Over 22 years ago, Senzo Tsabedze worked as a game farm host, welcoming guests, designing menus, and waiting and training waiters.
Twenty-one years later, Tsabedze is celebrating the birthday of Afrirent, a multibillion-rand company he founded and currently chairs.
Afrirent, which generates over R1.5-billion per year, owns a fleet of over 4 200 vehicles, which it has leased to the Johannesburg Metro Police Department.
Based in Centurion, Afrirent, which employs close to 1 000 people, also has 90 trucks that are transporting mineral resources and agricultural produce from mines and farms, respectively, to different locations, including the harbour.
The business is also involved in hoteling, golf courses, and auctions. The company is also part of those bidding for the lucrative lotto tender.
“I started by being a waiter for a living. These days people are part-time waiters, working on weekends and going to school,” Tsabedze, who hails from Mpumalanga, said.
“I had to be a full-time waiter so that I could buy food because I didn’t have any money. I met a couple who recruited me to work as host for their hotel in Sabi, and they trained me.
“That’s how I went to work in Kruger National Park.”
Tsabedze said this during a Sunday World Engage interview, which was published at the weekend.
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“My biggest issue when I was employed was the fact that I never had good bosses. I had bad experiences with bosses, and I think because of that I said I needed to start my own thing,” he said.
Dealing with racism
Tsabedze narrated a story where he had a fallout with his then manager at Game Farm over his refusal to greet his daughter.
“I told him that my job was not to greet the boss’ daughter. My job was to look after the restaurant and guests.
“The guy took offence that I didn’t go to greet his daughter, and it became a big thing.
“Racism was still high, and most companies were white-owned and controlled, and you had to work for someone who’d treat you like an animal.
“For me, that’s really the drive that I ended up deciding that if anything, I’d rather hustle on the streets than have these people calling me names and all that.”
He kicked off his business by doing small renovations and supplying linen to Kruger National Park.
By a stroke of luck, Tsabedze’s two four-tonne trucks, which were used for the renovation and linen business, were hired by a car rental company for R35 000.
He said: “I then asked myself, if they are paying me R35 000 for a truck, how much are they making? That’s how I became interested in the fleet leasing business.
“I started chasing operators in the sector, asking if they needed more vehicles to lease. I started going to auctions, buying buses and trucks.
“I found myself with nine trucks and seven trucks that were rented to a car rental company.”
The birth of Afrirent
A few months later, Tsabedze secured a contract where he supplied the Bushbuck Ridge municipality with a fleet of trucks.
“That’s how the Afrirent brand was born,” he said.
“The business was started in Mpumalanga, and we moved to Joburg 16 years ago after realising that we could not just be a regional business. We needed to do business in other provinces as well.”
His business, which also supplies a fleet of trucks to Mbombela municipality, has since diversified its portfolio into energy, hotels, and running a golf course.
It also services all Coca-Cola trucks and refurbishes trailers.
“Also, with the whole lot of municipalities, they will need trucks for water, electricity, and maintaining their infrastructure. The trucks are used for the operations of the municipalities.”
He shared that the reason he acquired a 51% stake in High Street Auction in October was to use the business as a channel for disposing of vehicles that were being used by municipalities.
Growing company’s footprint
“We dispose of about 150 vehicles a month. Currently we give them to different auction platforms, but we think that we are not getting the value for our money.
“We also have a rent-to-own business, Sobantu, where some of the cars with low mileage are put, and we are targeting the unbanked or blacklisted market.”
Tsabedze said from early next year his business will start operating cross-border transportation.
He explained: “Our business currently doesn’t have foreigners. From January, we’ll start with our cross-border business to Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“We are going to hire foreigners because once you cross over to another country, you need someone who can speak their language.”
He said he aims to grow the business so that in the next three years, it generates R3-billion in revenue per year.
