Malungelo Zilimbola is the CEO and founder of Mazi Asset Management. Based in South Africa, the company operates across the continent and globally. Zilimbola is also a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative – South Africa (ALI-SA) – a part of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He also serves on ALI-SA’s Venture Committee for our current Class 14 and has played a guidance, mentoring and coaching role to the Class 14 Fellows in assessing and providing feedback on their ideas for their ventures. In this interview, he shares his journey, insights into sustainable investing, and advice for future leaders.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell us about Mazi Asset Management, the types of businesses you invest in, and your approach?
Mazi Asset Management is an asset manager that invests on behalf of institutions like retirement and pension funds, insurance companies, and high-net-worth individuals. We manage investments across South Africa, the African continent, and globally.
Our approach incorporates sustainability, using ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) indicators to assess our investments. We believe it’s critical to consider the environmental, social, and governance impact of our investments to ensure long-term value creation.
What inspired you to adopt an impact-driven investment approach?
Focusing solely on financial returns is not sustainable. Many communities, especially in Africa, have been left behind economically. To address this, we integrate inclusivity into our investment strategy.
For instance, we invest in infrastructure projects like roads and water treatment facilities that uplift communities. We’ve also supported companies offering mobile banking solutions, enabling financial access for unbanked populations. These investments promote social equity while delivering financial returns.
Was there any convincing that you had to do when you were trying to explain the value of putting your assets into these more impact oriented initiatives?
Initially, yes. Traditional investing often focuses on the stock market and immediate returns. However, societal unrest, such as the 2021 KwaZulu-Natal unrest in South Africa, highlights the consequences of neglecting community needs.
For sustainable growth, we must ensure inclusivity in economic participation. It’s about achieving financial and social returns to prevent disenfranchisement and instability.
How do you engage communities in your investments?
You’ve got to always make sure that you look after the community. Companies that neglect community welfare risk animosity, protests, or worse.
For example, a mining company in Rustenburg faced constant conflict with the community in which they operate over water usage. On the other hand, another company worked with its local community, improving roads and water facilities which aids the company’s sustainability.
You’re on the ALI-SA Venture Committee advising Fellows on their social impact initiatives. What advice do you have for Fellows starting their impact journeys?
My advice for Fellows on their impact journey is to, first of all, have a clear focus. Many ventures are quite broad. Fellows want to change the world. And I have to say “You need to start somewhere, you need to focus, and then later on you can scale your venture.”
Secondly, they must be achievable. Some ventures are quite abstract but you’ve got to really bring that to be practical and measurable.
Also, have a look at the people that have done things before you. Do not reinvent the wheel. Somebody before you may have tried to do a similar venture and maybe it has failed. You can pick it up, do research, and see where it failed and try and work to improve it. Make sure that you don’t start from scratch because then there’s a duplication of efforts, money and it’s not wise to make the same mistake as others before us.
Lastly, collaboration is very important. Try and work together with Fellows doing similar ventures. There’s more impact that way, putting all efforts together to actually expand and scale.
Why is collaboration so important for impact?
Collaboration unites resources and expertise to achieve a shared goal—justice, prosperity, and societal well-being. By working together, we avoid duplicating efforts and maximize impact.
This is especially true in Africa, where challenges are vast and varied. Collaboration among ALI South Africa, East Africa, and West Africa, allows us to learn from each other and create continent-wide solutions.
We have a lot of Fellows that come from the business world and are entrepreneurs. How can leaders leverage their entrepreneurial skills for impact?
Entrepreneurs bring critical expertise in innovation, strategy, and resource mobilization. By applying these skills to impact-driven ventures, they can create scalable and sustainable solutions.
For example, venture capitalists identify potential in early-stage companies. This ability to assess risk and spot opportunities is invaluable for guiding Fellows in launching impactful ventures.
What would you say is that expertise?
The expertise that comes from venture capital is really seeing the potential out of something that’s never been proven. It’s also looking at the Fellow that’s trying to start their venture to say do you have the capability? Do you have the wherewithal? Do you have the capital to be able to bring this venture to life?
So that is your skill that a venture capitalist will have when looking at the Fellows and the ventures. Also I think that risk is another important thing, so sometimes, we want to do a little thing, a small thing that doesn’t have much impact, so you have to push the Fellows to actually draw deep within themselves to be able to drive a venture that has a big impact.
About the Africa Leadership Initiative: The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) was conceived as a Pan-African initiative and borne out of a belief that Africa’s future lies in the investment in and development of effective, values-based and enlightened African leaders. It was a collaborative effort of six partner organisations in Africa and the Aspen Institute of the United States, which led to the formation of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
The ALI South Africa programme was launched in 2003 and has graduated 13 classes of Fellows over the past 21 years and created a network of over 300 Fellows in South Africa and is an independent non-profit organisation.
ALI’s mission is to create and nurture a community of enlightened, influential, and impactful leaders who elevate the primacy of the common good and accelerate peace, political progress, and prosperity throughout Africa. ALI believes that Africa’s future lies in the investment and development of effective, values-based, and enlightened African leaders by using their extraordinary creativity, energy and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. The organisation sees its purpose as “to drive conscious leadership and actively build the Good Society”.
About the Aspen Global Leadership Network: The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a dynamic, worldwide community of nearly 4,000 entrepreneurial leaders from over 60 countries. Spanning business, government, and the nonprofit sector, these leaders share a commitment to enlightened leadership and the drive to tackle the most pressing challenges of our times. Through transformative fellowships and gatherings like the Resnick Aspen Action Forum, AGLN Fellows have the unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and challenge each other to grow and make a meaningful impact.
