MXit: The South African Mobile Company You Should Know

I’ve been to Africa three times in the last year, twice to Rwanda and last week to Cape Town. But people tell me I still haven’t seen “The Real Africa.” Rwanda—as I’ve written—has had a major rebuild after its horrific genocide some 15 years ago, and even in the poorest parts of the country boast far better access to water, power and technology than many other emerging markets. Cape Town was far more sanitized and modern than Rwanda. It didn’t feel like an emerging market—a true test was mindlessly drinking the water out of the tap in my hotel room and not getting sick. Lest I be too fooled the entire continent is so, well, Western , Herman Heunis pulls me right back down to earth. He just came back from a trip photographing wild elephants in his home country of Namibia and holds up the daily paper. The headline screams: LION KILLER TO BE CHARGED. “These are the headlines we get,” he says laughing. And yet, Heunis’ company, MXit , may be the Cape Town company most likely to become a billion dollar South African powerhouse.