Khanyi Dhlomo

Media mogul Khanyi Dhlomo, who acquired the license for the South African edition of Elle magazine and co-founded multi-brand luxury store Luminance, is one of the country’s leading fashion and media players.

As a journalism student at the University of Witwatersrand, Dhlomo made history as the first black newscaster for SABC1, South Africa’s national television channel. She then joined the team of fashion and beauty magazine True Love, rising in the ranks to become editor-at-large at age 22. Within a year of her leadership, circulation doubled from 70,000 to 140,000, which saw True Love become the most widely read women’s magazine in the country.

In 2003 Dhlomo relocated to France, working at South Africa's Tourism Board in Paris. After obtaining an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2007, she returned to South Africa to launch Ndalo Media in partnership with Naspers, Africa’s largest internet and media group. Ndalo publishes Destiny magazine and Destiny Man, two high-end magazines, and in 2008 launched DestinyConnect.com. Five years later, she opened luxury multi-brand boutique Luminance, but has since withdrawn from the venture and paid back her loans from the country's National Empowerment Fund (NEF).

In April 2017 Dhlomo announced that Ndalo Media had secured the South African licences for the Elle and Elle Decoration media brands. “The Elle media brand will be published by a 100 percent black-owned media company for the first time in its 21-year history in South Africa.” Ndalo Media said of the acquisition.

In December 2018, Dhlomo announced that she would be shutting down Ndalo Media following financial difficulties which left staff unpaid for November and the promise of severance packages unfulfilled. Her absence from two court arbitration meetings over the matter in early 2019 has also put her under scrutiny. 

Dhlomo serves on the advisory board of the University of Stellenbosch Business School. In 2010, she was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She has also sat on the judging panel for the South African edition of "Project Runway" and Miss South Africa 2018.