From teaching to terminal head

Born in the small Eastern Cape town of Barkly East, one of nine children, Moshe Motlohi’s first name is Sotho for Moses, as it is in Hebrew. He started working life as a teacher in the then Transkei, later becoming involved in local affairs and being elected mayor of Ugie for three years. He then joined SA Breweries as an operational trainee, serving in various capacities before an approach by Siya Mhlaluka, TPT’s divisional executive manager for the container sector, to become chief operations manager in Port Elizabeth. Ten months later he was sent to Durban Container Terminal to become involved in certain operational issues, and was promoted to chief operations manager and business unit executive 18 months later. The term business unit executive is being replaced by that of terminal executive. Married with four children, Motlohi is currently finalising his MBA thesis on increasing operational port capacity.