DON’T JUST GET THERE, FLY S.A.WISE

Mothibi Mthethwa

Wiseman Ntombela. Photos: Nonhlanhla Kambule-Makgati

ENTREPRENEURSHIP WHILE America’s New York City sings its own praises about Broadway Street, along and near which most of leading commercial theatres are situated, in addition to being the longest street in the world, half-a-world’s-distance away, Soweto in South Africa, has Vilakazi Street to brag about in Orlando West, as the only street in the world ever to have of two Nobel Peace Award recipients. Archbishop Emeritus Mpilo Desmond Tutu of the Anglican Church of South Africa, was the first in 1984, with the former world’s most famous political prisoner-turned-first-democratically-elected-President of the new South Africa, Dr Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress (ANC) as the second in 1993, who jointly shared the Nobel Award in 1993 with Frederick Willem de Klerk, the former South African State President, who manoeuvered carefully between his own conservative party demands and those by Blacks for faster political reform in South Africa.

Walking up-and-down Vilakazi Street today, you could be pardoned for getting lost amid a maze of African cuisine restaurants, curio stalls and shops, tourism agencies, township small traders selling Bafana Bafana and Springbok rugby jerseys, caps and related equipment , eye-catching African-print dresses, `doeks’ (head-gear) and shirts, visual artists displaying their works that portray Struggle days, and stalls selling bunny-chow quarter-loaves filled with delicacies and affectionately called `kotas’ in township parlance.

Come week-days, come week-ends, you surely cannot miss scores of colourful luxury coaches that come rolling in and out of the ever-congested world-famous Vilakazi Street, ferrying local visitors and international tourists, to be warmly greeted by ebony-skinned groups in animal skins; singing, chanting and dancing to African sounds and bongo jungle-drum-beats, alongside spectacular gum-boot-dancing. Tourists and visitors of all age-groups, shapes and sizes come streaming in groups and couples welded together at the hips, with baseball caps perched on their heads, sunglasses and all-sorts-of-video-devices on hand. Just across the street, a stone-throwing-distance away, near the Uncle Toms Hall, and a praying-distance away from the Holy Cross Anglican Church, the Hector Petersen Memorial, declared a National Heritage Site, takes its place of pride, in honour of Zolile Petersen, the 13-year-old first-recorded 16 June 1976 martyr.

However, after all has been said and done, what takes the cake is the Mandela House, the original home of Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, situated at 8115 Vilakazi Street, at the corner of Ngakane Street, a National Heritage Site and bee-hive of Tourist Attraction that knows no sleep.While every operation in and along Vilakazi Street seemed to be as smooth-sailing as a well-oiled machine, on that particular afternoon in one of the numerous restaurants lining Vilakazi Street, sat a visionary-marketer-in-one aptly-named Wiseman Manqoba Ntombela, pondering about his future; following the recent shutting-down of the aviation company he worked for, when a tiny voice within his rib-cage whispered to him, saying: “There is a missing link in all operations - a vital link”.

Among other realisations this visionary-marketer made were that:

•Most people tend to paint vague mental pictures of the actual Mandela House, such as and including being a multi-story structure, a sprawling mansion or big ranch.

•Visitors come to Mandela House,mingle, take actual pictures and go their separate ways without any further knowledge or information about the icon and historical background, and

•Except for the experience they have had regarding Mandela House, many go back to their respective suburbs without any further knowledge and experience of Soweto and the people living there.

And, true to his names meaning conqueror and sage, Mr Ntombela came up with a number of solutions, in the form of Fly S.A.Wise Tourism Aviation Company (with `Wise’ borrowed from his name), at 6973 Vilakazi Street, which began operations in 2016, directly opposite the DON’T JUST GET THERE, FLY S.A.WISE Mandela House. With Mr Ntombela as the Managing-Director, incorporatiing credible Partners, the Staff consists of Nthabiseng Nthite in Operations Management, Nokukhanya Mbatha in Administration and Nqobile Ntombela as Marketing Assistant. But, first things first, who is the man behind the Fly S.A.Wise brain-child? “I was born at Estcourt, eMtshezi, in KwaZulu-Natal, many, many years ago.

