Growing up in Cape Town, the Ndlangalavu brothers – Lwando, Lwazi and Simnikiwe – learned their first lessons in entrepreneurship from the most important teacher they would ever have: their mother.
She never had a formal job. Instead, she ran small businesses her entire life, hustling, persevering, and showing her sons what it meant to create something from nothing. “The inspiration came from our mother’s small ventures and the perseverance we observed from her from a young age,” says Lwando.
That example planted a seed that would eventually grow into PB Gaz, a clean cooking energy company on a mission to change how South African townships cook.
Before embarking on their entrepreneurial journey, the brothers built distinguished corporate careers. Simnikiwe earned a BCom in Entrepreneurship and rose to become a senior sales executive in the banking sector. Lwando spent 12 years in corporate and investment banking, specialising in credit risk management, while Lwazi held financial management roles at international companies, supported by qualifications in accounting and business leadership. By most measures, they were successful, comfortable and secure. Yet, despite their achievements, something was missing.
“The burning desire to make a huge difference in our family’s future, inspired by the successes we saw from our mother’s small business,” is what drove them to leave corporate life behind.
And it wasn’t easy. “The lack of financial guarantees and a salary meant we had to reshape and resize the lives we had grown accustomed to.” What kept them going was simple: “The burning desire to make lasting change in our family fortunes and not wanting to disappoint our family.”
Today, PB Gaz is solving one of South Africa’s most pressing problems: access to clean cooking energy. Millions of households in townships and rural areas still rely on paraffin, coal, and wood – fuels that are dangerous, expensive, and harmful to health.
What sets PB Gaz apart is its innovative Pay-As-You-Go model, which allows families to buy gas for as little as R15 – no forced bottle fills, just affordable, accessible clean energy. Their rent-to-own model goes further, helping customers own gas appliances they could otherwise never afford.
The results speak for themselves. PB Gaz has grown to operate three successful sites, providing clean energy solutions to between 6 500 and 7 000 households every month. Its impact has earned national and international recognition, with the company becoming a member of the Clean Cooking Alliance and an implementer of clean cooking initiatives in South Africa under the G20 mandate. These achievements reflect the significant contribution the business is making to sustainable energy access and community development.
For the Ndlangalavu brothers, this is just the beginning. They’ve proven that a family business, built on their mother’s example of perseverance, can become a national force for good. And they’re not done yet.