Awards 2008 : Category Finalists

 

Arts, Culture and Communications • Business Entrepreneurs • Education • Health • Science & Technology • Social Welfare • Sport

 

Business Entrepreneurs

 

Mrs Simangele Cele and Mrs Memory Thandiwe Mfekayi are the owners and managers of Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc, a company which specialises in forestry harvesting supplying fell timber to the two multi-national paper companies, Sappi and Mondi.

It is truly a path-finding company which is 100% owned by these two women in an industry dominated by men. Since starting their business in 2001 they have grown the company’s operations six times by at first delivering 2500 tons of fell timber per month and now 16 000 tons per month.

Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc‘s business turnover shot from R1.3 million back then to R3.5 million today. The company employs 265 people of which 80% is women and five of the eight supervisory positions are held by women.

It is a company which has earned respect for their labour relations in the forestry industry. Their wages for staff is ten percent above the state determined wage for forestry workers. Over and above this Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc are transporting workers free of charge to their work in rural areas where there is no transport. Without this transport many of these workers would have remained unemployed or would have had to leave their children at home to stay in compounds.

When Ms Cele and Ms Mfekayi first got together to start their company they mainly subcontracted to various existing male dominated forestry contractors. As it was a difficult entity to start as none of the banks considered to help them financially. Purchasing tools, procuring vehicles and other contingencies such as the necessary protective clothing and chainsaws was a great challenge and they had to fund it out of their own pockets.

In the beginning of its operations Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc worked at a stop-start pattern which was frustrating and discouraging resulting in the two-woman team being out of pocket many times in the shutdown cycle of this pattern. They also experienced a lot of resistance in managing men who were just not prepared to accept women “bosses” in this industry.

Furthermore they carried the costly responsibility of the safety of their workers on site and in forest fires as well as the environmental responsibilities prescribed by the big players and Government.

A big breakthrough came for these two women when they managed to move from being subcontractors to be main contractors after securing their own contracts with corporate growers, Sappi Forest in 2005 and Mondi Paper recently for Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc.

Word of their success has spread and Ms Cele and Ms Mfekayi are now frequently approached for advice by other women who are developing an interest in the forestry business. Their message is that they remain motivated by proving that women can make it in a male-dominated industry. They do that by bettering growth targets and managing growth for all they employ as well as food on their tables and a better home life.

These two partners in this forestry business come from very different backgrounds but have combined their efforts very effectively. Ms Cele holds a masters degree in sociology, has lectured at the University of Durban Westville and gained invaluable experience in the forestry industry working at Fukamela, a Mondi contractor, looking after emergent contractors.

Ms Mfekayi has worked herself up in the ranks of forestry and was sub-contracting for eight years in the industry before she joined hands with Ms Cele to start Memory Nyalazi Harvest cc.

Ms Cele also lectures at the University of Zululand in the Department of Sociology and is registered for a PhD. She was also appointed by Min. Lindiwe Hendriks as Member of the Forest Charter Council at the beginning of the year.

• A short profile on Mrs Cele and Mrs Mfekayi will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 27 July 2008.

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Mrs Thabang Molefi is qualified as a traditional medical practitioner and beauty therapist who, with the little savings she had at the time, opened the first health spa in Soweto six years ago. Today she owns The Roots Healthcare Centre, a business with a multi-million rand turnover and branches in three South African provinces and a neighbouring country.

Her pioneering health centres introduced affordable health care to black communities through the use of the different but effective technique of iridology for diagnosis and herbs as prescribed medicine. She also offers a beauty and detoxing service for the first time in these areas and is a member of the Ethno Medical Practitioners Association.

Ms Molefi has since the success of the first centre in Soweto grown her business considerably to establish another seven health care centres in previously disadvantaged areas in Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, the Free State and a mobile unit visiting communities in rural and remote areas in the rest of the country.

The Roots Health Care concept was conceived whilst Ms Molefi was training in London to become a beauty therapist and later in managing a Spa on a luxury cruise liner sailing the waters of America. She gained invaluable practical experience in a world more health and environmentally conscious and knew that Africa was calling her.

Ms Molefi returned to her roots with the idea of opening a health centre in Soweto, capitalising on the return to more natural and Ethno ways of living and to bring the professional healing powers of herbs to communities in townships. It was important to her to share her knowledge and experience with her community at home.

Her efforts to get a bank loan to open an up-market Spa in Soweto failed but this was no deterrent. She went ahead and opened on a smaller scale with the little personal funds she had available. It was the highlight in her life but a tough time at first and frustrating trying to sell beauty and health treatments to the Soweto community.

Ms Molefi’s answer to resistance in the market was spreading the word that it is important to serve your own body. Her message was that whilst a car needs a service to run smoothly the human body, because of the stresses and hardship of every day, needed more “servicing”.

In reaching out to Sowetans she also realised that there was a huge need for affordable health care. Western medicine was out of reach to a large section of the black population and previously disadvantaged because of high cost. That is when she qualified herself at the Indigenous Medical Plant Training College and Rituals in Cape Town in Ethno medicine and ailment healing with particular emphasis on herbalism.

The first two years of starting The Roots Health Care centres were difficult. In the first six months after opening her first health clinic Ms Molefi paid staff salaries from her savings. She also spent a lot of time giving free talks at schools and churches in a bid to educate and change the mindsets of people in Soweto about health care.

After six years of trading she has not only grown her business substantially but has exposed her community not only to health diagnosis through iridology but also reflexology, nutrition, herbs and beauty treatments — all contributing to a healthy and a “feel good about yourself”- lifestyle in previously disadvantaged communities.

She has created 41 jobs for women in these communities and developed some to managerial positions to run the health centres. Ms Molefi has also outsourced services such as accounting, laundry and security to local business. It is her intention to branch out into franchising creating more business and job opportunities. 

• A short profile on Mrs Molefe will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 21 July 2008.
   

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Me Nelia Schutte is an entrepreneur who started her high-end children’s occasion and playwear business 15 years ago with almost nothing and grew it into a well-known and trusted brand with a multi-million rand turnover. It is 100% proudly South African with agents and stores represented in13 countries including South Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

As a self-starter who just thrives on adrenaline Me Schutte created the Keedo brand in 1993 with a small store in the Tygervalley Shopping Centre, selling original designs, bright and colourful and made from natural fibers that can breathe and do not cause irritation to little sensitive skins - all grown under the African sun. She named it “Keedo” after how she called her own twin son and daughter, Henno and Carmia who she called her Keedos.

Having established such a successful brand and business Me Schutte says she is proudest of the fact that she is a job-provider. Keedo has grown in leaps and bounds year after year and creates employment opportunities for over 200 people, most of whom are single parents with extended families. Of these employees about 85 percent is women and single mothers who look after their children and provide them with an education.

For Me Schutte Keedo is more than just a business, it is an opportunity to impassion and educate children about nature and Mother Earth. While she creates beautiful clothes for them she wants children to all be aware of the earth which is the basis of Keedo. Her message to children through her clothing brand is to preserve the environment and to love nature.

Only motives inspired by nature are used on garments and educational tags are added to aid awareness. Hang tags on the clothes provide children with the lessons. One, for example, says: “One big tree provides oxygen for four people for a lifetime”. There are no man-made images such as trucks or dolls on her clothing brand, just flowers, trees and animals.

Me Schutte wants to serve the children of the earth as she believes that one must invest in them from their formative years, as they will to a large degree, fashion our future. She also believes in giving something back to the community and disadvantaged children. Through Keedo Cares she has been involved in several community initiatives throughout the years. Currently they are supporting Sakhumzi; a home for taking care of about 100 destitute children in Mfuleni, many of whom are orphaned due to HIV.

Her business started after a sport accident which made her think that too many people die with an idea that they still wanted to realise. Her twins were two years old at the time and when she battled to find them clothes that she liked she started to make clothes for them.

The idea of personalised clothing of a high quality and inspired by a passion for nature dawned on her. She hand-painted nature-inspired motives on the hand-made garments and dyed it in a pot on her stove.

Everybody asked where she bought these clothes and it was then that Me Schutte, armed with a bag of her own clothes and not a cent in her purse, went to the bank manager who by chance was a women. At first the bank manager was skeptical but after she showed her bag with clothes she walked out of the bank with a loan of R50 000.

That was the start and today it remains her goal to grow Keedo as a global brand by consistently delivering unique, quality garments and providing customers with a fulfilling shopping experience, while educating our children to love and respect the environment. She has also received numerous Awards for her entrepreneurial skills and business success. 

• A short profile on Mrs Schutte will be broadcast on SABC 2 after the Afrikaans and Sotho News on 30 July 2008.

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