Of the former politicians-turned-business moguls, Safika Investments deputy chairman Saki Macozoma remains the most enigmatic.
His young looks and an almost permanent smile belie his 46 years and certainly don't identify him as one of SA's most influential executives.
Macozoma is not in the wealth category of Tokyo Sexwale, Patrice Motsepe or Mzi Khumalo, even though he, together with Cyril Ramaphosa, was key to putting together Standard Bank's recent black economic empowerment (BEE) deal - SA's largest to date.
The Standard deal is arguably Macozoma's best success and demonstrates his real business strengths: influence rather than power, strategic vision rather than management, rainmaker rather than entrepreneur.
Even Safika, through which he is channelling all of his investments, is hardly one of the giants of black empowerment, though the company is putting together a fair-sized portfolio, with the Standard deal being the jewel in the crown.
Despite being out of parliament and in business for seven years, he retains undoubted political influence and connections; Macozoma is a leading member of the ANC's national executive committee and close to President Thabo Mbeki.
His influential role in the ANC has led many to suggest that he still harbours political ambitions, something he denies. "My life now is Safika and Standard Bank really."
For many South Africans, Macozoma is best known for his controversial forays into management.
As CEO of Transnet, which he joined straight from parliament at age 39, he was the man who brought in American Coleman Andrews to run SA Airways and let him walk off with a package of more than R200m, despite the airline's questionable operational capacity.
Then there was Nail, where he became CEO and, through Safika, controlling shareholder after his departure from Transnet. Nail was a media company which owned the Sowetan and sat on a big cash pile, but by then a fraction of its historical size and influence.
Despite his stated ambition of wanting to consolidate key media assets, he failed in his bid to buy Johnnic Communications and was also stymied by the broadcasting regulators when trying to buy Kagiso Media.
His apparent failures at Transnet and Nail have raised questions about his track record. He smiles and says: "I'm sure there are people who will say that even at my grave."
He says the one place where he truly had a sense of failure was Transnet. He says it was there that "I learnt what was important and what was not important".
Macozoma says Nail was on its own trajectory. "What's the measure of success? I believe it is what you return to shareholders. Nail was trading at R5 - at a discount to its cash holdings. When they got out, the share was at R10."
The most vocal criticism at the moment, though, is from people who perceive him and a few others, such as Ramaphosa, Sexwale and Motsepe, to be a greedy elite enriching themselves.
"I think it's a racist concept. Suddenly when there are black people becoming wealthy, there is a problem." He's not swayed by the fact that a lot of black people also make that charge. "The fact that black people also offer this criticism does not mean they are correct. After all, black people also bought into bantustans. Just because they are black does not mean they are strategic thinkers."
What the critics often miss is that the empowerment partners are hardly the ones making the decisions. It is white corporate SA that chooses its partners.
Fresh from his deal with Macozoma, Standard Bank CEO Jacko Maree offers a compelling rationale. "We could have gone two ways. We could have gone with just Saki and been criticised for not being broad-based . Or we could have gone only broad-based without individuals like him and Cyril.
"That would have added no value to us, though. You don't want just community groups. You want to be able to include people like Saki, who can come on to your board and contribute to the debates," Maree says.
The enrichment criticism surrounding the Standard Bank deal appears myopic; the deal includes a wide range of broad-based groups and Macozoma is unlikely to see money from this deal for at least 10 years. True, after 15 years his personal stake will be worth a little over R100m, but even this relies on steady earnings growth at the bank, which is not guaranteed.
The short-sighted criticism exposes the crudity of the broad-based debate. Empowerment is often paper money and few empowerment companies have serious earnings beyond their incomes until the loan capital for the investments has been repaid.
Macozoma points out Safika deliberately started out as a consultancy so that the founders - he, CEO Vuli Cuba and chairman and former presidential adviser Moss Ngoasheng, who each hold 20% of the company - had income.
Since then the business has been structured to create a balance between portfolio investments, which bring in income to help with head-office costs, and longer-term strategic investments.
Still, capital requirements mean that they have to run a tight ship and there are few people at head office, Macozoma says. "We all have core focuses. My area is financial services; Moss is running with the Putco deal; and Vuli will concentrate on another area."
Safika is a mid sized empowerment company with a balanced portfolio between operational assets, mainly in the information, communication & technology sector and some strategic portfolio holdings. (See organogram.)
Until the Standard Bank transaction, Safika's biggest asset was its 15% interest in a consortium that owns 20% of Avmin's Three Rivers platinum project. Avmin is controlled by Motsepe.
Macozoma says Safika has also been in talks with BEE mining group Eyesizwe about forming a larger empowerment company that could be led by Eyesizwe CEO Sipho Nkosi. "Sipho and I were roommates at university and we shared a house in Johannesburg. We have not reached agreement but a deal could be possible," he says.