That is where I began my primary school education until high school, before working in Johannesburg for about three years,” the soft-spoken visionary-marketer, immaculately-dressed in black pants worn almost to chest-level, matching shoes and a long-sleeved black shirt with contrasting colours, opens up to Soweto WayaWaya, at Fly S.A.Wise headquarters. His dress-style resembles that of a man who loves golf, a hobby-turned-sport he has loved since he was a knee-high lad of eight years. The fact that he later went on to obtain his junior degree at the University of Fort Hare in Alice, Eastern Cape, his senior degree at the Rand.

Children from Learn at Play academy in Klipspruit ready to fly S.A Wise.

Photo: Nonhlanhla Kambule-Makgati

Afrikaanse Universiteit (RAU and now called University of Johannesburg), his post-graduate degree at WITS, as well as a Theology Diploma and Bachelor of Ministry at Lenasia-based Faith Bible College, simply means Manqoba Wiseman Ntombela `was not born yesterday’.

Some of the awards adorning the left-side wall that eloquently pay tribute to his works and achievements read as follows:

• 2016 Entrepreneurial RecognitionAward, 2017 Lilizela Tourism Award for Emerging Entrepreneur.

• Soweto Business: Honour FlyS.A.WiseFor Offering World-Class Customer Service Experience

• 2018 Certificate of Recognition inTourism

• STEBCO Founding Member of SowetoTourism & Events Business Consortium

• 2018 Lilizela Provincial Finalist, and

• Township Entrepreneur Award.

“four-to-six trained personnel are responsible for ushering clients into flights, consisting of helicopters and aeroplanes, ferrying individuals, couples, wedding couples, for business or recreation purposes and school groups,” he gives a background regarding services offered by FlyS.A.Wise.

“At Fly S.A.Wise we introduce learners from schools to A-Z Aviation Careers, including becoming Cabin Crews, Pilots and Upholstery. For instance, if students are interested in Law and Aviation, we help them combine the two together as one. Hence, we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gauteng Department of Education to prolong our contract with GDE.

“We have a two-pronged business model. The first involves flying our clients around Soweto, Johannesburg and Pretoria, including as far as the Kruger National Park, the Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu (Eastern Cape) and the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, while the second involves anywhere (Local, Regional and International), our clients want, using both helicopter and fixed-winged aeroplanes.”

FlyS.A.Wise offers clients access to all the nine provinces from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North-West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape.

•Among others, FlyS.A.Wise fliesclients to other landmarks worth visiting in Soweto and Johannesburg, such as Archbishop Emeritus Tutu House, Regina Mundi Church, Walter Sisulu Square, Orlando Power Station `Twin’ Towers, Orlando `Mecca of Soccer’ Stadium, FNB Soccer City Stadium, Mandela Square, Credo Mutwa Cultural Village and Kloofendal Municipal Nature Reserve Then there is the Nelson Mandela Museum in the Eastern Cape, which operates at the revamped Nelson Mandela Bhunga Building in Mthatha and the built-for-purpose Youth and Heritage Centre in Qunu.

•Places to see in Mandela’s birthplaceof Qunu include Qunu Junior Secondary School, the Sliding Stone, Mandela’s Family Gravesite, Replica of Mandela’s Prison Cell, Madiba Trial, Mandela’s Grave, Traditional Village and Mkhambathini Nature Reserve.

As much as Wiseman Manqoba Ntombela is not a pilot, he can easily be likened to non-drinking Henry McKenna in the 1850s, who went on to make `the best bourbon whiskey in Kentucky by luring to his side 16 finest bourbon-makers in the USA, who said: “You don’t have to tell time to make a good clock.”

For more information, please contact:

Fly S.A.Wise on:

Office: 011 067 0158 / 078 040 2124 /

082 545 9987.

E-mail: flysawise.com