Paul Nkuna’s leadership transformed the Mineworkers Investment Company from R3 million to R6 billion, driven by a vision of economic empowerment for workers. When Paul Nkuna first sat at the helm of theMineworkers Investment Company(MIC), its net asset value stood at a humble R3 million. For many, this might have seemed like a small beginning.
For Nkuna, it was the spark of something far greater. “We were never chasing wealth for ourselves,” he says quietly, with the calm assurance of someone who has lived the vision. “We were building something for people who had nothing.
For workers who had given everything.” Thirty years later, MIC is valued at more than R6 billion. Yet Nkuna, now retired, still chooses his words carefully, not to boast, but to remind. Because for him, this wasn’t just a professional journey.
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It was a moral calling. The story begins not with a boardroom, but with a promise. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), under democratic South Africa’s first breaths, sought to ensure that economic freedom did not remain the preserve of the elite.
So they created a company, MIC to generate wealth that would, in turn, fund the Trust (MIT). That trust would then finance bursaries, retrenchment support, and community development. “It was never about sustaining the union,” Nkuna recalls.
“It was about sustaining the lives of members and their children. That principle was non-negotiable.” The vision was radical in its restraint, no interference from NUM in MIC’s operations. No backdoor deals.
No blurring of political and commercial lines. For Nkuna, this separation was sacred.
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