Kenny Kunene is a South African Multi-Millionaire Businessman and Socialite, the owner of the biggest entertainment brand in the country ZAR. ZAR is a night club brand which offers the highest entertainment quality in South Africa. When you talk of entertainment business in Africa his name rings bells in people's minds. He is a self-made multi-millionaire who defied odds to rise high in the corporate world in South Africa.
Kenny Kunene and John Legend
He made his Millions, from rags to riches and blinging! Hard Work, Partying and more Parties. Kenny Kunene is a force to be reckoned with in the business world. He is an executive and shareholder of mining company Central Rand Gold.
Kenny Kunene and Busta Rhymes
Kenny Kunene with Socialite Kanyi
Apart from this he has various other companies including an investment entity with overseas business partners. He is also a director of a publishing company, X-Concepts. This is a high feat for an ex-convict who rose from shame to live a life of purpose. His journey to the top was fraught with obstacles. Below we chronicle his journey to prominence over a short time.
Whilst in prison, Kenny Kunene says, he earned R22 a month making tea for the warders at Grootvlei Prison, and other cash and goods working for Gayton McKenzie "in the smuggling business". On his release in 2003, he declined numerous invitations to take part in robberies and scams, despite having only R3000 in his bank account. In 2004, he earned a small wage as the agent for a man selling refurbished desks and stationery to schools in the Free State; later that year, he used his old contacts to arrange discounts on equipment for a partner starting a nightclub in Odendaalsrus, and earned a stake in the business
In September 2005, he got a teaching job at Calculus Secondary School in Bloemfontein, teaching life orientation and English, for which he earned R3000 a month. He bought an old VW Golf, but had to put it on blocks. The following year, 2006, with less than R10 000 in assets, he struck a deal with Gayton McKenzie to form X Concepts Publishing and to promote and sell McKenzie's prison biography. They also began a fish company with four trucks and a refrigerated warehouse, and later sold it "for profit";
Kunene became rich in 2007 selling tickets for McKenzie's motivational talks to companies for "big money" and also advised people on "holes" in their home security for a fee. A portion of the money they made from the book sales was invested in a "mine consultancy business". Benefactor Greg James's company, CRG, hired Kunene on a large contractor's salary. He does not deny that he received share options allegedly worth hundreds of thousands of rands.
In February 2008, he was appointed a senior manager of community relations at CRG. He bought a multimillion-rand Sandton apartment and a Porsche 911, using a numberplate that read "What now?" as a taunt to prisoners who said he could not afford the car without resorting to crime. Applying business lessons he says they had learnt from mentors, James and Gavin Varejes, Kunene and McKenzie attracted foreign investors and became part owners of "about three, four companies"; and
In February 2010, the pair began mining operations in Zimbabwe. Kunene says they are in the process of securing R140-million in start-up funding from foreign investors for a R700-million mining project "in another African country" and plan further ZAR clubs in Durban and Mozambique.
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