Community challenges seen as business opportunities for women – GEP

10th October 2016

By: Megan van Wyngaardt

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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Women entrepreneurs must use their environment and the immediate challenges facing their communities as drivers of business, Gauteng Enterprise Propeller (GEP) CEO Leah Manenzhe said on Monday.

Manenzhe told delegates at the Gauteng Young Women in Business Breakfast Dialogue – which aims to encourage entrepreneurs to sustain their businesses and add value in the mainstream economy – that the drought and ongoing water problems currently facing the country, for example, created the perfect opportunity for new business ventures.

She added that, while this required some innovation, opportunities abounded in areas from the recycling of water to water-friendlier cleaning of cars.

Manenzhe noted that the GEP currently had business requests amounting to R980-million, which it was not possible to meet in full. For this reason, the GEP would now focus on providing funding to close the gap between entrepreneurs and banks. “We will make the projects bankable,” she noted.

Also addressing delegates at the event, Gauteng Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development MEC Lebogang Maile added that entrepreneurs needed to understand that, while government would do everything in its power to assist economic growth, its resources were limited.

He added that, while the province’s township economy was estimated to be worth R100-million, this was not circulating among the residents, owing to the structure of the economy.

“Big companies own the value chain, with townships just a place where they come and dump their overflow. We all know Chesa Nyama, but who owns the livestock?” Maile noted.

Meanwhile, the dialogue also invited business owner Sheila Sekhitla, winner of a Gauteng Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development Department 2015/16 Township Entrepreneur Award, to give insight into what was required to run a business. Sekhitla owns The View Guesthouse, in Tembisa, and has received R400 000 from the GEP in recognition of her accomplishment.

Sekhitla pointed out that, to succeed, entrepreneurs needed passion for what they embarked on and for their communities. They also needed to take action. “There is no time for procrastination,” she said.

“You need to continually learn, you need innovation, inspiration, knowledge, interdisciplinary skills – multiple areas of expertise. With courage and conviction, a persistent approach will always triumph over the prevailing circumstances,” Sekhitla added.

She told Engineering News Online on the sidelines of the dialogue that, through her venture as a guesthouse owner, she also takes in students from local tertiary institutions to give them practical training in the field of tourism. Sekhitla said that tourism was "not just the Kruger National Park”, but included heritage sites and points of interest in the local community.

To this end, Sekhitla has hosted a tourism fun walk in Tembisa, using the students as tour guides.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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