Meet a social entrepreneur who gave up the corporate routine to savour the scenery and opportunities at the heart of Africa’s tallest residential skyscraper, Ponte City
The tower rises above the landscape, austere, commanding, an icon of modern architecture in the Brutalist style. It is 55 storeys high, a cylinder of concrete and steel, wrapped around a hollow inner core. If you stand at the base, on the inside, and you look up, the building seems to scrape the sun from the sky.
To some, it is a symbol of urban decay and blight. To some, it is the perfect setting for a dystopian Science Fiction movie: District 9, Chappie, Judge Dredd. To others, it is simply a landmark, a pillar on the skyline, companion to the slender, needle-topped Hillbrow Tower.
But to Michal “Loopy” Luptak, Ponte City in Johannesburg means something altogether different and close to his heart. It is home. He lives on the 52nd floor, in a spacious penthouse apartment with a sweeping view of flatland and suburbia and the ripple of green hills in the distance.
It is a view that lends perspective to life, and as soon as Michal saw it, he knew that he had made the right move, as radical as it may have seemed at the time.
He had given up his job as a Chartered Accountant at a major auditing firm, swapping the quiet life and the routine of numbers for the risky business of social entrepreneurship.
Today, together with Nickolaus Bauer, a journalist who fell in love with Ponte while on a newspaper assignment, Michal runs a busy community centre and cultural emporium called Dlala Nje – “Just play” in isiZulu – and a tour company that gives local and overseas visitors a taste of the buzz and vibe of the tower and the surrounds of Hillbrow, Yeoville, and Berea.
In the process, Michal is helping to shift perceptions, not just about the true meaning of the place you choose to call home, but about the joys of finding a view and a job that are rewarding enough to make you love change.
If you could change one thing about yourself for the better, what would that be, and why?
Better at admin. I’m so bad at admin.
What do you love most about change?
It’s the most constant thing.
Where do you go when you feel like a change of scenery?
On an adventure.
What was the defining insight that led you to make the big change from Chartered Accountancy to social entrepreneurship?
I wanted more control over my time.
What do you enjoy most about living in Ponte and the surrounding neighbourhood?
Obviously Ponte’s views are perplexing. I love them, especially during thunderstorms. I also love the sense of community in our area. We don’t get to see that much in South Africa’s incredibly disconnected societies. It’s really nice to know what goes on in your hood and how it affects the people that live in it.
What would you say is the single biggest misperception that people have about Ponte?
People still think it’s a den for urban decay. They also think the corridors are littered with needles and run by gangsters. It’s actually really well managed and the middle class presence is growing.
Things are pretty normal around here. Kids walk to school, most parents have full time employment and maybe even a little disposable income.
What is the most positive change you’ve noticed in Hillbrow or the city centre?
People using their public spaces. I love seeing skaters outside Johannesburg City Library, or even Troyeville. The street art is so impressive too.
I suppose if you look at property prices in the CBD, they also tell a story on their own. I’ve been having some discussions with the Mayor, Parks Tau, and the vision is truly incredible. I feel as if the best is yet to come.
What’s the biggest life-lesson you’ve learned from living in Ponte?
Perspective is so important.
What’s the one story you like to tell everyone who visits Ponte?
It’s the story about my first evening spent in the building.
It took me a week to move out my previous flat in West Rand, move into Ponte and find a room mate who was keen enough to join me. Amidst all this chaos, I woke up the first morning and got in the shower.
While I was in there, a voice popped out the other side of the wall and said with an American accent: “Hey man, I saw you moving in yesterday and I’m a director of a film that’s being shot here. We chose your apartment as a location to shoot one of the scenes.”
I got out the shower and walked out the bathroom to have a chat with this oke. I’m starkers naked standing in my room with a chopper flying outside, crew and all, filming the inside of my flat. The only thing I could do at the time was smile and wave. The crew in the chopper were hosing themselves.
What has working on Dlala Nje taught you about children and change?
Children need to have fun. It’s all that matters for them at such a young age. It’s also the best form of learning. A store like Dlala Nje is imperative for the development of youth.
Kids carry such happy-go-lucky attitudes and adapt to anything around them. As we grow as adults and are groomed with morals and influenced by our surroundings, we start putting our guard up. Making us a little less dynamic, sometimes.
What is your favourite place or part of Joburg, aside from Ponte?
House of Tandoor. Rockey Street, Yeoville.
What big lesson did you learn while studying accountancy, that you still apply in your everyday life?
Definitely perseverance. I failed Honours twice and passed on my third and final time. It also taught me about sacrifice and going the whole way.
Who is the social entrepreneur you admire the most, and why?
It would probably be my mentor, Robert Brozin. Founder of much admired South African brand Nando’s. He’s got an incredibly great mind. I love the way he does business based on the way he feels. His investment in culture and social capital truly shows.
What was the single biggest and scariest change you have ever made in your life?
Leaving my corporate job to do something I love.
Where do you see yourself as a social entrepreneur in five years’ time?
I would love for Dlala Nje to be making some headway into the African continent. It’s a great place to be at the moment. Emerging markets seem to be quite topical.
I’d love to be selling adventures through Africa as volunteering expeditions, highlighting its beauty and honesty at the same time. To create a business out of selling perspective would be flippen amazing.
* Tune in to the Change Exchange for our BrightRock Iris Session on Tuesday, September 22, when Michal “Loopy” Luptak and independent micro-economist and strategist Trudi Makhaya will be chatting about “Finding Joy in Your Job” with David O’Sullivan.
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