It was as the recovery from the Depression in Northern Rhodesia and South Africa was nearing its completion that the Susman brothers made their most momentous new investment. In December 1934, they agreed to take a share in a new business in South Africa called "Woolworth". Their partner was Max Sonnerberg; Max bought a departmental store in Cape town in 1929, changed its name to "Woolworth" in 1931 and started growing in Cape Town. There was no relationship with the F.W. Woolworth chain in the United Kingdom, but Max benefitted from the similar names. From 1930 onwards, Elie Susman began to spend half the year with his wife and family at the house in Beach Street, Cape Town, which he had built, calling this house "Barotse".
