How do you build one business network that covers both Johannesburg and Pretoria?

Scott Cundill · 2026-09-21 · Midrand

You stop treating them as two networks, and you start meeting in the place between them. For most of Gauteng that place is Midrand. It is the one spot a Sandton accountant and a Centurion engineer will both agree to drive to, and it is where a single group of people can make introductions in both directions.

This is for business owners who have noticed that almost everyone they know is on one side of the N1.

Why do most people only know one of the two cities?

Because networking follows the commute, and the commute runs one way.

If you work in Rosebank, your breakfasts, your clients and your kids' school are all on the Johannesburg side. If you work in Hatfield or Menlyn, the same is true of Pretoria. Nobody decides to ignore the other city. It is simply an hour away at the wrong time of day, and so it drops out of your week.

The result is a province that behaves like one economy and networks like two. A supplier in Pretoria who would be perfect for a firm in Sandton never hears about it, because nobody in the room knows both.

What does Midrand change?

It removes the question of who drives.

Midrand is roughly in the middle, with its own Gautrain station, direct access from the N1, and office parks full of people from both directions. Its oldest name was Halfway House, after the stop on the old road between the two cities. It has always been the place where people coming from opposite ends could meet without either of them going all the way.

That makes it the natural home for a group whose job is to connect the two. When a meeting is on neutral ground, both people turn up.

What should a Midrand business network actually do?

Carry introductions across the gap, one person at a time.

The most useful thing any member can do is know a few people well in the direction they do not usually face. A connector in Centurion who knows the Pretoria property market, sitting in the same group as someone who knows half of the Sandton finance world, can open doors neither could open alone.

That is the whole design of Midrand Business Connect. Segran Naicker hosts it in Midrand. Three founding connectors, Francois Meyer in Centurion, and Lauren Erasmus and Elle Roberts in Pretoria, bring the northern side with them. Between them, a request coming from either direction usually has somewhere to go.

How do you ask for an introduction across Gauteng without wasting anyone's time?

Be specific about who, and honest about where.

"Anyone in property" is not a request anybody can act on. "A commercial property manager who handles offices in Waterfall or Kyalami" is. It tells the connector exactly who to think of, and it tells them whether this is a Johannesburg favour or a Pretoria one.

Say where you are willing to meet. If the answer is Midrand, say so. It turns a vague "let's connect sometime" into a coffee with a date.

And give the connector a line they can forward without rewriting. Who you are, what you do, why this person in particular. If it takes them more than a minute to pass on, it may sit in their inbox for a week.

How does My Most Trusted keep this from becoming another WhatsApp group full of pitches?

By making every connection personal and every introduction deliberate.

Members add trusted connections one at a time, confirming each time that they genuinely know the person. There is no importing a contact list, so nobody in the network is a stranger somebody scraped.

Introductions are sent by a person, from their own email or WhatsApp, to both people at once. The platform can help draft one, but it will not send anything on your behalf.

And each member's Trust-O-Meter rank reflects introductions and recommendations actually given and received. People who only ever ask stay near the bottom, where everyone can see it. People who give, climb.

Is this only for people based in Midrand?

No. It is for anyone who needs the other city.

If you are in Johannesburg and keep losing work because you have no one in Pretoria, this is for you. If you are in Centurion or Pretoria and the big clients all seem to sit in Sandton, it is for you too. Midrand is simply where the group meets, and where both of you can get to.

Where do you start?

With one specific request to one person.

Midrand Business Connect lists its host and founding connectors by name, with their own profiles on platforms we do not own, so you can check each of them first. Pick the one closest to the side of Gauteng you need, tell them who you are trying to reach, and suggest meeting halfway.