About Phakamani - Where we’ve come from
Founded in 2015 by entrepreneur and mining industry veteran Nick van Rensburg in partnership with Vunani Capital Partners and Genesis Analytics, Phakamani was built on a vision of driving purposeful SMME success.
Born out of the mining and community space, we had a unique understanding of what entrepreneurship looked like on the ground – and how to unlock the potential of this space. We set about building solutions that spoke to this, in partnership with our diverse stakeholders.
Almost a decade later, we’re one of the few enterprise and supplier development (ESD) specialists resilient and intrepid enough to succeed in the complex mining, manufacturing and construction environments.
Through a process of continuous improvement, we’ve designed, refined and delivered a broad range of tailored ESD and preferential procurement solutions for clients of the calibre of Sibanye-Stillwater, Petra Diamonds, Harmony, IvanPlats and Black Mountain Complex, among others. While our solutions are custom-made, most include our signature brand of SMME finance, mentorship and accredited training, gearing SMMEs towards sustainable success.
As such, our work is impact-driven and led. It is delivered directly in “doorstep” communities through a combination of business support services and funding. These are pitched to address past, present and future: helping counter legacy issues; unlock short and medium term opportunities in corporate supply chains, and ensure future relevance within their markets.
Most importantly about us, we’re a team of experienced specialists with over 60 years’ experience in developing and financing black-owned SMMEs – with a passion for what we do. We’re massive advocates, supporters and champions of the businesses we work with; holding them and ourselves accountable for delivering on their definition of success.
The inspiration behind our logo
Our logo speaks of the promise and potential of Phakamani. It is a visual call to action. A catalyst for us to live and remain inspired by our purpose statement.
Incorporating the baobab tree from our original logo, we’ve interwoven our people; their deep care, resilience and joy; and their tireless striving for real change to create a symbol that speaks to the greater contribution and legacy that we are working to build each day.
Our mandate of enabling others to “rise” combined with the essence of our value statement “we care” also means that we continuously look for opportunities to train our staff as facilitators, assessors and moderators. Wherever possible we make use of local trainers, facilitators and mentors, as well as business ESD coordinators and development officers from the local community where our programmes are based. They receive training as necessary.
We also recommend that our clients leverage skills development spend to upskill junior project managers/ co-ordinators where possible. This creates an additional – and usually much needed – skillset in the communities, supporting job opportunities in the longer term.
We’re accredited with the Services Seta (accreditation number: 14218).
We are a registered credit provider with National Credit Regulator number NCRCP7151.
Phakamani clients
Our longstanding client relationships are testament to our partnership approach. They reflect our ability to deliver on ESD requirements and quantify impact.
We are privileged to have worked with Glencore, Goldfields and the Goldfield Trust.
Our current client partners include:
