JOHANNESBURG - Now that he is out of the often chaotic scenes in the National Assembly, former ANC MP Pule Mabe says he will be focusing on growing his budding enterprise employing more than 2 000 people across the country.
A former journalist, Mabe founded start-up business Rivalox in 2010 to manufacture three-wheeled motorcycles that could be utilised for everyday use. He recently resigned as a lawmaker to make space for presidential hopeful Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma in Parliament.
The Limpopo-born entrepreneur said that hard work and determination paved the way for the developing his company that has already created more than 2 000 job opportunities in Gauteng, Free State, North West, Limpopo and Western Cape.
In Gauteng, the assembling of the three-wheelers has created 200 job opportunities at the Krugersdorp plant west of Johannesburg.
“I have always taken a keen interest in entrepreneurship from very early stages,” says Mabe, who started out as a newsboy and is now studying towards a Master's in Business Administration (MBA).
His business acumen paid off last year when he was provided with a sponsorship to support waste picker initiatives and drive environmental awareness programmes. Enviro Mobi partnered with the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) by proving Rivalox with 40 Kariki Waste Ways.
“I have often said that the next generation of entrepreneurs and within the context of the 4th Industrial Revolution will be innovators,” he says. “To innovate will mean generating concepts and ideas that enhance society’s ways of doing ways from accessing goods and services as well conducting trade,” says the former ANC Youth League national treasurer-general.
Pule Mabe. Image supplied.
Mabe explained that innovative environmental information and service delivery information management tool is for service delivery improvement around mass employment and rapid response infrastructure.
“You must have the power to be able to support waste pickers. I created this innovation to deal with the number of issues and create portable platforms that pick up waste without creating undue problems for citizens, we also needed something that is also environmental frankly,” he says.
The 37-year-old holds a national diploma in journalism from the Tshwane University of Technology, and a certificate of executive development program from Unisa. Life was not a bed of roses for Mabe as they did not have much growing up, and he credits her late grandmother for teaching her not to give up in life.
“It was Koko’s (grandmother) determination not to give up and mainly sustaining our family conscious through faith as a God-fearing woman, which propelled me into politics and ignited my desire to pursue entrepreneurship,” he says.
His late mother also provided for the family through selling the popular Tupperware products, clothes and by running a township-type “mashonisa or loanshark” scheme.
Today, Mabe is working on numerous innovations to contribute towards the creation of sustainable enterprises.
“The time to earn space in the economy through color pigmentation is slowly wearing off; even established businesses across sectors are continuously working on means and ways through which to remain relevant and continue with normal trade.”
Mabe, who also worked as executive producer for education TV show, Kwela Xpress Show, which focused on public transport improvements towards the 2010 Fifa World Cup, said the innovations he was working on serves as the basis for entrepreneurship development.