Driving around Ausspannplatz the other day, I recalled a photograph taken a hundred years ago of the original Pupkewitz shop. It took me back more than a decade to when I met Harold Pupkewitz and gave me the opportunity to reminisce about the man who had tremendous influence in Namibia’s business world.
My trip down memory lane took me back to 2012 when I requested an interview with Harold. At that time Gondwana was publishing a Gondwana History column in the weekly newspaper and I wanted to write a story about this influential man who had made Pupkewitz a household name. At first, he wouldn’t allow the interview to take place during work hours. Although he was 97 at the time, he was still putting in a full day at the office. He finally relented and allowed me to come to his office after work. When I arrived the busy day was taking its toll and after a short while he invited me to his home the following Saturday to complete the interview.
Sitting comfortably in his lounge, he continued to tell me the interesting tale of how his father arrived in southern Africa from Eastern Europe and established a business that was to grow over the years into the Pupkewitz Holdings. Max Pupkewitz first opened a wagon-building workshop in Okahandja in 1904. He found himself trapped in Europe on a visit to his parents at the onset of World War One and was only able to return to the country in 1921. By that time the days of the ox-wagon were over and the money he had left in the bank was worthless. He worked for his brother-in-law in Mariental for a few years until he had saved sufficient funds to send for his family. The small general dealer shop at the Ausspannplatz on the corner of Tal Street and Rehobother Weg was established in January 1925.
When the depression of 1929 affected South West Africa, the Pupkewitzes, like the majority of businesses, ran into financial difficulty and Max struggled to keep the shop. In 1928 the Angola Boers, descendants of the Dorsland trekkers, had returned to the country and Max and his wife Anna had catered to their requirements offering a larger range of goods and allowing them to buy on credit while they built up their farms. They now settled their outstanding debts and the karakul industry grew with an increasing European demand for pelts. Max exchanged shop goods for pelts, which he later sold at auctions.
Harold’s older brother Morris was first to add his fresh energy and excellent customer service to the business when he matriculated. Although helping in the shop intermittently during his school years, Harold returned to the family business after completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree with distinction at the University of Cape Town and a work stint in an entrepreneurial business. He recognised its potential and added his formal training, business sense, ambition and drive. His other brother Julius managed the Kalkrand business for thirty-five years, establishing three satellite branches at Tsumispark, Schlip and Kub, and was still remembered, acknowledged and honoured more than two decades later as a businessman, advisor and benefactor by the Kalkrand Boerevereniging. The Pupkewitz business expanded over the years into the building and motor industry with branches established throughout the country. Using his business acumen, Harold guided the business, becoming the architect and strategist for the Pupkewitz Group of Companies.
When I asked Harold what had made the Pupkewitz business so successful, he replied that he had learned from his parents that hard work and sound business practices, which include honesty and decency, form the basis of business - no matter how small the enterprise. He remembered that his father treated his customers respectfully and when they paid their monthly account his mother added a packet of sweets for the children.
I had the opportunity after I had heard the family’s story to ask Harold what life lessons he could impart to future generations. He was a Namibian patriot and saw it as imperative to ‘have pride in your nation based on the joy of what is being achieved and the progress that is being made’. He told me that he was a strong supporter of the idea that education is the key to the success of every nation and said: “Offer your children the best opportunity to advance their education . . . Teach them the values of honesty and truth, justice, fairness and - last but not least - benevolence, to be kind to people who are less fortunate, to develop a strong social sense that you belong to society and have a responsibility to it.”
The story of the Pupkewitzes was published in the weekly newspaper on Friday 27 April 2012 and later that morning I heard that Harold had passed on.
I ruminated on the wise words of this man who had etched his name into Namibian business history, leaving a legacy that would be difficult to match.