Full Name: Daphne Mashile-Nkosi
Position: Executive chairperson of Kalagadi Manganese and Kalahari Resources (also nonexecutive chairperson of JSE-listed Pinnacle Holdings, Women’s Investment Bank, Interfile, board member of the South African Diamond and Precious Metals Regulator, trustee First Rand Empowerment Trust)
Main Activity of Company: Manganese mining, sintering and planned smelting
Date and Place of Birth: 1958, Pilgrim’s Rest, Mpumalanga
Education: Sekano Ntoane High School, Soweto, (I did not complete matric in 1976 – I was a member of the Class of ’76 that took part in the epoch-making student uprising in Soweto on June 16, 1976, which is today commemorated as Youth Day, a South African national holiday)
First Job: Administrator, Detainees Paralegal Support Committee, 1982
Size of First Pay Packet: R46 a month
Value of Project: R11.5-billion, comprising R7-billion for the Northern Cape mine and sinter plant complex, which is expected to be operational in mid-2014, and R4.5-billion for the proposed smelter earmarked for construction in the Eastern Cape
Projected Revenue from Project: R12-billion to R13-billion a year from 2014
Projected Number of Employees: 2 200
Management Style: Autocratic, with a feminine touch
Personal Best Achievement: Kalagadi Manganese’s infrastructural and social impact so far
Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Life: My mother, Lina, 84, who still cooks her own meals and refuses to allow anyone else to clean her house
Person Who Has Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: My grandfather, a foreman at Transvaal Gold Mining Estates, in Mpumalanga
Person You Would Most Like to Meet: Nobody. Don’t expect anyone to open any doors for you but break doors down for yourself
Person Who Has Impressed You Most: Colin Hall, former Woolworths CEO, my role model
Philosophy of Life: The world owes me nothing
Biggest Ever Opportunity: This one
Biggest Ever Disappointment: Not building Kalagadi with my husband, Stanley, who went into hospital to have a pinched nerve treated ahead of taking part in a golf tournament and choked to death in hospital
Hope for the Future: That there are more people who replicate what I have done at Kalagadi for the good of South Africa
Favourite Reading: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins
Favourite TV Programme: Crime & Investigation Network
Favourite Food/Drink: I eat everything and drink everything, except alcohol
Favourite Music: Gospel
Favourite Sport: None – I do not even watch sport on TV
Hobbies: Reading and travelling with my grandchildren
Car: Mercedes-Benz
Pets: Two poodles and a chow for 19 years, which I have vowed never to replace – one died two days before my late husband and the other two died three years ago
Dislikes: I do not have any dislikes
Married: Widow
Children: Zakhele, 38, Katlego, 24, Thekiso, 21, Zakithi, 16, my brother’s child, Tshiamo, 30, and three grandchildren, Rea, 7, Bubu, 7, and Boka, 4
Clubs: None