Global Atlanta's Dispatch to South Africa was made possible through a partnership with Ethiopian Airlines. Via its nonstop flight from Atlanta to Addis Ababa, the airline offers local business and leisure travelers convenient one-stop access to the South African cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town.
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For Georgia-born Stebin Horne, a love of South Africa has gone beyond an obsession; it’s an inspiration for fostering a lifestyle connected to the land — and one another.
Married a decade ago to a South Africa native he met while she was on holiday in Atlanta, Mr. Horne has seen his world open up and his entrepreneurial inklings take on an urgent new mission: connecting his home state with what he now considers his adoptive country, while creating community in both.
“My wife, Roos-Maryn, has been my muse for my various entrepreneurial endeavors, but it is her South African roots that have made her the incredible person she is,” Mr. Horne told Global Atlanta in an email from (appropriately) the African bush in Kruger National Park.
The common thread across three ventures for the serial entrepreneur has been the outdoors, which he sees as similarly revered in Georgia and South Africa, but in different ways.
Each product or service has built on the last, pulling this natural marketer deeper into the South African ecosytem — literally and figuratively.
Mr. Horne’s latest venture, African Charcoal Co., can be traced back to his first, the Kudu Safari Braai, launched with an oversubscribed Kickstarter campaign in 2016. The Kudu, named after a local antelope, was inspired by the South African tradition of open-fire cooking and the concept of the braai, which, far more than food, is about fellowship around a flame and celebrating togetherness in a country that finds unity in diversity. Read a profile of African Charcoal Co on the Macon Melody news website
Visiting in-laws, Mr. Horne was amazed during National Unity Day on Sept. 24 in South Africa, to see how people from all of the country’s communities come together. In all 11 official languages, braai — imported from the Afrikaans — has come to carry the same connotation.
He believed the tech-obsessed U.S. could use a similar spark to bring people together.
“The concept with Kudu Grills and African Charcoal Company is about putting down our differences and gathering around an open fire,” he says.
Mr. Horne patented the grill and eventually sold that business, but the entrepreneurial embers were still aglow, and he saw an opportunity to continue fueling the fire while helping the environment in South Africa.
African Charcoal Co. is fueled by acacia trees that have taken over African grasslands. First decimated by European cattle, the grasslands now face the challenge of the invasive species crowding out native wildlife like rhinoceros and giraffe.
In Namibia, which neighbors South Africa, the problem is particularly acute, and Mr. Horne says chefs who use his long-lasting, floral-tinged charcoal can say they are making space for animals while creating jobs for locals.
But perhaps none of these ideas could have sprouted without the engine behind his first venture: Land Rovers, those beasts of overlanding that help safari-goers brave the bush in the first place.
Classic Overland started in 2015 when Mr. Horne’s brother-in-law, Gerhard Du Toit, knocked on the door of Land Rover Mega Centre, or LMC, on the outskirts of Johannesburg with a proposition: building custom-restored Land Rover Defenders for high-end buyers in the United States.
“Many people living in America fall in love with Land Rover Defenders while traveling through South Africa on safari. Classic Overland allows them to continue that South African safari dream in the United States by delivering them a bespoke Defender build inspired by the animals of the South African bush veld.”
Land Rover Wonderland
Sarel Oosthuizen’s family plot in Kempton Park could aptly be considered a Land Rover wonderland, a sprawling homage to the rugged vehicles that originated in the United Kingdom and became a mainstay of off-road conveyance as the British empire expanded throughout Africa.
While going upmarket in the United States, Land Rover is still seen known for its rugged capabilities in South Africa, with its Defenders — made in the 90 and 110 versions to reference their wheel base length in inches — gaining a “cult following.”
But there, these rugged utility vehicles are about as exotic as Jeep Wranglers in the U.S. They’re easy to find and configure, offering a primary platform for off-roading.
That presented an opportunity as the brand stopped making the more rugged Defenders in 2016, only bringing it back in a more luxury configuration in the United States in 2020.
