Boss is a slave-driver, bless 'I'm

Entrepreneurs only have themselves to blame - or thank

Dec 8, 2009 9:25 PM | By Peter Delmar

Peter Delmar: Somebody ought to report my employer to the Department of

Labour. Or maybe the Human Rights Commission. You have no idea what he

puts me through...

Yes, yes, yes, he kept assuring me all year, you can take the whole of December off; go and play as much golf as you like; see the friends you've been ignoring all year; and spend some time with the children.

Then what happens? In the last weekend of November the bastard lands a new piece of business and suddenly the promises about December never happened. And that project we've been working on all year? Well, sorry for you, but it's taking a bit longer to complete than we expected. And it's, like, all my fault, apparently.

From the beginning of the year the so-and-so has frequently expected me to start work at 6am, and to travel to the far corners of the country at the drop of his whimsical hat, sometimes to work until midnight. I occasionally get Saturdays to myself but a whole Sunday - the ordained day of rest - off work has never happened.

This whole year I've had maybe a week's leave. Even Americans and Koreans get more leave than that.

Sure, there have been compensations. My Sisyphean labours this year have exposed me to some remarkable people. People like Malusi Zondo, owner of a Durban-based business called Blue Tours, which lays on transfers, tours, limos, helicopters, yachts - you name it.

Malusi's parents were from Umlazi and both were blind, but they managed to give their five children the kind of start in life that has made Malusi a top-notch entrepreneur.

This year, thanks to my boss, I've met George Ntozonke and the 15 or so - mostly handicapped - volunteer workers of the Nonkqubela Project outside Queenstown.

Working in a former Bantustan school, these people work for a pittance to turn raw sisal into beautiful, functional objects.

On the eve of the national elections I was down the road from Nonkqubela, in Alice, trying to interview another crafter called Ashwin Ramhith, who kept making me laugh so much it was hard to concentrate on my work.

At the other end of the entrepreneurial scale, I've met and interviewed Jody Aufrichtig, who transformed a once grand hotel in Long Street, Cape Town, and then had the crazy idea of putting vintage caravans on the roof and charging people to sleep in them.

The last time we spoke he was planning Spiderman-like canopy tours - in the Cape Town CBD.

Most of these amazing people, sadly, I've only met once or twice; but I did manage to follow up this year with one inspirational self-starter I interviewed three years ago.

Linda Olga Nghatsane is a South African: a former missionary in Mozambique who came home a few years ago to start a farming project that would uplift her community, outside Nelspruit. Three years ago I wrote about how her diversified agricultural business was going hell for leather, employing 22 people on a turnover of R2-million.

I phoned her recently to find out how things were progressing. Not that well. She'd had 40000 chickens when I interviewed her last, but disease had since broken out and all the chickens had had to be slaughtered. What was Linda going to do about it? She was going to start all over again, that's what.

The boss keeps telling me that meeting people like Linda and Jody and George and Malusi compensate for the crazy hours, the insane travel, the relentless demands.

He tells me that I am extremely lucky to have worked in all nine provinces in one year, to have been exposed to places and landscapes of unimaginable beauty and self-starters with passion and staying power.

He tells me that I am fortunate to drive the luxury German sedan (second-hand, mind you) which the business recently bought for all this outlandish travel and that I shouldn't grouse about the fact that he sometimes forgets to pay me a salary.

And, you know what? He's right. It has been an amazing year. A year of fabulous travel, of incredibly hard work, stunning people and abiding memories.

I have been fortunate to have been kept busy during the worst depression since the Great one. I have been blessed. I hope that you and your families will be similarly blessed this Christmas and in 2010. - Peter Delmar is about to complete his first year of working for himself. He is still on probation but having loads of fun

Dec 8, 2009 9:25 PM | By Peter Delmar , 27 July 2010