25/08/2025
If you've ever wondered why it feels like South African business is a rigged game, it's time to look at how the big players are all connected. It’s a system designed to keep wealth in a very small circle, and it’s a major reason why so many African entrepreneurs are being left out in the cold.
Let's break it down. Take a company like Discovery. You sign up for their medical aid, and they immediately push you towards a Virgin Active gym membership. Then, once you're at Virgin, you're encouraged to spend your money at their linked cafes like Kauai or Mugg & Bean. This is the friendly, smiling "front" they show you.
But the real story is hidden in the back room. When you follow the money, you find the same handful of people sitting as shareholders across all these companies the medical aids, the gyms, the restaurants, and even the banks that fund everything. It’s a closed network.
They dress it up with fancy words like "loyalty points" and "added benefits," but let's call it what it is: a monopoly. It’s why your insurance company forces you to use their specific tracker. It’s why a new restaurant is strong-armed into using their approved suppliers for everything from tech to plumbing. This is how a white-owned startup gets handed major contracts on a platter while others fight for scraps.
It’s a modern-day laager a circle of wagons designed to protect its own and keep everyone else out.
The truth is, we won't win by playing a solo game. The only way to break this cycle is to do what they do: connect, support, and build our own networks. It's time to link our businesses and finally build an economy that works for us, too.
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