The doctor who found a calling in business

JUDY Dlamini has come a long way from being a township girl fantasising that a parcel containing new clothes - T-shirts and jeans - would arrive at her door and answer the fashion dreams of a young student strapped for cash but high on style.

JUDY Dlamini has come a long way from being a township girl fantasising that a parcel containing new clothes - T-shirts and jeans - would arrive at her door and answer the fashion dreams of a young student strapped for cash but high on style.

When we met for lunch at Pigalle in Melrose Arch, Dlamini wore an Oscar de la Renta dress, with meticulous detail and looking as if it came from the fashion runways of Paris.

It probably did.

Dlamini loves clothes, but there is nothing flighty about her. From an early age she was serious: she wanted to learn.

One day a doctor came to treat her father. She saw this black man with a beautiful car in charge of everything.

He helped her dad get better and the seed was planted. She wanted to be a doctor.

Dlamini was born in Westville, in Durban, but grew up in Clermont.

She ran her doctor's practice in Umlazi, the third largest township in South Africa, for about a decade.

Then she was held up by robbers at her practice and her passion started to dwindle.

Even so, she says, these were her best days because being a doctor satisfied an urge within her.

"I had a one-on-one relationship with my patients and their families. I understood their issues. I cried with them and laughed with them. There is nothing I could ever do that could be more rewarding."

But, Dlamini cannot be happy in a comfort zone.

Wanting to go into business, she completed an MBA and moved to Johannesburg with her husband Sizwe Nxasana, who had then been appointed CEO at Telkom and is now in charge of FirstRand.

When she was practising as a doctor and he as an accountant, the couple, who met in high school, owned a bakery next to her practice.

Once Dlamini had decided to trade medicine for business, she opted to take up a junior position with a lower income in the corporate finance division of an investment bank.

She wanted to learn the ropes so she could really understand the way a business works, from the ground up.

"I won't go back to medicine because life is about growth.

"When you reach a comfort zone, you take a lot of things for granted," she said.

"When you challenge yourself, you expose the gaps in your knowledge that you need to fill.

"It has made me a better person," said Dlamini.

There were other business ventures. Before they had left KwaZulu-Natal, she had put together an investment group for women. She was involved in a combined public-private partnership in health at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital, operating the two sterile units at the hospital and supplying surgical instruments.

While seeking funding for a venture, she came into contact with Investec corporate finance stalwart Andy Leith, who suggested she meet Aspen Pharmacare co-founder Stephen Saad, with whom he had worked since the start of the highly successful pharmaceutical group.

Dlamini played a leadership role in the empowerment group that invested in Aspen, which led to a place on the board of directors.

Two years later she became non-executive chairwoman.

Dlamini has been with the group for nearly 10 years and describes her time there as a wonderful journey. "When you can find a business that matches you core beliefs and makes a positive difference, especially for the poor, it is very rewarding. I am lucky to be working with the Aspen team."

Dlamini has a quiet manner. Even though she is clear about her views, there is a softness that reflects her stance as a doctor rather than a businesswoman.

She is averse to the spotlight, but after losing her son to an illness some years ago she decided to share her story as a means of encouraging others.

"It reminded me that life is so short and that you are here for a purpose. The things you do and say might change the life of a child who doesn't know you.

"If it can make someone else aim higher, it's worth it. That's how I look at life now."

Last year she completed a doctorate in business leadership.

"Education is everything. I had a dream of having a doctorate after a graduation ceremony I attended when I was a teenager. It was so special. In a sea of students earning bachelor's degrees there were two or three receiving doctorates. Earning the right to wear red academic attire became one of my missions."

Dlamini admits she could never have been a stay-at-home mom. "I used to pity my kids. They have two hard-working control freaks as parents," she says while laughing.

She learnt all about hard work from her parents and her children are following in her footsteps in this regard. "I knew I could be anything I wanted to be, as long as I focused on education and gave it my all. That was the ethos in my house."

It is a path that has made her very wealthy and positions her as one of the few women on the Sunday Times Rich List. She says it is not truly accurate and that wealth and rankings do not drive her.

The family is involved in several charities. One focuses on rural development and education. Next year they will start a fund to help locals study abroad. The family is building a community centre in KwaZulu-Natal to enable local residents to sell goods and get skills training.

"Rural communities more often than not lack access to quality education, healthcare and job opportunities. A lot has been done by government to address this, but as a family we believe we have a role to play. The path we chose was based on what the community identified as their needs."

Dlamini is now the largest single investor in high-end fashion store Luminance and working hard with her team.

What's next? She would love to lecture and to pass on her insights and knowledge, but she has yet to enter the lecture circuit.

Human beings are very intriguing, she says.

"For some people, negative reinforcement makes them say: I'll fight it until the end.

"I just have this drive to prove to myself that I can do it."