Sandile Zungu is 40 years old and was born at Umlazi Township, Durban on the 10th of February 1967. In 1983 he completed matric at Vukuzakhe High School, which is located at Umlazi Township and did post-matric at Hilton College the following year.
Zungu completed a BSc (Mechanical Engineering) degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1988 as well as a Masters In Business Administration (MBA) at the UCT Graduate School of Business in 1995. In 2000 he completed a Program for Global Leadership certificate at the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.
Zungu has 6 years plant maintenance and projects management experience within engineering and production environments, having worked for Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), Engen Refinery, National Sorghum Breweries (NSB) and South African Breweries (SAB) during the period 1989 to 1994.
Zungu was an associate within the corporate finance division of African Merchant Bank (AMB) prior to establishing SARHWU Investment Holdings in 1997, a company that he led for three-and-half years (3.5 years), growing it from a zero asset base to more than R400 million in the net value of its assets. In August 2000 he assumed his duties at the then R6 billion New Africa Investments Limited (NAIL) as executive director responsible for strategy and empowerment. He became intimately involved in developing and implementing plans by NAIL to distribute its interest in Metropolitan Life Limited (METLIFE). He left the employ of NAIL at the end of 2001 after its complete transformation to a R1 billion media company.
He was chairman of Barnard Jacobs Mellet Holdings, which is South Africa’s largest listed independent financial brokerage institution. Until recently he was chairman of Denel, which is South Africa’s state-owned arms manufacturer, chairman of JSE-listed Spectrum Shipping Limited, which is a freight forwarding and logistics company and director on the boards of JSE-listed Clover Holdings, Edgars Consolidated Stores and Ellerines Holdings, and on the boards of the Trade and Investment KwaZulu Natal (TIK) and the UNISA Foundation. He remains chairman of Zungu Investments Company (Zico), which is the holding company of his business interests and of the Africa Vanguard group of companies, part of Zico. He is chairman of the JSE-listed Aflease Gold. He is non-executive director of SARHWU Investment Holdings, Viamax Fleet Solutions, Uranium One Africa and KwaZulu-Natal Growth Fund, and he serves on the Advisory Board of the UCT Graduate School of Business.
In 1983, Zungu was honoured as one of the top 10 participants in the erstwhile KwaZulu regional finals of the Old Mutual National Science Olympiad and in 1984 he came 81st in the national category of the Old Mutual National Science Olympiad. In 1998 he led SARHWU Investment Holdings to becoming BusinessMap Dealmaker of The Year. In 2000 he represented South Africa at the 6th finals of the World Young Business Achievers, which were held in Florida, USA and won the much-coveted Outstanding Business Strategy award. Zungu features in the Financial Mail’s Little Black Book profiling South Africa’s most influential blacks and is a member of the World Economic Forum in his capacity as Young Global Leader.
Zungu plays tennis and social soccer. He collects music and is an avid reader. He is married to Zodwa and they have three sons, Mfundo (13 years), Lwazi (7 years) and Vuyo (4 years).
Zungu is a successful businessman who practices philanthropy.
