Thandi Ndlovu (1953/1954 - August 24, 2019) was a South African medical doctor and businesswoman who was best known as the founder of the Motheo Construction Group.

Early life and education

Ndlovu was born in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

, South Africa where she attended

Orlando High School Orlando High School was a high school located in Orlando, Florida, United States. The first high school class, which was composed of 11 students, met in the second story of a frame schoolhouse graduated in 1892. In 1921 the school was relocated to ...

. In 1976, whilst a student at the

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

, Ndlovu entered into exile in order to escape the attention of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

security services. Between 1977 and 1984, Ndlovu joined

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

as an Umkhonto we Sizwe member operating outside of South Africa, moving from

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

, and then onto southern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, where she received training; afterward, she attended a school for the Young Communist League in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. In 1984 she enrolled at the University of Zambia to study medicine, after which she returned to South Africa and interned at

Baragwanath Hospital Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, it is the largest hospital in Africa and third largest hospital in the world. It has 6,760 staff members, 3,400 beds and occupies . The hospital is located in the Sow ...

Business career

Whilst practicing medicine in South Africa, Ndlovu noticed that many of the ailments among her patients from

Orange Farm Orange Farm ("Farma") is a township located approximately from Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is the southernmost township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Its name, a misnomer given that oranges ...

were related to poor living conditions due to a lack of access to adequate housing, which prompted her to found Motheo Construction in 1997. She was noted for her ability to break into the male-dominated South African construction industry, and for growing Motheo into a large-scale builder of

government housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

, constructing over 80,000 homes.

Death

Ndlovu died in a road vehicle incident on 24 August 2019 whilst on her way to a funeral in

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2017 ...

North West Province North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana. History North West was incorporated after the end of Apartheid in 1994, an ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ndlovu, Thandi 1950s births 2019 deaths South African women business executives South African women physicians South African physicians Road incident deaths in South Africa UMkhonto we Sizwe personnel South African women company founders 21st-century South African businesspeople South African company founders