Month of Love – Malmsey and Diale Rangaka

“in for a penny, in for a pound“

Malmsey and Diale Rangaka, owners of M’Hudi Wines, have taken their marriage vows to heart and incorporated it into their business lives. They do not see their personal lives as separate but rather embrace their togetherness in life. The two have been married for 46 years and have been generating their own income for the last 36 years.

They flourish in their different roles at M’Hudi.  Malmsey is the CEO and handles finances, while Diale oversees the farm management, Human Resources, Public Relations and Marketing.

Diale describes Malmsey as warrior queen, Nzhinga, a historical Royal from the Matamba people of present-day Angola.  Queen Nzhinga fought against the encroachment of the Portuguese’s attempt to control the slave trade in South West Africa and is remembered for her intellect, wisdom and brilliant military tactics. Says Diale, “Malmsey is a fiercely protective matriarch!”.

Malmsey has leant that Diale has a strong commitment to the economic emancipation of South Africa’s black people and works to see our country attain and maintain its economic leadership on the African continent.

Bringing their different strengths to their relationship has been their recipe for success. Malmsey is methodical, ensuring efficient business operations while providing a high-quality product. Diale admires Malmsey’s compassion, fortitude, and resilience.

Diale can make Malmsey laugh even in the most serious of circumstances but being comical or “Pathologically unserious” as Malmsey describes him does not detract from his ability to being a strong researcher and marketing expert.

Whenever Malmsey and Diale experience challenges in their business, they always remember that family comes first.  They are building a legacy for their family, which is much more important and rewarding than just making profits.

Their favourite quote for the month of love is one from Paul Valery, “Love is being stupid together” and their advice for any couple is to work on staying in love and building memories together.

Month of Love – Bunty and Wahed Khan

“we dream together”

Bunty and Wahed Khan dreamed of starting their own business when they retire from corporate life, but this came earlier than expected.  When Wahed was transferred to Cape Town, Bunty put her career on hold to settle their family.

Surrounded by the beauty of the Western Cape, the Winelands, with its diverse people inspired them to venture into wine. The dream of creating a product that could be shared with the world is how Cape Dreams came to life!

Bunty started the company in 2008 with Wahed joining her full time 4 years later.  They understood that it would take many years of immense dedication and hard work to build their business into an internationally recognized brand, but their commitment and support from family made them push through.

Bunty and Wahed work closely together by sharing responsibilities and always consulting about what’s going on across the business.  Their strategic planning is done jointly, but Bunty is responsible for legal matters, marketing, travel and IT while Wahed takes care of finance and admin. Each develops their own set of customers.

The most important thing they learned about each other is that they have different ways of looking at life, but their shared core values and beliefs make their relationship work.  Bunty and Wahed’s commitment to each other helps them to face the many challenges and finding solutions to take their dream forward.

The two have quite different strengths in the business.  While Wahed is pragmatic, and focussed on numbers, Bunty is creative, bubbling with ideas, but gets things done and is a tough negotiator!

Always enjoying each other’s company, they maintain a healthy balance between working hard and spending time together and with their family.   They have a challenging Chess league going now that they have more time during lockdown!

What Wahed admires most is Bunty’s fun-loving, carefree and loving personality.  She has a clear set of values and is the main pillar of strength for the family. Bunty admires Wahed for his integrity and humility.  He is generous, kind, patient and selfless and gives her the confidence to achieve anything.

Their advice to other couples working together or thinking of starting a business together is:

Dream together – you may be different, but you can have the same dream

Respect each other, listen to each other and never let the business impact on your love for each other.

There will always be unexpected challenges so keep your focus on WHAT is right rather than WHO is wrong!

The couple have been married for 32 years and their favourite quote for the month of love is “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along!” – Rumi