Interviews

Louisa Mojela and Gloria Serobe are the leaders and co-founders of WIPHOLD (Women Investment Portfolio Holdings), a Black women-owned investment company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company invests in key sectors of the South African economy such as infrastructure, agriculture and financial services with the goal of supporting the influence of women in those areas. Established in 1994, WIPHOLD’s founding coincided with the end of apartheid and the country’s first democratic election with universal suffrage.

Mojela and Serobe start the interview by reflecting on their upbringing, education and early careers prior to founding WIPHOLD. They discuss the key moments and role models in their early lives that inspired them to pursue high-achieving careers in business. Whereas Mojela speaks about learning important networking skills from her aunt who had been a lawyer and advocate of the Lesotho High Court, Serobe credits a Professor she met during her first year of undergraduate studies, Prof. Wiseman Nkuhlu, who became the country’s first Black Chartered Accountant in 1976 (equivalent of a Certified Public Accountant in the United States).

Mojela and Serobe both outline the obstacles they encountered as Black women entering higher education and their first jobs in the context of apartheid. Recalling her first job at a bank after high school, Mojela explains how “I happened to be the only Black person in the bank other than the lady who was cleaning and making tea. During tea break, I would be expected to go and have my tea in the kitchen, not in the foyer like everyone else – my colleagues. I just told myself that I didn’t need to go to the kitchen to be humiliated […] Here at work, I [could] always pass up the opportunity for a tea break and go along with my job.” She describes the choice to “go along with her job” as a way in which she and others could fight back against an apartheid system that was deeply entrenched into every part of society.

Serobe proceeds in the interview by recalling how she met Mojela while working in corporate finance at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank (SCMB) in Johannesburg during the early 1990’s. They both describe this period as a pivotal stage in their careers, as they gained the experience in investment banking which would allow them to start their own company with the support of two other businesswomen, Nomhle Canca and Wendy Luhabe. Right before WIPHOLD, Serobe was also involved with South Africa’s first two Black Economic Empowerment transactions in 1994, which went through SCMB and represented the first governmental efforts to promote Black ownership of businesses in the country.

With economic opportunities opening up to Black South Africans starting in 1994, Serobe nevertheless notes how “what quickly happened was that white men were comfortable with Black men. They could talk business [but] somehow could not find it comfortable to talk to women about including them in business.” She and Mojela view this realization as the impetus for WIPHOLD, as they sought to create an investment company that would bring South African women from all walks of life into the mainstream economy and provide them with financial independence.

Over the course of the first few years, Mojela and Serobe traveled around the country to pitch WIPHOLD at road shows and workshops attended by both rural and urban women. They articulate how one of their primary objectives at these events was to educate potential investors regarding the benefits and potential risks of their investment portfolio. Many of the Black women that joined WIPHOLD, as they explain, had in fact only ever held informal savings in the form of “Stokvels” – jointly held funds created in response to the exclusion of Black people from the formal financial system. The portfolio that Mojela and Serobe pitched primarily involved investments into sectors they viewed as fundamental towards the advancement of women, and they provide the specific example of agriculture – a sector they describe as having been previously “anti-women” in regards to their policies and agenda.

In 1999, WIPHOLD was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange after raising 78 million South African rand from women across the country, in addition to 422 million rand from the open market. Over the course of the following years, WIPHOLD’s appeal led to increased interest from institutional investors. The company then decided to de-list once it “became clear that [they] were now owning more shares than us as women, [which] was in direct contrast to what WIPHOLD’s ethos was.” Following the delisting and a scheme of arrangement with institutional minority shareholders, Mojela explains how the company has gone “full circle,” as it has made itself a household name while remaining dedicated to the company’s founding vision to support the economic empowerment and financial independence of women throughout South Africa.

Mojela and Serobe conclude the interview by emphasizing the importance of good corporate governance to achieve the company’s goals. They add that while ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has simply become rhetoric for many companies, it has remained integral to WIPHOLD’s mission since its founding. Citing investments towards the UN’s Sustainable Development goals, they argue how “we must always make sure that the profits WIPHOLD shows can also be translated into a question of how many communities we can impact, and what we can transform out there for the benefit of all.” They view this as especially important in the context of a country such as South Africa, which continues to contend with the profound and systemic damage of apartheid’s legacy.

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