Trillion Cart Investments is on the right path to give the economy and the people of South Africa the boost they so desperately need, thanks to Dr Radebe—a visionary leader with a conscience.
Trillion Cart Investments is the brainchild of the visionary Dr Radebe. The success of the entity is born from its history, track record, and values, all of which have been instilled by Dr Radebe himself. With a nose for growth and investment, Dr Radebe has ensured that Trillion Cart Investments has been able to stamp its authority on many sectors, including manufacturing, retail, mass distribution, security, farming, communications, health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, financial services, construction, automobiles, music production, travel, hospitality, and more.
Dr Radebe has always been a driver of job creation, making the expansion of his entity all the more satisfying. With a footprint throughout the African continent, Trillion Cart Investments works tirelessly towards job creation, empowerment, wealth creation, and development of entrepreneurs.
“I’m a leader and an entrepreneur. I never walk away from any prospects which have tributaries for success, timing, and informed action. My decision making sets me apart from those who have made it their profession to wait for handouts. I don’t wait, I jump,” Dr Radebe says with confidence.
The Trillion Cart Investments difference
Dr Radebe’s drive and passion for ensuring that others benefit from his vision is what sets Trillion Cart Investments apart from the competition. Dr Radebe is not one to sit back and collect the profits, his mantra is to ensure that the wealth is shared amongst those who are putting in the hard work to ensure success. It is this attitude to business which has created such a strong brand name for Trillion Cart Investments.
“I’m one of the few who has championed the black business distributor model. This means that we are sharing the wealth, and that’s our slogan at Trillion Cart. I’m saying I’ve championed it because within the amount that we sell, we share the profit with the distributors,” Dr Radebe, who holds doctorates in philosophy and facilitation and community development, says.
“So that’s why we are still competitive, that’s why our prices in the market are still low, because you find that we share the profit. So it’s almost like co-owning. Our distributors are part of the company, they co-own the company because we share the profits.” Founded in 2014 and with its headquarters in Johannesburg, Trillion Cart Investments is constantly looking at ways to improve its standing. Again, this is down to Dr Radebe’s inner desire to improve the lives of others while creating an entity which can stand the test of time.
In a move to continue that growth, Trillion Cart Investments has started registration processes in the Americas and Ireland in order to expand and compete on an international level.
A focus on manufacturing
Trillion Cart Investments is made up of 16 distinct businesses. These are the entity’s involvement in manufacturing and include the likes of AGRICO Umhlonyane (pharmaceutical products), ROCK (household cleaning detergents), and UBUNTU (clothing and toiletries).
For Dr Radebe, his interests in manufacturing have stood him in good stead during these unprecedented times of COVID-19. As they all contribute in some way to essential services, at no one time have all suffered during the pandemic, giving Trillion Cart Investments a strong base off which to operate.
“Trillion Cart Investments prides herself for being one of the few conglomerates in Africa. We believe that our diversified portfolio and our corporate structure will give us an edge going into the future. We have seen that conglomerates actually do work in challenging times because they are not focused on one thing—our portfolio is diversified. When one sector goes down, the other goes up, and we are able to support the struggling business until it goes up. So the diversified portfolio is our strength,” Dr Radebe insists. While Trillion Cart Investments does its utmost to ensure that their involvement in manufacturing is successful and in line with the standards required for growth, the reality is that the sector is not without its problems. These problems mainly stem from the government’s lack of involvement in the sector and the reality that often it is just cheaper to import products and raw materials from other countries.
However, that has the potential to change drastically should more investment be pumped into the manufacturing sector and the government gets involved to the point where their regulations and input make the desired impact.
“South Africa produces less now than a decade ago. This is an indication that the government and business must take drastic actions to resuscitate the manufacturing sector to save the country’s economy. Just last month, Moneyweb reported that in the second quarter of 2021, there were even fewer people employed in the formal manufacturing industry than in 1969. I’m from Cape Town, and I know how the factories were booming there, but now many of them are closed and they provided a lot of jobs,” Dr Radebe, who opened the Radebe Foundation in 2015 to empower and inspire youth, continues.
“Government support is also lacking in relation to premises inputs, labour, and imports—we learned the hard way that some of our businesses depend on raw materials and packaging that are imported, mainly from China, leading to long waiting times. I think COVID-19 has taught us that we really need to go back to manufacturing our own things.”
One of the ways to help save the South African economy is through striking a balance between imports and exports. This in turn will help with the creation of jobs and will start to give the economy the boost it so badly needs. This is achievable, according to Dr Radebe, but again it is going to require the support of all stakeholders.
“We are creating jobs. We just hired people last week and there are vacancies available that are advertised, but it also comes down to ensuring a balanced level of imports and exports. We all know that in every relationship, a country can’t exist alone, so you need to have imports and exports, but we also know that in South Africa, we have stopped manufacturing. Factories are being sold, there are many buildings that are on sale, so there is no more balance between imports and exports. We are mostly importing now and that’s not good for the GDP of the country. That needs to change.”
Driving a successful future
With Dr Radebe driving the vision of Trillion Cart Investments, leadership and innovation are two key factors in its success to date. This was especially true when it came to the rough and tumble associated with the arrival of the pandemic. The ability of all those involved to be agile has also stood them in good stead.
“Our successes stem from our ability to make very quick decisions based on long term views, and I think that’s very important in today’s world. We have successfully started thriving businesses in different industries over a short period of time. The diversification has been a great advantage. As I mentioned, during the pandemic, because not all industries were affected in the same way, our distributor model has been key. It has been very successful in empowering and building entrepreneurs, as well as ensuring that our products go far and wide in South Africa and in neighbouring countries,” Dr Radebe, who founded the African Centre of Excellence to offer educational skills development programmes, says.
While the success is plain for all to see, the reality is that business does not come without its challenges. Dr Radebe is a strong believer in learning from your mistakes in order to bounce back stronger.
“Failures are part of our learning and that is a necessary part of our growth. We have ventured into one or two industries hastily and it did not work out. We are in the process of regrouping and revising our entry strategy into those industries in order to improve in the future.” 
