Awethu tackles
youth unemployment
through
entrepreneurship.
Themba Khumalo was running
a small business making
hand pressed bricks in Spruitview,
on Johannesburg’s East Rand. He
heard about the Awethu Project,
a business incubator for black
entrepreneurs, on the radio and
attended a one-day ‘launch pad’
session. He then joined Awethu’s
entrepreneurship training academy.
With mentorship and training he
outperformed 90% of the graduates
on the six-month programme.
As a result Awethu stepped its
investment up a level and invested
R2.5 million into a modern brick
plant. Khumalo now has a business
that manufactures 35 000 bricks
a day and a R7 million supply
contract. He employs 22 people.
“Awethu did a big thing,” he says,
“they funded a guy who didn’t
actually have a formal business
in place.”
Rejoice Majola had no business
idea, no business experience and
no job prospects. What she had was
a degree in entrepreneurship from
the University of Johannesburg
and a hunger to work. Today she
is running baby sign language
company We.Can.Talk alongside her
Awethu mentor, Denise Thomas.
Her business is a start-up and is
not yet profitable. “I have sales and
revenue targets and I work on these
every month. Sometimes I surprise
myself when I make or exceed the
target. When I don’t, I don’t get
discouraged. I understand that this
takes patience and perseverance.”
The Awethu Project, which is
backing Themba and Rejoice,
provides entrepreneurs – from
spaza owners to black industrialists
– with training, mentorship,
management support and funding.
Yusuf Randera-Rees founded the
business in 2010. In six years it has
grown from a R60 000 start-up to
a company with R180 million in
funding for entrepreneurs.
It all started, he says, with the
experience of growing up in a
mixed-race home which, while a
privilege, cre