When he was about ten years old, he would go to the Ga-Molepo mountains. On one of the big rocks, there would be a natural waterfall that he and his friends used to slide off on.
They would undress and slide down in their underwear, which would end up torn. On the other side of the mountain, there was a river where their mothers and sisters would be washing laundry and hanging clothes in trees.
Over time, this place turned into an unsafe bush where no one wants to go except for farmers and herders who would take their cows for a graze.
Recently, Thabiso Cornet Mamabolo went to this mountain again and saw the beauty of the area from an adult’s eye.
Like the businessman that he is, he had a lightbulb moment of turning the veld into an opportunity to give back to his community back in Limpopo.
Speaking to Drum on the mountain-site where he is currently building Mabodibane resort from the ground up, he says he couldn’t help but take it on as a very personal project.
“Firstly, it's just the beauty of the space where it's located and the rich history that it's got. I grew up in the area, so I love contributing a lot towards the local economy and also towards the development at the same place where I grew up and I donated a library.
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“It's right outside the village in the mountain and I just fell in love with the space when I used to come here a lot alone or with friends. And I just saw that there's a space that can be developed into a masterpiece. It just made so much sense that to revive it, to make the space, to have life again and just bring more activity, modernize it,” says the former Skeem Saam actor.
In two days, on 15 December, he is hosting his first farmers market and family picnic at the resort.
“The reason why I went with the farmers market is because in its nature it's meant to develop and expose people like local artists that are able to perform. We’ll also have vendors coming and setting up their stalls and selling on the day, whatever that they are able to sell. It’s friendly for kids and adults and it brings an experience to the village because we don't have anything like this around us in the community.”
Acknowledging that December is around the time that people go back home to Limpopo, and it is taken very seriously in his home province, he adds that he wanted to give adults a place where they can go have fun after hours while also making it more family-friendly for kids to also enjoy.
More than anything, the father of two wanted to give children something to look forward to during this time besides just Christmas clothes.
Previously when he spoke to Drum, his financial services business was soaring, and he was about to run the philanthropy race.
His company, Digni financial services had a ‘Take a boychild to work’ initiative which aimed to mentor young boys into their respective aspirational fields.
Less than a year later, he has now ventured into different windows of the property industry.
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Talking about his growing serial entrepreneurship, he says that he’s merely infected by a sickness that a lot of artists and entrepreneurs have.
“You get inspired by things as you wake up, as you walk, as you travel, as you speak to people and you decide what you want to do with that inspiration. There's no way that I would leave the financial industry. That's my base at this point in time. I still have that strive to actually become one of the first the youngest insurers that have ever existed in this country or in the continent. So that is still the vibe."
For him, it all boils down to one’s attitude towards money and what one wants to do with the little that they have.
“I love building, that's number one. I think that's what drives me. And then the other thing is impact. I want my businesses to have impact, not just like train to business and then it ends there or business for money. It must have some social impact of some sort; insurance products, that's social impact that we're talking about. Then this one is heritage, it's community development, it's economic development, it's bringing tourism to my village. It's exposing my village to the world.”
Thabiso refuses to just live with his social currency without making other people’s lives better, hence his strides in business.
