Exclusive: How South Africa’s Emmanuel Bonoko Built a Successful Company from Nothing

Emmanuel Sir Bonoko is one of Africa’s most inspiring and successful social entrepreneurs, who through passion, authenticity and vision, became a success story.

A few years ago, he founded a marketing and consulting company, Ebonoko Holdings, that offers business strategy development, public relations, events management, and brand management to both SMEs and large corporations – and he has stamped himself as an authority in that field, especially in his home country, South Africa.

Today, the company has partnered and serviced some of the biggest corporations in South Africa including the Eskom Foundation, Shanduka Investment group, Shell South Africa, Mogale city Municipality, Standard Bank, PBT Group, IDC, Nedbank and many more. 

He has won several awards, such as, 2016 Forbes 30 under 30 Influential Young People, KIA Young Business Achiever 2017 at BBQ awards and Entrepreneur of the Year at SA Men of the Year Award 2016.

He tells Business Elites Africa more about his story in this interview.

Q: Please tell us about yourself.

A: I was born in Johannesburg, grew up with my granny in Limpopo, then moved to Pretoria to complete my primary and secondary education. During my undergraduate days, I moved to Johannesburg to stay with my late parents Jane Bonoko and King Maphosa. My mother was a domestic worker earning only R2500 a month and that was not sustainable enough for us. She also couldn’t afford to take me to university either. So, from my early days, she always emphasised that I had to do something for myself; that I cannot rely on her for the rest of my life.

But despite the hardship, she always made sure that her kids went to bed with something in their stomach. She was a strong woman and she taught me so many things that have made a significant impact in my life.

Q: How did you discover your vision or what led you into this line of business/career?

A: As I said earlier, my mother was a domestic worker who earned only R2500 every month. As a result, I wanted to make a great impact in my life. Many young people at my age then misunderstood me, and the passion I had with developing myself to live to my full potential. So I lost many friends growing up. Even my own family didn’t understand what I was trying to achieve because, according to them and their belief, to be successful as a young black person is only when you are working as a doctor, a teacher or lawyer. Yes, there is nothing wrong with working for a company, as a matter of fact, one can be successful working for a corporate but that was not for me. I wanted to start and build something great for myself.

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Q : What does your company do?

A: Ebonoko Holdings is a Forbes Africa listed Holding Company & private organisation that focuses on multiple business sectors including PR, Events, Brand Management, Marketing, Properties and trading privately with consumers on a one-on-one basis. Ebonoko Holdings prides itself in developing strong relations with the consumer in order to give the customer exactly what they are looking for.

Q: The best business decision you’ve ever made?

A: The best decision I’ve ever made is when I allowed myself to mentor over 15 young people in high school. That has helped me to learn and realise so many things about entrepreneurship. It is such a very interesting thing to mentor young people.

Read the rest of the interview in our digital magazine here: Find it on pages 42 & 43.

Editor’s Note: This interview was originally conducted by Victor Oluwole.