South African entrepreneur Herman Mashaba speaks to a Carthage economics class on Feb. 11, 2015.
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Visiting South African entrepreneur Herman Mashaba told Carthage classes he’s hoping to awaken from “a second bad dream.”

Mr. Mashaba came to campus in mid-February as the latest Chapman Executive-in-Residence. In the heart of the apartheid era, he founded the Black Like Me line of hair care products and built the company into a market leader.

The first bad dream arose from the policies of strict racial segregation that minority white rulers enforced in South Africa until the early 1990s. And the latest? That stems from overcompensation by the nation’s leaders, said Mr. Mashaba, who blames excess government intervention for lingering social and economic problems.

“Kids wake up in the morning and have never seen their parents go to work,” he said.

In January, the popular businessman had dinner with about 40 Carthage students in South Africa on Professor Yuri Maltsev’s J-Term study tour. Mr. Mashaba reciprocated, making the lengthy trip to Carthage to enlighten economics and finance classes. Winter storms delayed his arrival, forcing the cancellation of a public lecture.

Today Mr. Mashaba runs Lephatsi Investments, which invests in targeted sectors from real estate to bulletproof materials. In 2014, he stepped down from his role as chairman of South Africa’s Free Market Foundation to join the Democratic Alliance, a growing opposition party.

The Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, provided support for the visit.