Building for the FUTURE Hennie Botes entrepreneur and CEO of moladi construction technology | plastic formwork | jobs food shelter | magazine

1. SCALE
38 ENTREPRENEURMAG.CO.ZA OCTOBER 2018 OCTOBER 2018 ENTREPRENEURMAG.CO.ZA 39
The Moladi building system uses a
removable, reusable, recyclable and
lightweight plastic formwork mould,
which is filled with mortar to form
the wall structure of a house in only
one day.
Hennie describes it as the ‘Henry
Ford’ of mass housing. “We produce
components and products that reduce
the cost of building, and we work on a
production-line basis, from production
to homeowner, bypassing the
middleman in the supply chain.”
The process involves the assembly
of a temporary plastic formwork
mould, the size of the designed
house, with all the electrical services
plumbing and steel reinforcing located
within the wall structure, which is
then filled with a specially formulated
mortar mix to form all the walls of the
house simultaneously.
All the steel reinforcing, window
and door block-outs, conduits, pipes
and other fittings are positioned
within the wall cavity to be cast
in-place when filled with the Moladi
mortar mix. The mix is a fast curing
aerated mortar that flows easily,
is waterproof and possesses good
thermal and sound insulating
properties.
SOUTH AFRICA has a housing backlog of
between 2,5 million to three million and it’s
continuing to grow. The country also has
a persistently high number of unemployed
people at 5,98 million, according to the latest
numbers from Stats SA.
One entrepreneur who is committed
to helping address both crises is Hennie
Botes. A toolmaker by trade, the Port
Elizabeth-based founder and designer of
construction system Moladi developed this
innovative building technology as a means
to address many of the cumbersome and
costly aspects of conventional construction
methods, without compromising on the
quality or integrity of the structure. The
system replaces the bricklaying process
with an approach similar to plastic injection
moulding.
Founded back in 1986, when Hennie first
realised how difficult it was for the poor to
get good quality housing, his solution was
the development of a whole new building
system, which he named Moladi. The
company has been in existence for more
than three decades, and exports to 22
countries around the world.
“I built the first house based on the Moladi
system in Benoni, in 1987,” Hennie says.
“Substandard craftsmanship has resulted in
South Africa’s poor living in inferior housing
structures. I wanted to fix this problem, and
I wanted to show people that the concept I
had developed actually worked in real life.”
Like many truly innovative entrepreneurs,
however, he discovered that a brilliant
business idea is no guarantee of success.
Converting an idea into a reality (regardless
of the required investment of time and
money) is never an easy task. In fact, it can
be extremely difficult.
“I was naïve to think that a phenomenal
breakthrough in the way we build houses
would have people beating a path to my
door, but academics and politicians speak
different languages from entrepreneurs. I
discovered that the saying, ‘Eat the elephant
one bite at a time’ really does apply to
entrepreneurship.”
Hennie learnt that you have to believe in
yourself enough to handle the consequences
of your decisions. “When you take on the
responsibility of developing something
that had not existed before, you become
accountable. To turn that opportunity
into a reality, you have to believe in
yourself 100%. Great ideas fail because
the unexpected challenges become more
than you think you can handle, and the
risk is that you lose the belief in yourself
to see things through all the way to the
end. In many ways, it’s like competing in a
triathlon — you achieve one goal, and you
have to move on straight to the next one.”
Hennie says his goal is not to enrich
himself, but to use his technology to
help empower other entrepreneurs. His
methodology has been used to build
thousands of houses all around the world
— from Mexico to Sri Lanka. Today, Moladi
exports to multiple countries, including
Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Panama,
Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Kenya. Moladi
recently built a showhouse for a low-cost
housing development in Trinidad and
Tobago — the structure went up in 12 days.
Another big win has been the construction
of the 1 600m2
Kibaha District Courthouse in
Tanzania. It was built in six months, at a cost
of 4 250 per m2
, which is less than half the
cost of a conventional building. In Mauritius.
the technology is being used to build 2 000
low-cost homes on 250 acres of coastline.
“Despite the housing backlog in this
country, what has sustained my business
over 32 years is the work we have done
beyond our borders,” he says. “But that
is changing. Earlier this year we were
contracted by the Western Cape Department
of Education to build four classrooms in
Philippi, as well as a double-storey building
with eight classrooms in Robertson. We
completed these projects in a record four
months, at a third of the price. Usually, the
construction of just one classroom can take
between four to six months. This kind of
government project is exactly the foot-in-the
door that Moladi is after. The Western Cape
has to build 20 schools a year to provide for
its growing population.”
Moladi provides training in the
construction of its houses and licences
people who finish the course to build
Moladi houses. Training is free, but trainees
need to pay for the moulds and admixture.
Licensees are supplied with viable business
plans to help them secure loans for their
start-ups. Hennie has a vested interest in
the success of the licensees, since poor
outcomes reflect badly on the business. He
also prefers working with cooperatives rather
than individuals, as it means that people will
check up on each other. This is especially
important when it comes to cash flow. Many
new entrepreneurs fail, he says, because they
splurge on cars and cell phones instead of
the must-haves required to make a business
grow.
Hennie has kept his team small. Low
overhead costs have enabled Moladi to
remain profitable in the low cost housing
market. Companies with high overheads
simply cannot compete in this small-margin,
big-volume space. “The real market requires
a vast amount of homes below the R500 000
range, and that’s where our focus lies. Also,
I did most of the work alone for many years
after I started the company. These days my
daughters, Shevaughn and Camalynne, are
key to the successful running of Moladi and
they fulfil vital roles. We outsource work to
keep overheads down and have very good
relationships with various suppliers, building
experts, engineers, town planners, architects,
and funding institutions. Our biggest
differentiator is the pride we take in our ‘land
to stand’ approach’ — we are a one-stop-shop
for home building.”
His goal now is to find ways to work
together with organisations like the National
Development Plan (NDP) and the National
Youth Development Agency (NYDA). Hennie
refers to his customers as partners, which
forms part of his holistic approach to
construction. Typical clients include private
construction firms and property developers.
Governments can often play indirect roles,
as they would usually contract state-funded
housing programmes through the tender
process.
“I believe we need entrepreneurship that
looks beyond spaza shops, hairdressers and
car washes,” he says. “There is an enormous
and pressing need to provide dignified
housing for South Africans, and to address
our appalling unemployment levels. What
better way to begin to do that than by using
accredited, affordable technology that can
achieve both goals at an accelerated rate?
Moreover, to fulfil the supply chain, work
would be provided for painters, plumbers,
electricians and roofers.”
MOLADI HIGHLIGHTS:
» Exports to 22 countries
» 2006: Moladi was presented with an
award by the Minister of Housing Lindiwe
Sisulu for its contribution to the Innovation
Housing Hub in Soshanguve
» 2012: Moladi reached the finals of a
$1 million global challenge to solve the
crisis of creating secure and affordable
shelter for the poor. Over 100 presentations
from around the world were submitted for
the 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge, in the
housing category, and just six, including
Moladi, made the cut. EM
SCALE INNOVATION
BUILDING
FOR THE
FUTUREHennie Botes is a true entrepreneur — through
a combination of passion and resilience, he
has pressed on despite challenges, developing
an unrelenting ability to sell his vision, and
execute it. His goal has always been to use
the technology he created — which challenges
traditional building techniques — to empower
other entrepreneurs. BY MONIQUE VERDUYN
PLAYER: Hennie Botes
COMPANY: Moladi
EST: 1986
VISIT: moladi.co.za
HOW IT WORKS
INNOVATION
PHOTOS:SUPPLIED