Queen of South Africa's arms trade

Mrs Fakude-Nkuna - the 'Queen of Armaments'

Stephane Mayoux reports from South Africa in the second of four reports on successful business initatives in Africa

Thirty years ago Nora Fakude-Nkuma used to sleep in the pick-up van she drove around South Africa selling African curios.

I wanted to prove that as much as we wear dresses, we are complete human beings, with equal minds. We can survive the hardest of hardships

Nora Fakude-Nkuma

At the time it was all she could afford but not any more.

Now in her fifties, Mrs Fakude-Nkuna is managing director of Bohlabela Wheels, an army truck and tractor refurbishing company.

Her company, based in Nelspruit in South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga province, is the only firm owned by a black woman to be accredited by Armscor, South Africa's largest arms manufacturer.

Poor background

By her own admission, her background is "extremely poor".

She used to be a teacher in the former KaNgwane homeland in apartheid South Africa. Her pupils were so destitute she could barely work.

The self-made businesswoman is not impressed by the ANC's new labour laws

"That's where I started," Nora said.

"I used to carry their handiwork to find a place to sell it. I would take the money back to the children so that they could buy books and clothes and pay their school fees."

She stopped teaching to work for a curio shop, then went on to buy the shop itself and ended up transforming the site into a fully-fledged shopping complex.

It was a constant battle.

Her husband divorced her when she decided to go into business and she was left alone with three children.

"My eldest daughter started looking after our shop when she was nine - after school hours."

'Hardest of hardships'

"It is extremely hard. People think women are soft people and that we go for soft things," she said.

"I wanted to prove that as much as we wear dresses, we are complete human beings, with equal minds. We can survive the hardest of hardships."

She decided to enter the military industry because "there are so few blacks" working in it.

The company's operations manager, Christo Willemse, is full of praise for her boss.

"I doubt very much that in the whole of South Africa you'd find a woman in charge of an environment like this, says Christo. "She is a remarkable woman."

Empowered

Bohlabela Wheels is also unique because it is 100% owned by black shareholders.

Being a so-called "empowered" company is a plus when bidding for contracts in the new South Africa.

I doubt very much that in the whole of South Africa you'd find a woman in charge of an environment like us

Operations Manager Christo Willemse

But the colour of the owners' skin is certainly not enough to make the company successful.

"We are treated like the rest of contractors," said Christo Willemse.

"We go through the same tendering process. At the end of the day we have to deliver to the same specifications and requirements - otherwise we won't be considered."

In fact, because it is black-owned, Christo says that Bohlabela Wheels had to deal with some serious scepticism when it started.

"There were a lot of question marks, whether we would be able (to deliver) but we did - through tremendous hard work and commitment and dedication from everybody - everybody who works in the company."

New business environment

Mrs Fakude-Nkuna is generally happy about the new business environment in South Africa.

Since 1994 the government has made a point of granting government contracts to black-owned companies.

'People think women are soft people and that we go for soft things'

"You have a bit of support from government. They want to see black people in business and make a success of it," she said.

But Nora is not at all impressed by the new labour laws passed by the ANC-led government.

"It's terrible. It's terrible because labour legislation doesn't protect the small business person."

She is equally irate about the trade unions' attitude

"The unions look at you and create a wedge between you and your people. You can't say to your staff: 'I've got a problem this month, let's work harder,' because the unions will sit on you and it's not friendly at all."

Although she is now sometimes dubbed the "Queen of Armaments", Nora says that the industry did not welcome her with open arms.

"Many times I asked myself why I was suffering so much," she says. "I was persecuted, I felt persecuted. I felt I could walk out."

In the end Nora wanted to make her participation - and black participation - in the arms industry a success. So she held on.

To hear the full programme, tune into African Perspective on the BBC World Service at 0930 GMT on Friday 9 November.

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