Successful and wealthy, Robert Gumede rose above his humble beginnings as caddy at Nelspruit Golf Club to become executive chairman of GijimaAst Technologies, one of the two largest IT companies in South Africa. The perfect example of a self-made man, Robert chatted to us at his Steiltes home about growing up, success and going global.

As the fifth child in a family of seven, with a single mom working as a domestic worker, Robert is no stranger to hardship.

He tells a poignant childhood story about playing soccer at the bus stop in the afternoons and how, when the other boys’ dads would arrive, they would run off home with their fathers and take their soccer ball with them, abruptly ending the game. “I never had one of my own, and vowed this wouldn’t happen to my four children,” he says without a hint of self-pity. In his world, obstacles are to be overcome.

Born in what is now Nelsville, he started working at the golf course at the age of seven, caddying for top executives. “I was fortunate to be exposed to people successful in their own right,” he says. “To watch and learn.” There and then he made a decision: not to be a good employee, but a good employer one day. “It fuelled my ambition - at first to emulate, but then to exceed.”

Working as a caddy and gardener for golfers at the club helped him through school until he went to University of Zululand, funded by his own savings and some help from club members and KaNgwane Government.

The decision to study law grew from his childhood ambition to become a detective, to “catch crooks”.

After completing his degree, he returned to Nelspruit and worked in the magistrate’s office and then as an adviser in the Ministry of Justice. In 1988 he left law for various reasons, one being a desire to be his own boss.

A number of ventures followed, but after identifying an opportunity in the IT industry he started Gijima Technologies, and never looked back.

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