In 2001, Nomahlubi Simamane founded the advertising agency Zanusi Brand Solutions. The word Zanusi means prophet in the Zulu language. The novelty Zanusi brought was to stretch the branding muscle beyond the traditional marketplace and into more informal places of consumption. She developed the Zanusi Migration Model which helps brands move towards future places of consumption, in a continent where the black market is voluminous but also brand-building. The agency works for top-tier brands such as BP, Medscheme, Nedbank, Zain and Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and handled cultural events for the city of Johannesburg, animations during the 2010 World Cup, and branding for Airports Company South Africa. Zanusi is also present in Kenya and Zambia. In 2011, Zanusi won the African Access Business Awards in the category Fast Growth Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise. In 2012, Zanusi’s sales reached $2.3 million.
In the past decade, Nomahlubi Simamane joined the board of several companies. She currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director of The Foschini Group (since 2013), Lenmed (since 2012), Oceana (since 2009), Cashbuild Limited, Primedia Face2Face and Hollard Insurance. She was vice-chairperson of the Association of Advertising Agencies (AAA). She was also a member of the Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) Advertising Properties Committee and of the UNEP’s Advisory Committee.
In 2021, Nomahlubi Simamane took the helm of
Imsa Solutions, a leading technology company specialized in optimizing revenues and maximizing the network performance of telecommunications infrastructures. Imsa’s enterprise-class solutions cater to governments and telecommunications companies alike, and enable them to live-monitor the full spectrum of devices accessing their networks. This technology enables them to regulate all transactions and block unallowed devices (such as illegally imported mobile phones).
