The short answer
Black Like Me’s beginnings explain how a consumer brand becomes an operating business. Sales knowledge needed a product, manufacturing needed finance, and both needed access to buyers. The company’s later setbacks and partnerships reveal why those functions continued to matter after the 1985 launch.
Chronology
A timeline of the turning points
Skills assembled
A salesperson recruits production expertise and secures backing for a manufacturer.
Products reach customers
Black Like Me begins trading in hair care.
Production disrupted
A factory fire leads to rebuilding and financial pressure.
Corporate partnership and buyback
Colgate-Palmolive acquires a controlling stake, later bought back.
Management and distribution change
Connie leads the company; a subsequent Amka deal adds wider distribution access.
The starting advantage was knowledge of an existing customer need
Mashaba entered hair care through commission selling before manufacturing his own range. In his 2010 account, selling other people’s products showed him a market he understood and wanted to serve directly. The first products arrived in February 1985, after preparation rather than an instant leap from idea to factory.
His Moneyweb interview makes the division of skills explicit. Johan Kriel could produce the goods; Mashaba believed he could sell them. The opportunity depended on combining these capabilities. A strong sales pitch without a dependable product, or a formula without routes to customers, would leave part of the business unfinished.
Finance and location were shaped by apartheid conditions
The factory began in Ga-Rankuwa, with Walter Dube providing backing. Mashaba’s later speech names Connie, Kriel and Joseph Molwantwa among the collaborators. Their different contributions make the founding a story of coordination and access to resources, rather than proof that money or business expertise was unnecessary.
Movement restrictions complicated selling across the country. Financial Times reporting described the founder travelling to customers while confronting apartheid’s controls on black mobility. The location of a factory and the ability of its salesman to reach outlets were practical operating questions shaped by the racial system, alongside the demand for hair products.
The 1993 fire exposed the financial risks of manufacturing
A factory fire interrupted production and destroyed stock. Mashaba later told a business-school class that rebuilding involved expensive finance and additional transport costs. The episode connects physical assets with cash flow: replacing equipment did not immediately replace the sales lost while the company could not supply its customers.
He described the 1997 Colgate partnership as a response to these pressures, followed by problems adapting to the larger organisation. The stake was bought back in 1999. His account offers a participant’s explanation of integration difficulties, rather than evidence that every small business necessarily performs better outside a multinational group.
Management succession made the enterprise more than its founder
Connie Mashaba worked in administration and finance during the company’s early years. The board appointed her managing director in 2004 when Herman sought a new business direction, recognising her accumulated experience.
She also described several kinds of customer relationships: wholesalers, retail outlets, consumers and salons. Those channels required different work, from stock promotions to demonstrations and education about products. Developing the brand involved maintaining these relationships as well as creating recognisable packaging or publicising the founder’s success.
Sources for this section: [6]
The Amka partnership addressed distribution as well as ownership
In June 2005 contemporary reporting described Amka buying 49.9% of Black Like Me. Connie identified access to an established African network as a benefit, while Amka’s leadership discussed opportunities beyond South Africa. The transaction linked an investment in the company with access to a broader route to market.
Connie’s interview identified payment collection and customs as export obstacles. Distribution access therefore left practical work to do. Assessing the partnership means asking how production, purchasing and market access changed, alongside the difficulties that an established brand still encountered beyond its home market.
Continue the chronology
Related history guides
Biography context
Explore Ga-Rankuwa, South Africa through connected lives
Connected biographies
The founder within a wider operating team
1959–
Herman Mashaba
Black Like Me co-founder, former Johannesburg mayor and ActionSA presidentHerman Mashaba built Black Like Me with partners whose skills extended beyond his own sales experience. Factory losses, corporate partnerships and a leadership handover shaped the company. His later political career brought a different kind of public accountability, including sustained criticism of his rhetoric about migrants.Read biographyQuick answers
Common questions
- Was the company only a marketing operation?
- No. It manufactured hair-care products and also needed sales and distribution capabilities.
- Was Herman Mashaba the only contributor?
- No. Accounts identify Connie Mashaba, Johan Kriel, Joseph Molwantwa and financial backing from Walter Dube.
- Did an Amka investment remove export difficulties?
- No. Connie’s account still identified payment collection and customs as practical obstacles.
Primary and institutional sources
How this history was checked
Founder and managing-director interviews establish participant accounts of skills, management and customers. Independent reporting corroborates the setting and dated Amka transaction. The guide does not turn recollected explanations into audited financial results, or historical holdings into current ownership. This article was reviewed on 24 October 2026.
- Sunday Times27 June 2010 first-person interview: interrupted studies, sales experience and first product
- David Carte / Moneyweb2 November 2010 transcript: complementary sales and production skills, Colgate transaction and buyback
- Herman Mashaba / ActionSA2 December 2023 speech: selected childhood, named collaborators and factory passages
- Financial Times, republished by Euro2day3 September 2013: selected investment and labour-policy context with union counterargument
- Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business School / MBA.co.zaFounder’s classroom account of the factory fire, financing and corporate integration
- Monique Verduyn / ExpertHubConnie Mashaba interview: management, customers and export obstacles
- Business Report / IOL3 June 2005 contemporary report: 49.9% stake and distribution rationale
- Charles.Simon12 / Wikimedia CommonsHerman Mashaba.jpg: own-work grant and original full photograph
- Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International