DEATH OF A PIONEER
IT WAS a night to remember, an epic party on Christmas Eve filled with family, friends, prominent businesspeople and even President Cyril Ramaphosa.
And what a milestone it was – his 99th birthday, making him just one year shy of a grand century on earth.
Little did the people who celebrated with Richard Maponya realise it would be his last hurrah.
The respected entrepreneur and property developer died just two weeks later, triggering an outpouring of love and respect for the man dubbed “the grandfather of black business”.
Although he’d been ill for a short
