He Built SA's First Black-Owned EV Company After The Government Gave Him R0

This man built SA's first black-owned EV company. When he went to the government for funding, the IDC gave him nothing. Then he found out that they gave his white-owned competitor, Mellowcabs, a white-owned company that produces similar electric three-wheeled vehicles, R69.9 million in funding. So he pulled a Thanos and invested R9.5 million of his own money over 10 years and landed deals with McDonald's, Vodacom, Takealot.com and so many more. And this is the story of how he got there. CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING Fezile Dhlamini grew up in Soweto and the suburbs. He lived in both worlds. And here's what most people don't know. He never planned to be an entrepreneur. He actually wanted to be a CMO at Adidas. That was the dream. But in grade 10, he got expelled from a private school in Riches Bay for something he didn't do. He was just one of the only black kids there when something went wrong. And they pointed at him. His mother moved him to a government technical school. 40 kids per class. Long drop toilets. The reality. A completely different world. He finished, went to the University of Johannesburg, studied strategic communications and became a radio DJ. He kept watching the world around him. CHAPTER 2: THE MOMENT 28 December 2015, Richards Bay. Nomama jumped off a mini bus taxi, heavy plastic bags and had a 3 to 5 kilometer walk home because that's just how spatial planning works out there. Something you see every day. And it broke something in him. And six days later, he had a full business plan. He was going to build South Africa's electric vehicle company. For the people that the transport system had forgotten. No running costs, zero emissions, built for SA roads, creates jobs, empowers communities. Mobility is freedom. We build freedom. CHAPTER 3: HOW HE FUNDED IT He built his own engine. While at university, he ran a social engineering hustle. People paid him to find information that they couldn't find on Google. Then he worked corporate jobs and used that income to fund the early stages. Then he started an entirely separate company, Nokwe Digital, just to generate enough revenue to keep Green Scooter alive. He deployed vehicles for McDonald's, PepsiCo, DHL, Spar, Vodacom. The CSIR validated his manufacturing roadmap and the AIDC issued a formal letter of support. He holds a 6,500 square metre factory allocation at the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone. A state-built factory, designed for black manufacturers, sits empty while a qualifying black-owned tenant is being turned away. The first of its kind for a Black Youth-Owned Automotive Manufacturer. CHAPTER 4: THE IDC In May 2018, he walked into the IDC for the first time with the business plan, a pitch deck and a dream to manufacture electric vehicles in South Africa. A senior official looked at him and said, "How do we know you won't buy a GTI when we give you the funding?" I had my Charcoal GTI parked outside at the time. This was very confusing. You see where the problem is? He told zero. And he was asking for the funding. That's literally what development finance is for. So he didn't leave. He built a pre-order website, got 93 pre-orders and 237 enquiries. And went back. But it was still not enough for them. Then even in March 2019, he secured a purchase order from Vodacom worth R1.9 million. He went back to the IDC. They referred him to SEFA. SEFA said that they never received a referral. He ended up losing that Vodacom contract because he couldn't deliver the vehicles. Then, June 2019, he got a formal rejection. The reason was: "Still too early stage. Still an untested market." So even though he had pre-orders and had a Vodacom purchase order, it wasn't enough for him. And then it got worse. In one meeting, a black IDC official said to him, "How do we know you won't buy a GTI when we give you the funding?" I had my Charcoal GTI parked outside at the time. This was very confusing. You see where the problem is? CHAPTER 5: HE BUILT ANYWAY And while the IDC kept saying no, he kept building. He deployed vehicles for McDonald's, PepsiCo, DHL, Spar, Vodacom. The CSIR validated his manufacturing roadmap and the AIDC issued a formal letter of support. He holds a 6,500 square metre factory allocation at the Tshwane Automotive Special Economic Zone. A state-built factory, designed for black manufacturers, sits empty while a qualifying black-owned tenant is being turned away. The first of its kind for a Black Youth-Owned Automotive Manufacturer. In his own words: "The system is not broken... It's working exactly as designed."