Masakhe 02_DIGITAL PAPERTURN - Flipbook - Page 24
defined her tenure as CEO: when
does a real estate asset become
a part of the community? Today,
as the first female CEO of Old
Mutual Property, Nosarka oversees
a portfolio of more than a million
square metres of prime commercial,
retail, and industrial space. It is a
position of immense influence, “We
have over 17,000 people working in
all these communities,” Nosarka adds.
Her perspective remains grounded
in the human-scale economics of
the tenants and communities the
assets serve. In a nation as volatile
and unequal as South Africa, Nosarka
argues that the traditional metrics
of property management are no
longer sufficient. It’s not profit at all
cost,” she states plainly. “You are in
someone’s community with property.”
Like many UCT stories, hers begins
with a sharp twist. “I was meant to
be a physio,” she laughs. “I spent
one hour at Groote Schuur and
essentially realised then, ‘I’m done’,”
she says, recalling her aversion to
patients coughing up phlegm. A
keen analytical mind sent her toward
Quantity Surveying, but even that,
in time, felt too narrow. Things really
clicked for her in a second-year
Property Studies course, a programme
then so new that its first graduates
had to explain their degree in their
cover letters.
Property was everything at once;
it was multi-dimensional, blending
finance, urban planning, sociology,
and human behaviour. “It was the best
decision I ever made,” she says. The
small department, guided by mentors
like Ian Sutton, who “took us under
ISSUE 2
their wing,” became her home. To this
day, it is a connection that Nosarka
still feels acutely. “UCT is an incredible
university,” she says. “I go past it on
the way to the offices at Cavendish
and still think about how a large part
of who I am today is shaped from the
time then.”
That sense of mentorship found
its corporate parallel at Old Mutual
Property, the only firm she has ever
worked for. “I grew up here. I love
the people.” Her ascent from analyst
to CEO was propelled by a culture
that, as she puts it, “empowers
you if they trust you,” granting her
deep exposure to every facet of the
business, from “intricate dealmaking
to leadership”.
The journey has been an
accumulation of credibility in South
Africa’s close-knit property world.
She speaks of industry titans like
Norbert Sasse, who once lectured
her class of a half-dozen students.
“They were these super impressive
CEOs,” she says. “Now, I have tea with
them.” She reflects on how Covid,
paradoxically, “set her up well” for the
CEO role, forcing a brutal education
in stakeholder management (“lots of
negotiating with retailers”) during a
“complex time.”
“And so now it’s [the industry]
changing, it’s now [about] profit,
performance, and the planet.” She
explains how being sustainable
today, especially in South Africa, is
actually high-level risk mitigation.
“We want sustainable returns,
not just green stuff”. In a country
defined by service delivery failures,
sustainability is increasingly a position
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