fact that we know what we need to do in order to start growing the economy. While the energy crisis is a massive hindrance to economic growth, the problem is there for all to see.
Now it is just about fixing it.
He says: “What I am positive about is that at least we know what the challenge and the problem is. We are able to identify it, but the challenge with South Africa is always going to be the implementation as to when and how we are going to start moving at speed on all of these issues. We saw the government announce the Minister of Electricity. Now the challenge is whether they know what they have to do to make it work?”
A big factor in making the economy tick once more is, rather simply and somewhat ironically, the government allowing it to. What this means is the loosening of rules and regulations around business operations in order to get things moving. Far too often we read about the government hindering the private sector from truly flourishing.
This needs to change, according to Mogajane. “Business confidence can only be boosted if government is doing the right thing. The government is the key to actually unleashing the potential that the private sector has.
So, without certainty, without certainty of policy, without certainty of electricity, how is business going to be able to plan? When business is not able to plan, tax revenues are not going come through.
As a result, we will be found wanting as a country because a country’s growth is only possible with stability within the private sector and within the government sector. So, yes, there’s opportunities, but the constraints outweigh the efforts currently, and we have to deal with our constraints.”
One area in which the government has started to ease up is permission for the private sector and individuals to push the excess power generated from solar back into the grid. This, Mogajane believes, is something which the private sector needs to jump on right now. The reason for this is that as soon as the government can see the benefits, the more likely they will be to loosen more rules and regulations, as the results will be far too good to ignore.
The sad story of Black Economic Empowerment
The reality of the situation is that Black Economic Empowerment has failed to truly hit the heights we all hoped it would because of poor implementation.
It is also not enforced correctly. It hasn’t been for at least ten years. That is the sad truth. Throw into the mix the fact that the government has been preoccupied by other issues, including but not limited to State Capture, and the focus has been lost on truly prospering from what on paper was supposed to be groundbreaking for the country.
Mogajane agrees that BEE has failed those who it set out to assist, with the common denominator at the core of it all being the government.
“The BEE project that was started some 29 years ago has, in the last ten years, hit the backburner. There hasn’t been any movement. Those who were empowered many years ago remain in power. It is not as broad based as we had hoped. There are not many new players. There could be players who have emerged in the last twenty years or so, but there are not many competing with the rest of their peers.
Whether you are looking at it in terms of formal empowerment or just your white counterparts, BEE was about addressing past imbalances. BEE was about recognising that apartheid did a lot of damage to our country, a lot of damage to black aspirations,” he says.
“The gains that were made in the early years have been lost. Look at those gains in the financial services sector, which I understand very well. Transformation and Black Economic Empowerment in that area have stopped. Not many black players are in the space. I am also chairman of the Government Employee Pension Fund, and I have noticed that in the asset management space, there are not a lot of black players because we never took the whole Financial Services Charter seriously. We were supposed to naturally ensure we would equalise between black and white counterparts, and black and white companies and enterprises.”
In order to fix the current model, Mogajane believes that it may be best to just start from scratch again. The damage which has been done does not seem to be improving, so the logical solution would then be to strip it back down and start again, learning from our past mistakes and taking the time to ensure implementation and enforcement are on the level they need to be to ensure BEE succeeds.
“The disparities and the inequality that are in South Africa currently have to be addressed because if there are huge inequalities, that is a recipe for disaster. It could even cause problems in future if the divide between the rich and the poor, the divide between white and black, the divide between empowered and unempowered companies is not addressed,” Mogajane insists.
“We cannot wait another 21 years. If we have to start from scratch, let’s do it.
Let’s do it because it can only benefit the broader South Africa, whether you look at the black South Africa or white South Africa or whether we are looking at the so-called first economy or the second economy.
Currently, South Africa has got two economies that divide us, so it is important that we cut between the two so that we are able to really flourish and advance the prospects of every South African, irrespective of their colour, in future.”
Taking Africa to the world
In order for African businesses to start to leave a real global mark, Mogajane feels it is critical that skills development and experience is acquired–or in some cases, reacquired. The global space has taken so many of our continent’s great minds. So, for Africa to truly make a lasting impact around the world, Africa needs to ensure we have our best assets by our side.
