CAPE TOWN - A holistic lifestyle business using traditional African herbs, Oco Life, was announced the overall award winner and also walked away with the best women-owned business award at Western Cape Entrepreneurship Awards in Cape Town.
The awards held at the Old Mutual offices in Cape Town on Wednesday night seek to highlight the important role of entrepreneurs and small businesses in the economy and to inspire entrepreneurial attitudes in the province.
Winners were named in the categories of women-owned, emerging, most innovative, social enterprise and township business categories, while the top businesses in the Western Cape’s key industries of agri-processing, digital technology, tourism and creative, were also named.
“We wanted to create a platform that recognises and supports our most inspiring, high-potential entrepreneurs, and at the same time raise awareness around entrepreneurship and contribute to a culture where entrepreneurship is understood and valued for the role it plays in our economy and our society, " the DA's MEC for economic opportunities in the Western Cape, Beverley Schafer, said in a statement.
“Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the tools that are going to help us tackle unemployment in this country. But in order to contribute meaningfully towards job creation, businesses need to be able to grow,” she said.
She urged government and the private sector to assist in the growth and development of entrepreneurship as an important driver of economic activity.
“We need to start thinking of and promoting entrepreneurship as a career choice rather than something people accidentally fall into or are forced to do,” Schafer said.
A women-owned business, Oco Life, which was originally named Organico, is a holistic lifestyle store that uses traditional African herbs such as Imphepho to create organic essential oils.
The company emphasises that making a social impact while contributing to the green economy, is core to their business model.
Annabel Davids, who is fiercely driven and enterprising, runs the business, which has created 12 permanent and 14 part-time jobs for residents in Masiphumele, Cape Town.