KZN Oils sole owner was a previously disadvantage individual. Upon being awarded a portion of the tender to supply Transnet, Mr Rajen Reddy took the initial step to include other previously disadvantaged people, in particular, Black women. Zanele Mbogazi formed Phaphama, a company with ten other Black women. Phaphama has 26% equity ownership and the balance is owned by Mr Reddy. Zanele Mbogazi is a non-executive director and is the Chairperson of Phaphama. Her involvement entails participation in key strategic decision making. She will soon be considered for electionto the Board of Directors of KZN Oils.

The spin off from Phaphama is simply one of market penetration and product awareness. The members of Phaphama are based in different parts of South Africa and are also part of other associations. They have influenced businesses to support KZN Oils. This extra unexpected business has forced KZN Oils to expand the business in many facets. The company had to move to larger premises, reconstruct to accommodate more offices, and increase the size of the vehicle fleet.

As KZN Oils is a fully fledged black empowerment company, it supports Black owned businesses very aggressively. More than R2.2 million of its overall procurement spend is from this business sector.

The company is in the process of outsourcing its traditional market deliveries to a group of Black entrepreneurs. They will form an owner–driver’s company and perform deliveries to spare shops and workshops. This may constitute at-least 20% of our customer base with an initial budgeted sales contribution of ten percent.

KZN Oils has invested in several other Black owned and empowerment enterprises. Almost 90 % of the company training budget is targeted for Black employees.