“When they stopped making them, the prices sort of climbed,” said Mr. Oosthuizen, and the family-run LMC was primed for the inquiry from Mr. Horne, having been tinkering with their own Land Rovers and servicing them for others for decades.
The business started as a hobby for Sarel’s father, Jack, who grew up in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and moved to South Africa in 1981, becoming an executive at IBM in the ritzy Johannesburg enclave of Sandton.
Sarel, now 40, grew up surrounded by Land Rovers and other vehicles, his dad seeing them as the ticket to escaping the urban jungle. He credits the upbringing with inspiring his study of mechanical engineering, and he joined his father and brother, Jaco, in what had become a thriving business upon graduation in 2006.
Overcoming Trade Hurdles
Since that fateful knock in 2015, Mr. Oosthuizen and Mr. Horne have become buddies as well as business partners, and the partnership has delivered more than 50 custom-restored Land Rovers to customers in the United States, often with price tags of upwards of $170,000 (at the low end).
“We just became friends through the time, and as the business grew, we were doing six or seven at a time,” Mr. Oosthuizen said.
The process has facilitated expansion at the Kempton Park shop, where the work of restoration is still done mostly by hand, like the Land Rover factories of old.
Showing Global Atlanta around, Mr. Oosthuizen explained how his operation blends manual craftsmanship with technical and process innovation, including a paint shop that coats each part individually before it’s fitted onto the vehicle. He also drove us down the road to a friend’s outfit, where steel parts are laser cut. It’s an example of how LMC goes above and beyond for its Classic Overland customers, aided by the community of industrial entrepreneurs that has sprung up in his own neighborhood.
It’s clear from a walk around the grounds that Land Rovers are a love language for the Ooshuizens. What seem like hundreds of them sit in various states of repair under awnings across the sprawling property, giving LMC access not only to spare parts but to the crucial chassis that serve as the backbone for classic rebuilds. To be considered “classic” by U.S. standards (and to gain admittance through customs) Land Rovers must be more than 25 years old. That means that Classic Overland’s cars, as of 2025, must start with baseline vehicles in the model year 2000 and earlier.
When Mr. Ooshuizen stopped to tout one of his rarest vehicles, an elongated blue safari edition with three doors on either side, it was as if destiny had alighted upon it. As if staged, a showy peacock was perched just above the windshield.
“That’s not even ours,” Mr. Ooshuizen said, chuckling as he walked to one of the newer builds.
But trading cars with the U.S. is about much more than luck; it requires a precise understanding of customs and tariff rules, he said, speaking in 2024, nearly a year before the President Donald Trump put South Africa in the U.S. trade crosshairs.
While the restoration is mostly complete when the 4×4 trucks get placed two at a time into shipping containers, some outfitting is required on the U.S. side. A classic car from South Africa, for instance, must come into the U.S. as a right-hand-drive vehicle, with the conversion to the standard American configuration happening on this end.
Mr. Horne who launched the company with some investment from fellow Maconite, former Stratford Academy classmate and swimming pool management entrepreneur Stewart Vernon, worked with a Georgia shop on this end before selling a stake in the company to Scissortail Ventures, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
Still, Mr. Horne remains an owner, and the partnership built with LMC in Johannesburg is the cornerstone of the business.
Mr. Oosthuizen, meanwhile, is working on improving processes, with the goal of turning out one rebuild every two to three weeks, up from its pace of one a month, thanks to a mini-assembly line built out within the shop.
Interspersed throughout builds destined for outside customers are projects like a 700-horsepower custom Land Rover 90 Defender suited mainly for bumping across desert dunes.
A dent in the front fender from flipping the vehicle is proof that tjhe Oosthuizen motor that kick-started this passion project is still running, even as the business grows.
“Something like that keeps our blood flowing,” Mr. Oosthuizen said.
As for Mr. Horne, his latest venture is yet another evolutionary step into the bush, developing “ecoX.travel to support businesses that lean into conservation instead of spending dollars, time and energy in finding ways to avoid conscious capitalism.”
