Community Entrepreneurs Come Up Tops At The Iwisa No.1 Community Champions Competition
Community Entrepreneurs Come Up Tops At The Iwisa No.1 Community Champions Competition. Social entrepreneurs are vital to a sustainable future for South Africa as a whole – they solve societal and environmental problems, combat challenges in ways that government and traditional charities cannot, and positively impact society and/or the environment.
This is why Premier FMCG, Social Enterprise Connect (SEC), Social Enterprise Academy Africa (SEAA) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) have come together to launch the Iwisa No.1 Community Champions Competition, which identifies, upskills, and rewards community-based entrepreneurs for doing good while doing well in some of Premier’s key regions: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and the Western Cape.
In the Eastern Cape, Mkhululi Mnukwa from M&M Trading won first place for his company that sells vegetables and provides experiential training to other youth in the community. Sizwe Nzima from Iyeza Health took first place in the Western Cape. The company provides logistics business services focusing on increasing access to treatment and healthcare products in the communities. It sustains itself by charging the patients and suppliers a delivery fee.
Fortune Hadebe & Mzokhona Maxase from Cubic38 cleaned up in Gauteng with their innovative business idea that converts waste tyres into shoe polish and other consumables. Sibongile Mooko, marketing executive at Premier, says that finding and assisting individuals who deserve to be rewarded for the role they play in the socio-economic environment is important to IWISA No.1 as a homegrown brand focused on drawing people and communities together to make people’s everyday lives better.
“The mentorship our finalists received included three online sessions that helped them to understand how best to use their financial injection to ensure sustainable and long-term success. Finalists were also assisted in creating business models to plan their social impact and maintain profits. In addition, guidance from the SEC’s expert mentors allowed our entrepreneurs to undertake mapping exercises within their communities to identify other income-generating ideas that could potentially increase their viability and impact and uplift the communities in which they operate,” says Jacqueline Mhlanga, Programmes manager at the SEC.
