Blue Chip Journal - June 2019 edition

INSPIRATION
Schemes in the same year. I was very
excited, a state of mind which led to grave
errors of judgement.
Going against the advice of my mentors,
Clive Le Meme and Theuns Botha of
Discovery, I employed an enormous team
of 17 brokers who gave me a lot of lapses,
which together with skyrocketing overheads
almost collapsed our organisation. However,
by concentrating on the basics we managed
to pay off what we owed to insurance
companies in a few months. We decided to
get rid of almost everyone and right now
we have a total staff complement of seven
employees, most of whom have been with
the company since inception. We run the
practice with my wife Thembi Mamfunda,
in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.
Most of my broker friends have been
very discouraged with the changes taking
place in our industry and the fact that fewer
than 10% of advisors in the industry are
black just makes it worse.
My encouragement to every advisor
regardless of race is that there are still
many opportunities and a lot of money to
be made in our industry if you just work
hard and follow legislation.
To date we have many clients of all races
and backgrounds who have trusted us to
handle their risk as well as investments,
with over R250-million in assets under
management and growing.
We have also diversified into other
businesses: real estate, transport and
farming.
We are also proud of giving back to
the community through our NGO Azusa
Foundation, where we are currently
looking after 11 less privileged children
by providing all their requirements
including education costs. This year we
are looking forward to attending the
graduation of a person we took from the
streets who is finishing his LLB degree
with UNISA.
If I could make it against all odds, any
other person can make it in this industry
and help to reduce the unemployment rate
by telling new graduates not to focus on
basic salaries.
A lot has been said about foreigners
taking jobs from the locals, but I believe
that there are exceptions like myself, in that
for the past 20 years I have only worked on
commission and no basic salary.
Coming from another country and
hearing a lot said about apartheid, I had
prepared myself for it. Unfortunately the
opposite has happened to me the most:
I have suffered more discrimination from
fellow black South Africans than from
white people. At times even the police
would question my wife as to why she
married a foreigner, saying she should “be
very careful”. Sometimes I would go to see
a client and they would simply refuse to do
business with me, but when my junior from
the office goes who speaks their language
they would be comfortable. At times some
would even tell me that I would run away
with their money. I always respect people’s
opinions and move on to other people
who have trusted us with their lives due to
the exceptional service we give them.
I believe that many other people can
make it if they just focus on the positives
and not the negatives. Every single day
when I wake up, I just see opportunities
and really wonder why people are always
protesting for lack of jobs.
In conclusion, I would like to encourage
fellow advisors to take part in the one-year
ASISA IFP practice programme sponsored
by Allan Gray, Prudential, Coronation and
Investec, as it has given me a different
perspective about the financial services
industry and has definitely added so much
value to our practice.
Gerald Mamfunda, Key Individual/
Financial Advisor, Azusa Financial
Services
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