Mogajane says: “Skills are critical for African businesses. Skills development and experience are going to be quite critical for us to begin to play in the global space, and not only South Africa, but the African continent as a whole. Those in the diaspora must come back. I mean, we’ve got excellent experts out there globally in the world who are African. Whether you are looking at the USA, Australia, Canada, and Europe, there are many expatriates who need to come home.
However, that is not going to be easy, so the skills base is important. Retention of skill in Africa is going to be quite critical for us to be able to compete globally, but that requires opportunities for pay, and opportunities for peace in Africa. If there is no peace in Africa, people will leave.
“Political stability is also very important and that’s a key for us to be able to compete. Africa on its own as a continent has got what it takes. We are a very young continent, so the world must take advantage of that, but for us to attract people to set up shop here and to set up manufacturing hubs, you really need stability.
So, the reality is that political certainty and economic stability is quite critical as an ingredient including, of course, the experience and the skills that you must retain and develop for Africa to really compete with the rest of the world.”
Thankfully, Mogajane has stayed in South Africa to make his mark throughout his career–and the reality is that we as a country and the Moti Group are all the richer for that. 
Ralph Staniforth is the Production Editor for BBQ Magazine
The Moti Group cares
The Moti Group is involved in two initiatives which aim to give back to the people of South Africa and Africa. This is part of their Corporate Social Investment (CSI) which ensures that their success is felt by those who need it most.
The Moti Cares Foundation
The Moti Cares Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Moti Group, launched with the vision of South Africans giving a hand-up to other fellow South Africans, no matter their race or creed. The foundation is dedicated to providing care and solace to those in need, working to implement long-term, sustainable community development programmes in underprivileged communities, as well as to offer immediate disaster relief and assistance to crisis-stricken households.Moti Cares has been involved in numerous heart-warming projects across the country, such as supporting animal welfare groups and orphanages, to feeding the hungry by delivering two million meals to desperate families in the wake of the KwaZulu-Natal riots. Through its various education, health, and nutrition programmes, the foundation seeks to leave a positive and lasting legacy in the communities it serves, sharing the message that all lives are worthy, and providing much-needed hope for a brighter future.
African Hero
African Hero is a socio-economic development initiative created and executed by Zotex Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Zotex belongs to the Moti Group, a superset of companies, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Zotex have a desire for change. It is through that desire and with a specific purpose in mind, that the African Hero Initiative was born; to implement that change. They provide effective solutions for day-to-day challenges. As an African business, they aim to help African economies grow out of poverty, through enterprise. Their initiative aims to empower local governments through increasing their access to healthcare and education infrastructure, providing communities with specially designed day clinics and schools.Their affordable but invaluable solutions are smart, simple, and streamlined. They have the capacity to deploy five clinics and one school every month. They implement their solutions faster than any other potential contender despite any location, logistical or sourcing challenges. More importantly, their low costs are the biggest advantage to their success. While understanding the needs of the countries they serve, they endeavour to provide only the best services to their fellow Africans for the purpose of building Africa and its people. While their services are predominantly aimed at elevating challenged rural areas, they are equally capable of installing solutions in urban areas.
The Moti Group’s mining interests
African Chrome Fields (ACF)
ACF mines and processes alluvial chromite ore for the special alloy and stainless steel industries, with a unique beneficiation capacity that is able to process high-grade chrome into high-quality, value-adding ferroalloys. With alluvial chrome mining operations across Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke region, the company is steering the country towards achieving a bright economic future through tapping into its rich mineral resources and driving sustainable development.
Pulserate Investments
Pulserate is a lithium mining company with a rich mineral resource base in Zimbabwe. The company currently owns some 84 claims sites covering nearly 10 000 hectares in the Mashonaland East province, where it is currently performing extensive exploration studies together with its global Chinese partners with a view to ultimately establish mining operations.
Kilken Platinum
Kilken is a South African platinum group metal (PGM) mining business.The Moti Group is a majority partner in the Kilken Imbani Joint Venture (KIJV) with Imbani Minerals, operating a platinum tailings retreatment processing plant adjacent to the world-class Amandelbult Platinum mine near Thabazimbi in the Limpopo province. This plant is operated in association with Rustenburg Platinum Mines (RPM), a subsidiary of Anglo American Platinum.
Dondo Mogajane
