Township bakery in the dough

03/08/2015. David Phaahla takes out bread from a baking pan during the opening of the Kgora Community Bakery in Soshanguve. Picture: Masi Losi

03/08/2015. David Phaahla takes out bread from a baking pan during the opening of the Kgora Community Bakery in Soshanguve. Picture: Masi Losi

Published Aug 4, 2015

Share

Pretoria - Eagerly kneading the dough to create their first batch of loaves of bread, Lucky Nkosi and his colleagues were proud to start staking their claim as breadmakers for their community in Soshanguve.

“No one will understand what this means. The opening of this business will empower more than just a few in our community,” said Nkosi.

The City of Tshwane yesterday unveiled its latest youth employment and township revitalisation project in Soshanguve, after injecting R3.8 million into a bakery project.

The investment went into construction of the building and the installation of fixtures, features, fittings and machinery.

Income generated from the operations will cover all the operational costs of the bakery, and the surplus will be reinvested into the co-operative reserve account.

The Tshwane Bakery, an initiative of five youths under the aegis of Imvelo Multi-purpose co-operative, will sell fresh bread known as “kgora” (to be full) and related products to customers at affordable prices.

The bakery will produce a minimum of 800 loaves a day.

Imvelo was operating a catering business-cum-bakery on a small scale at the current facility, and the city stepped in to formalise the operation. It entered into a three-year memorandum of understanding with the co-operative to run the daily operations of the bakery, during which period the city will retain ownership of the business.

The beneficiaries will be given an option to renew the lease when the agreement expires.

MMC for economic development and planning, Subesh Pillay, said following the country’s census showing that the youth was the most adversely affected by unemployment, the city decided to address this through various initiatives.

Pillay noted that in the two years since the Tshepo 10 000 youth entrepreneurship programme star-ted, R280m had been spread over 300 000 co-operatives for the upkeep of the city’s infrastructure.

“This place will serve as a pilot project to be replicated in other townships based on its successes and failures. We have not just thrown money at the; we are seeking to build a long-term relationship.”

Pillay said the money was spent on purchasing equipment, installation, refurbishment of the building and to provide co-operative members with business and financial management skills.

Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said it was time township people stopped taking money from their communities to the city centres. “If we are to start undermining poverty and unemployment to break the multi-generational poverty cycle in our midst, communities need to change ownership of the economy and the city will offer support.”

In the coming months, seven more projects like this would be set up around the city, he said. Various other projects would be looked into such as a car wash business. Brick, textiles and plastic manufacturing factories will also be established.

Phindile Masuku, member of the Imvelo, which runs the new bakery, said they were delighted that they could finally start working for themselves after struggling while working out of their homes since they started in 2012. “We did whatever we could to get by. To have the city join in makes us want to push even harder. This means we have a future and sustainable jobs. The community is just as eager to stand behind us in this endeavour,” she said.

PRETORIA NEWS

Related Topics: