From Herschel to 26 countries
Siyabulela Ngcangca is a mining engineer from Herschel, near Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape. He has worked in pits across Africa, built a consultancy on the Theory of Constraints, written two books and talks about all of it, openly, on some of South Africa’s best-watched podcasts.
Herschel
From Sterkspruit
Siya grew up in a village near Herschel, outside Sterkspruit, the middle of three brothers. At about twelve, with no money for school, he picked peaches from the family yard and sold them in class, then sweets; he says his parents never had to pay for anything of his again. The family moved to Brakpan, where he finished school. He failed Grade 11 maths, worked through every sum in the textbook, and finished matric with 87 percent.
He tells that story, and the habits of mind that keep people poor, on MOYA with Ntsiki Mazwai and on The Penuel Show. His second book, From Rags to Freedom of Life, is the long version.
Into the pits
He wanted to be an aeronautical engineer. A Lonmin bursary, one of twelve, took him into mining instead, through Wits Technikon, now the University of Johannesburg, finishing in 2006, the year he joined the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He started at Lonmin’s Western Platinum in Rustenburg, moved to open pit at Beeshoek and then Khumani, where he was on the first blast on 25 June 2008, and then took his work north: almost six years at Siguiri in Guinea, Geita in Tanzania with AngloGold Ashanti, contracts in Burkina Faso and Guinea, and a coal operation in Tete, Mozambique. He works in French as well as English.
The method
At the Gordon Institute of Business Science he completed a postgraduate diploma in 2016 and an MBA in 2017. His research applied the Theory of Constraints to South African open-pit mining. In May 2019 he presented that work at the 42nd TOCPA conference in Johannesburg, and the talk now sits in the learning library of TOCICO, the international body for the method. In 2019 he founded TOCIPS to take it to clients.
The writer and the voice
He self-published Before You Get Married in 2014 and From Rags to Freedom of Life in 2020. In 2021 he started his own show, Limitless with Siya. Since 2021 he has been a recurring guest of Penuel The Black Pen, talking about mining, health, money, marriage and the black South African experience, and his conversations have passed a quarter of a million views.
“I’m a student of life. I don’t know everything, but every day I make sure that I learn something new.”
Siya Ngcangca on the Leroy Slava Podcast, May 2023
Milestones
2006
Mining engineer
Graduates in mining engineering from the University of Johannesburg and joins SAIMM.
2011 to 2012
Project and Site of the Year
His operation is named Project and Site of the Year.
2008
First blast at Khumani
On the team that fired the first blast at Khumani Iron Ore Mine, 25 June 2008.
2012
Employee of the Year
Recognised as Employee of the Year, with several lost-time-injury-free milestones on his sites.
2014
Before You Get Married
His first book. More than 4,000 hard copies sold.
2016 and 2017
GIBS
Postgraduate diploma, then an MBA, with research on the Theory of Constraints in mining.
2019
TOCIPS and TOCPA
Founds TOCIPS, and presents Theory of Constraints: A success in open pit mining, now in the TOCICO library.
2020
From Rags to Freedom of Life
His second book, featured in Drum.
2021
Limitless with Siya
Launches his own show, with Penuel, Joshua Maponga, Zikhona Sodlaka and Ntsiki Mazwai as early guests.
2026
Owl City
Building a company of local manufacturing and farming on his own land at Herschel.
“If it works out, it’s a bonus. If it doesn’t, it’s a lesson.”
Siya Ngcangca on KONVO AMAGENTS, July 2026