By Nicola Mawson

Renowned as much for his incisive critique of South Africa’s energy policies as for his unconventional path, Crown Prince Adil Nchabeleng is a leader, visionary, and custodian of heritage.

Balancing his role as a prince of the Pedi Tribe in Limpopo with his public persona as a prominent energy expert, Nchabeleng embodies the intersection of tradition and transformation.

Home for the festive season, Prince Adil shared his story in a series of candid voice notes.

Battling patchy network connectivity, this unfiltered exchange unveiled a deeply personal portrait of a man guided by purpose, resilience, and a passion for progress.

Born to a mother who was a dedicated school principal and a father working as a financial consultant, Prince Adil’s upbringing was steeped in discipline and achievement.

"Can you imagine growing up in an environment where success wasn’t an option but an expectation?" he reflected.

These early years shaped his ethos of humility and tenacity.

Raised in a Bantustan during apartheid, Nchabeleng attended a prestigious Catholic boarding school – an experience that, although isolating, sparked his lifelong interest in economics and finance.

"I grew up fascinated with why some countries succeed while others fail. It always came down to economics and leadership."

These formative curiosities laid the foundation for his diverse career.

Nchabeleng has variously been a project manager at a civil engineering and construction company, founded an ICT start-up, been an investment banker, and heads Transform RSA.

Currently, he serves on the Economic Transformation Committee of the MK Party, advocating for socio-economic reforms as he seeks to help uplift South Africa.

During his younger years, Nchabeleng was also an active activist given the state of emergency that was enforced in the mid-1980s.

He followed the example set by youth leaders such as Peter Nchabeleng and Peter Mokaba and global figures like Malcolm X.

He’s a passionate man, and that comes through clearly in his voice notes: passionate about the need for South Africa to make better use of partnerships, such as with BRICS, the need to resolve load-shedding, and calls for South Africa to lead when it comes to innovation in energy, such as through carbon capture, use, and storage.

“We came out of an environment where we were challenged due to politics and economics, particularly, where you saw a lot of poverty and then one couldn't make sense as to why some people are poor and some people are rich, and some people are middle class, and some people are just living in abject poverty. So that's one of the things that drove me to understand how the world functions.”

Being a spiritual man, the Prince said he was privileged, during his youth, to be led in Sufism, a movement within Islam aims seeks to find divine love and knowledge a through direct and personal experience of God.

“Sufism is a philosophy of life,” he said. He credits spiritual teacher Shaykh Fadhlallah Haeri as being a leader who changed his later life into a great existence, allowing him to move forward with a deeper understanding of being.

The Prince married young, in accordance with his Muslim faith.

In terms of his belief, system, marriage makes up half your life and the other half is then provided for.

This is a promise that came true.

Nchabeleng takes his role as a Prince seriously, a title he wears with pride given that both his parents are royalty.

He can trace his lineage back to the 11th century.

The Pedi people are also known as the Northern Sotho, Basotho ba Lebowa, bakgatla ba dithebe, Transvaal Sotho, Marota, or Dikgoshi, and are native to South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, and Lesotho.

Being a prince didn’t mean Nchabeleng automatically had it made.

“What we were supposed to have inherited from being African royalty was taken over by the apartheid government in the past. Our land, our minerals, our resources, our economy, our wealth, our platinum, our worth, were all taken over.”

And so, the Prince continues to fight for a better South Africa based on his life experience of seeing abject poverty firsthand, his studies in economics, as well as his position as one of the guardians of the Pedi people.

He also credits MK president Jacob Zuma for his political mentorship as well as Professor Pali Leho for his literary mentorship.

Nchabeleng sees a lack of power generation as a key issue, especially in marginalised communities.

He believes that to solve the lack of electricity availability, you need capital and finance.

“It all comes down to economics; a government must invest money in building power stations and electricity generation infrastructure. The engineering component becomes the last aspect because it's only when policy has been enacted, capital has been made available by government, to build new power stations then we can grow the economy,” Nchabeleng said.

“I'm involved in politics, I'm involved in social entrepreneurship, I'm a civil society activist, to ensure that we can improve the daily lives of our people.”

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