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Top Billing features pioneering jewellery designer Bheki Ngema
Top Billing features pioneering jewellery designer Bheki Ngema
All that glitters is gold with pioneering black jewellery designer Bheki Ngema of Ben & Co.
This week, we celebrate the best of our continent in Bheki Ngema, the ground-breaking designer who established South Africa’s first black, flagship jewellery store.
There’s a destiny to Bheki’s career choice. He grew up the son of a retailer in an Mpumalanga gold-mining town and today creates and sells the finest eighteen carat gold jewellery.
When he wanted to launch his own store, many said it was impossible and several malls turned him down but Bheki proved them wrong.
A fledgling jewellery business cannot survive on selling diamonds and gold alone, so Bheki’s beaded and semi-precious stone pieces make his creations accessible to a range of pockets. At the top end of his range he’s a strong advocate of the latest technology.
As a child, Bheki had parents who insisted he work for any luxuries he wanted. The values and business lessons he learned are one’s he’ll pass on to his son, Nyeleti.
Wanting a business legacy that will endure for his family, he chose Ben & Co. for his company taken from the first letters of his three names, Bhekithemba Ernest Ngema.
With the amount of export business to Dubai on the rise and Bheki aiming to showcase in Miami and France this year, when young Nyeleti does take over, it could be a global brand the whole nation are proud of.
When we’re the ones turning our mineral wealth into world class, manufactured goods like Bheki’s jewellery then we’re building the kind of Africa we want for our children.
