Cape Town - A new initiative is inviting corporates to get out of the office and into the township every Friday to boost township economies and save small businesses.
The Ezase-Kasi Business Fridays National Campaign was launched at the Century City Conference Centre on Friday.
Ezase-Kasi means “from the township” in isiXhosa, and is the brainchild of local entrepreneur Siyanda Mtulu in conjunction with the National Development Plan and the Department of Tourism.
Every Friday, Mtulu and his team host a couple of companies from the corporate sector, and take them into the township to experience local businesses first hand.
“We are bringing them from their comfort zone to the township every Friday. There are two things we want to achieve: one is to boost the township economy, especially the township restaurants we go to. Second is for these companies to see how they can be involved in developing our communities,” Mtulu said.
Safety concerns have all been seen to, said the entrepreneur: all Business Friday groups are accompanied by two local police officers and a member of the Community Policing Forum, and all restaurants have had their health and safety certificates checked.
“We are hoping to make our township a different place. Our people are not working, we lose jobs left, right and centre and yet, we could be able to make a difference by supporting one another. We hope that we will be able to create more jobs, stimulate the national economic growth, and drop the level of crime by creating job opportunities in the township.”
The idea was born out of the failure of Mtulu’s own business.
“I started a township business and it did not yield the expected results. It did not sustain itself, so I eventually closed it. I saw that there are a lot of other businesses in the township that do not make it,” he said.
Mtulu said anyone could help support township economies in small ways, like wearing at least one item on Fridays that has been made by a local township designer.
“We have quality talented people in the township who can produce similar to what you find with big brands, but these people can’t afford to rent commercial spaces in places like the Waterfront, so they don’t have access to the market,” Mtulu said.
Mtulu said townships were bursting with underrated businesses that needed some support in order to thrive.
“We have hair beauty salons, taxi industry, construction companies, catering companies, township restaurants.
“All of these businesses are there, but not leveraged enough to grow the township economy. Give them the capacity to grow so that they can be self sustainable - in order for them not to close their business like I did,” he said.
Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe delivered the keynote address at the Ezase-Kasi launch.
“This vision by Ezase-Kasi is such an important intervention to wrestle the bull by the horns. It is heartening when the youth of our country do not only ask what can be done for them, but effectively chart the way forward on what can be done to extricate our people from the trio challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality,” Radebe said.
Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa said the initiative would help township communities begin to reverse the damage of decades of disinvestment.
“By design, townships were to be neglected, overpopulated and isolated and this naturally discouraged investment which in turn meant a lack of resources and infrastructure and soaring unemployment levels,” Xasa said.
“With roughly half of the urban population living in townships and informal settlements, a worrying statistic is that about 60 percent of all unemployed people are found in townships. If we are to create more jobs and realise inclusive growth, we must support small businesses. The Ezase-Kasi initiative is but one positive step in the right direction.”
Xasa said with the right support small township businesses could claim a much bigger slice of the pie when it came to tourist spend in South Africa.
“The growth of the tourism industry has not yielded genuine benefits for rural communities although (they) could benefit from and participate in the tourism industry.
“Visitors should be encouraged to spend more money in the local economy,” she said.
The Cape Town launch was just the beginning. Ezase-Kasi will be heading off on a roadshow to the other provinces on their Ezase-Kasi Vision 2030 Imbizo.
* If your business would like to join Mtulu on an Ezase-Kasi Business Fridays experience, email him on [email protected] or visit the website www.ezasekasi.co.za for more information.
CAPE ARGUS