Ebrahim Kharsany

Current title
Research Analyst; Marketing Manager; Management Consultant

Course at Wits Business School
Master of Business Administration, 1972

A defining moment in my career
As an activist and a businessman, I experienced several defining moments in my career. I completed my MBA at Wits Business School in 1971. I could not find any meaningful employment as the predominantly white corporate business sector would not employ people of colour in senior management positions.

After spending a few years in the life assurance industry I established my own company which over several years lobbied the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for a bank license. My application was approved in September 1988 and I established South Africa’s first Islamic Bank. This was a defining moment for me.

Then as part of the Old Mutual / Nedbank scenarios of 1992-1993, I was appointed head of the Small Business Initiative which advocated support for small business and the abolition of restrictive trade legislation, a second defining moment.

A third was my submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in September 1997, where I was the only businessman at the TRC hearing who criticised the white business sector for its role in supporting the apartheid regime and being involved in sanctions-busting and arms procurement. I also criticised the SARB for advancing a controversial soft loan to Absa Bank Limited.

Another defining moment was in preventing evictions as secretary of the Save Pageview Association, which successfully prevented the forceful eviction of the Pageview families. Pageview was the only suburb in South Africa which, although declared a White Group Area in 1963, remained as South Africa’s first mixed-race suburb. President Nelson Mandela visited me in late 1993. I told him several anecdotes from the Pageview battle.

Finally, I was an executive committee member of the Stop the Highway Committee which successfully stopped the Johannesburg City Council from constructing a section of the highway from Auckland Park through De La Ray Street in Pageview and Princess Street in Mayfair. The highway would have caused the demolition of mosques, churches, temples, schools and houses in Pageview and Mayfair. These are some of the moments which have defined my career.

Paul Ballen

ByWBSComms November 21, 2018January 10, 2020

The glow of the newly installed blue iridescent Paul’s Homemade Ice Cream logo on the opening of our first the store in The Zone, Rosebank, in December 2015, was a moment that brought with it an understanding of where my career was rapidly moving.

50 Faces

Vuyisile Zondi

ByWBSComms November 22, 2018May 18, 2019

A defining moment in my career has been the ability to start a business and sustain its growth in a highly competitive market.

50 Faces

Deon Opperman

ByWBSComms November 22, 2018January 10, 2020

The defining moment of my career happened when I was 12 years old. My father was the managing director of Glenton & Mitchell in the Eastern Cape, the company that launched Joko Tea during the first half of the 20th century.

50 Faces

Dino Rech

ByWBSComms November 22, 2018January 10, 2020

It’s not easy to pinpoint one defining moment. There have been a number that has shaped the person and professional I am today. One person (and series of events) that stands out was a young patient of mine during my internship year as a junior doctor.

50 Faces

Maurice Radebe

ByWBSComms November 22, 2018January 13, 2020

My appointment as managing director, Sasol Oil, in December 2006 was a defining moment in my career. Prior to this appointment, we had spent close to four years managing merger processes.

50 Faces

Barbara Queally

ByWBSComms November 22, 2018January 10, 2020

Independent from a very young age, I had one life plan, ‘to own my own knives and forks’ and never to rely financially on anyone else. After two years of pursuing a business degree at university, I dropped out.

Ebrahim Kharsany

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