Macozoma has often been named as front-runner in the bidding to become De Beers' BEE partner, but he dismisses the idea: "I'm interested in diamonds and we are obviously talking. But there are no front-runners and De Beers still has to decide what it's going to do. Until there's a document in front of us, we won't be able to make a call."
Safika has also been holding talks with petro chemical group Sasol, "but there's nothing concrete". Macozoma says Sasol's merger with Engen in the retail oil market offers room for other empowerment participants.
Safika's main focus in mining is the Northern Cape iron ore interests. He says they are talking to Kumba Resources, which owns the Sishen mine in the area, about a possible stake.
The interest in the deal might have something to do with his close relationship with minerals & energy affairs minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who wants more empowerment players to look at base metals in the region. Macozoma, Mlambo-Ngcuka and Mzi Khumalo and others are members of a stokvel. He also shares a clan name with Khumalo, a good friend.
For the time being, though, Safika's attention will be focus ed on Standard Bank. Though the deal is the largest BEE transaction to date, Safika's eventual holding will be only 1,79% of the bank and 2,2% in Standard Bank insurance subsidiary Liberty Group.
But it means that "we've nailed our flag to the mast at Standard Bank", Macozoma says. Safika already owns 25% of Standard's asset management company, Stanlib, and led a consortium that acquired part of Standard's brokering business, spinning out Andisa Capital, a financial services boutique with investment banking ambitions.
The relationship with Standard goes back four years and the bank clearly values Macozoma' s input. "At Stanlib he is a chairman who brings insight and intelligence to the board," says Liberty CEO Myles Ruck, who talks of Macozoma with genuine fondness.
"Safika are active partners," says Stanlib CEO Bruce Hemphill. "They accompany us to most meetings and are crucial in bringing in the business."
Macozoma was also deputy chairman of Standard Bank, a post he relinquished when Safika acquired Stanlib.
The Standard Bank deal will cement the relationship as the bank will take an equity investment of 20% in Safika, which should provide Safika with operating capital. Standard Bank is also a shareholder in the other key member of the consortium, Ramaphosa's Millennium Consolidated Investments.
The Standard Bank deal has detractors, who say Macozoma may never see the money because of the structure of the deal. Standard has given the BEE consortium, called Tutuwa, a loan to the value of 10% of its equity to be paid off over 20 years from the bank's dividends.
Investment bank Cazenove estimates that for the deal to be paid in 17 years, Standard Bank's earnings will have to grow at 11,8%/year.
Maree says the models they've run suggest the deal will work out even at modest growth rates for the bank. He says that with real growth of about 12%, repayment should be achieved in less than 10 years.
Assuming a repayment period of 17-20 years, why did Macozoma do the deal? "It's a long-term relationship. As long as we're in charge, it's inconceivable that Safika will not continue to be an investor in Standard Bank."
The good personal relationship between Macozoma and Maree, in particular, has been crucial to the success of the deal.
Says Maree: "He's one of the cleverest guys I've worked with. Even during Nedcor's attempted takeover of Standard, he made some very insightful and valuable contributions."
Macozoma's advice was also instrumental in Maree playing a strong role in the financial services charter negotiations. As a result of Macozoma's intervention, the board freed Maree to dedicate nearly two days a week to the charter talks. There's no question that Maree ultimately became the definitive figure in the charter process.
In all his business dealings, Macozoma is conscious of the need to reconcile his business ambitions with government's broader empowerment policies, though it is too early to see some of these policies translated into action at Safika. Macozoma strongly defends the right of black capital to be represented in the ANC, but does not believe that black capital is justified simply by virtue of colour.
In the end black capital will live or die by its own actions. "Like the Afrikaners before, there is an obligation to see that they (black capital) don't leave the rest of the population too far behind; that they create space for the growth of a black middle class.
"Solving unemployment is crucial in this debate," he says. "Whatever people accumulate it will go up in smoke if we don't deal with unemployment. However, those who are critical of empowerment must understand that there is no magic wand for unemployment. It is structural, it is endemic and it will take a generation or two to deal with."
He says the ANC is beginning to understand "that we are never going to be able to offer a job to everyone in this generation. Instead, what must be offered are sustainable livelihoods.
"That might be having a job every six months but knowing you have a roof over your head and other material support structures; that you can send your child to school, even if you are unemployed."
He believes Mbeki has always been consistent in his understanding of the ultimate objectives of BEE: "If you observe the president's leadership of the question, it implies that a group of black people acquiring capital should behave in the context of the objectives of the country - or the revolution, if you like."
For now, Macozoma has channelled his vision through Safika and has given it a strong investment focus. But can it also live up to his broader socio-economic vision?
Macozoma has clearly brought value to Safika. Says one empowerment strategist: "It's not that Moss is not liked [ by white capital] , but Saki did bring a little extra clout, more stature. White capital really only knows three or four empowerment companies. With Saki there, Safika is one of them."
