17 Reuel (MA Marketing Management, 1979, County) has many strings to his bow, both entrepreneurial and creative. The new Chancellor of the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal; the co-owner and operator of seven lodges and a boutique hotel with his wife Mumsy and their daughters; a current and past chairman of illustrious national and multi-national companies based in South Africa; Fellow and President of the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa; Visiting Professor at Rhodes Business School, University of Free State Business School and Wits Business School; the author of six books; and a classical and choral music lyricist and executive producer of more than 150 songs composed by S J Khosa, a music prodigy with more than 800 compositions to his name. Scholastically, Reuel completed an EngD in Business Engineering with a focus on leadership at Warwick University, and has been honoured with LLD Honoris Causa by both Warwick and Rhodes Universities as well as a D Econ by the University of Free State. now Mpumalanga province. The path from there to Lancaster was not a straightforward one. After completing his undergraduate studies (BA and BA Honours in Psychology) at the University of the North, now the University of Limpopo, Reuel wanted to take up a scholarship opportunity in America. However, he was active in student politics, and the oppressive environment in Apartheid South Africa meant the government refused him a passport – ‘let alone a visa,’ he recalls. Reuel also lost his teaching job at the university and went to work as a brand manager with Unilever. “The authorities of the time did not take kindly to my questioning the manner in which they chose to treat other human beings. I was turfed out, but I have no regrets about being fired – that was a blessing in disguise, as it led me to where I am today” Reuel adds. The Fascinating Journeyof Dr Reuel Khoza Take a little walk to your fridge or your fruit bowl. If there is an avocado inside, you are in the UK and the label says ‘produce of South Africa’, then there is a good chance it will have come through the packing house of Dr Reuel Khoza. If that were not enough for a man who declares with a smile that he would ‘like to be fully utilised by the time I make my transition to eternity’, then there are avocados. On top of his numerous other enterprises, Reuel is a gentleman farmer par excellence, and his pack house packs and exports avocados from his own farm as well as for neighbouring growers – the venture is the second largest exporter of the fruit from South Africa to Europe. On a visit to Scotland for his daughter’s graduation at Stirling University, he discovered just how far his produce travels. “We checked into our hotel, unpacked and settled in, and then we took a stroll down the street – lo and behold, they were selling avocados from my farm in South Africa!” It has been a long journey for a young boy who balanced his primary school studies with looking after his grandfather’s cattle while growing up in the Bushbuckridge area of what is Keep in touch www.lancaster.ac.uk/alumni
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