safika holdings

General information

Founded in 1995, Safika Holdings Limited www.safika.co.za is an influential South African investment holding company headed by Nelson Mandela's fellow political prisoners Sakumzi 'Saki' Macozoma and Moss Ngoasheng. In 2003, when the South African government decreed that major businesses must ensure a certain percentage of their shareholding be held by black people Safika became the preferred Black Economic Empowerment partner for a number of prominent South African companies. Their head office is in Johannesburg.Safika has interests in financial services, mining, transport, manufacturing, human resources, media, gaming and technology. The company has close ties with the Standard Bank Group, http://www.standardbank.co.za, Africa's largest banking group by assets and earnings and with Liberty Holdings, http://www.libertyholdings.co.za/, a leading South African-based assurance conglomerate that has operations in 15 African countries. In 2004 Standard and Liberty took shares in Safika which in turn acquired stakes in Standard and Liberty. In 2005 Standard increased its shareholding in Safika to 20 per cent.On October 1, 2005 Safika bought a stake in Oosthuizens Transport, a major short-haul trucking company based in Mpumulanga that is heavily involved in the transport of coal to power stations. It subsequently acquired an effective 75 per cent stake after which the company was renamed Safika Oosthuizens Transport. http://www.oosthuizenssa.co.zaSafika holds a significant interest in Spartan Truck Hire, a South African national truck and crane rental company based in Kempton Park near Johannesburg, http://www.spartantruckhire.co.za. It is active in the packaged cement market through Castle Cement Holdings, http://www.idm.co.za.