Vivian Reddy was fired from his apprenticeship. He started an electrical firm with a R500 loan and a borrowed bakkie.
The youngest of nine children of a Durban teacher, Vivian Reddy built Reddy’s Electrical into Edison Power, and has backed clinics, schools and an AIDS orphans fund.
Vivian Reddy was born in 1953 in Greenwood Park, Durban, the youngest of nine children of a teacher. At 16 he was selected to represent South Africa at a Boy Scout Jamboree in Japan, where he met his boyhood hero, the astronaut Neil Armstrong.
After school he enrolled at Springfield Training College, and a fortnight later decided he wanted to be an electrical engineer instead. After he was fired from his engineering apprenticeship, he started his own electrical contracting firm, Reddy’s Electrical. By popular account he began with only a R500 loan and a borrowed bakkie.
From a bakkie to a group
Reddy’s Electrical was later renamed Edison Power. He is the founder and chairperson of the Edison Power Group, with business interests that also include casinos, healthcare, financial services and property development.
Giving
He supports charitable work, including the Orphans of AIDS Trust Fund. He has donated to community projects such as the Wingen Heights Secondary School building project, gave R6 million to the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality to build a clinic, and hosted residents of Bayview, Chatsworth, for a Diwali celebration marking 150 years of Indian settlement in South Africa.
The story is a reminder that being fired can be a beginning. For a young electrician in Durban, a small loan and a vehicle were enough to start.
