Join the 'Business Fridays' drive
SIYANDA Mtulu shifts in his chair as he talks about his brainchild. It’s not a nervous or uneasy shift, but rather the demeanour of someone animated by the possibility of what he is setting out to achieve.
Siyanda is the founder and chief executive of a new initiative called EzaseKasi Business Fridays. In short, it is a project to plug small businesses into the mainstream economy and is endorsed by the National Development Plan (NDP) Vision 2030.
He has tasted failure in business and has vowed to help prevent the same thing happening to anyone else.
Siyanda, 38, who is married with three children, was born and grew up in Port Elizabeth. He studied marketing and specialised in importing and exporting. He created crime awareness and prevention programmes around the country and it was in this area where he cut his teeth in government and private sector relations.
“There was a business I was involved in – a ‘pub and grub’ township business where people could socialise and dance in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth.
“The business did not yield the results I expected as an investor. One of the crucial things every township business needs is the support of big business in order to sustain or survive the first 1 000 days of its business.
“I’m one of those who fell into that trap. With my experience I saw a need to assist other business people so that they don’t have to close their businesses like I did.
“It was happening all over the country, not just to me. I decided to be a catalyst to ensure we avoid it from happening to other people. There is only one way of doing it and that is by bringing big business by the hand to support the businesses in the township.”
A few weeks ago, Siyanda launched Ezase-Kasi Business Fridays, with the full backing of Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, whose Monitoring, Planning and Evaluation Department is driving the country’s NDP and Vision 2030.
Siyanda’s plan, as the name of the project suggests, is a move to urge South Africans to spend their rands in the townships every Friday.
“We want to have a day that we dedicate to boosting township economies. Let’s have a day where we are going to drive our spending power directly to the township-located businesses.
“On Fridays we encourage South Africans to wear at least one clothing item that has been produced by a local or township fashion designer.
“I believe if we as South Africans, working in the private or public sector, do that we will create a demand that will create jobs and which will in turn upscale the economy of the country.
“We know there are other brands, but let’s put them aside on a Friday and urge South Africans to have lunch in groups in township restaurants.
“It’s a simple idea. We know there are government departments and municipalities with fleets of cars, but how many of them fill their tanks at service stations in the townships? Let’s support the service stations in townships and fill your car there on a Friday.
“We’re inviting individuals to do that too. In that way we will be transforming radically the lot of the previously disadvantaged.”
The same counts for tourism, wedding planners, car mechanics and carpenters.
And there is an Ezase-Kasi app with listings and business profiles to drive consumers to township businesses.
“People have been living in Cape Town for decades, but many have not been to a township to see what it has to offer. It has heritage, museums and landmarks to visit.
“Tour the townships, there are B&Bs where you can stay over, event management companies and activities there daily. You will find an opportunity there as a business person to add value and boost the township economy.”
It is the chapters on small business in the NDP and its Vision 2030 that inspired Siyanda to bring the document to life. His forward thinking saw the Presidency falling in love with his project from the moment he met with top officials in Radebe’s department.
“It’s a life changing idea for many South Africans. The beneficiary of this initiative is the entire country. By big business assisting us, they are helping the country and this is how we will be able to make a difference.
“If we want to have a dignified, economically vibrant community as imagined by the Vision 2030 we need to start that work today and then we’d be able to have a track record as we move forward. By then we will be able to see the fruits of what we have done 14 or 15 years from now.
“It was important from the conceptualisation to ensure we have the buy-in of government. It will be government who would have to lead us as South Africans into growing our economy.
“We have the buy-in from the Ministry in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation. They have the mandate to manage and run the NDP. We brought this to them because I got the idea from the NDP itself.
“It requires big business and government at national, provincial and local level to support small businesses to create jobs.
“The NDP is a plan but one that speaks over the heads of people. People don’t see the Vision 2030 plan and this EzaseKasi Business Fridays initiative brings the plan to life. It brings it to the ground where people will be able to identify for themselves with the NDP and participate weekly with Business Fridays.
“For every Friday, up to Vision 2030, can you imagine the economic impact it will make? We approached the Ministry in the Presidency and they loved it, they endorsed it and we are the only organisation in the country that has the rights to co-brand with the NDP.”
The initiative has a national database supported by an app that connects township business around the country and it is growing by the day. With the swipe of a smartphone you can source every conceivable service or product from the township.
“In order for this radical economic transformation to be practical we put the townships businesses in the palms of every South African or tourist.
“The app has wedding planners from the township, in whatever area you’re in. The same thing for taverns, restaurants, service stations, B&Bs – you will find them all there.
“This app will provide a map of how to get there, it will provide the information, contact details and showcase the products and services on offer.
“Through the app, many small businesses throughout the country will benefit immensely. They can register for free and we will market their businesses on the app.
“It is available for download for free to every South African and we believe it will really change the lives of many people. Today you can’t do business without technology.”
A number of large corporates have already jumped on board, including Independent Media, publishers of the Cape Argus, insurance giant Santam and the Century City Conference Centre & Hotel.
Last week, on the Friday before Heritage Day, the Century City Conference Centre & Hotel hosted an open-air market for vendors from the township to sell their wares in Century City.
“It was something they wouldn’t ordinarily have been able to do. We had just over 500-or-so people attending and we had a braai, sang the national anthem and Bryan Habana was there to support it.
“Most importantly, people supported the businesses from the township. It’s something we intend to do with the Century City Conference Centre & Hotel monthly, on the last Friday of the month to bring vendors there.”
Siyanda says that especially in the Picture Cindy Waxa Western Cape, the definition of the township businesses the initiative seeks to promote is broader to include those in all previously disadvantaged communities – including predominantly coloured areas on the Cape Flats.
He says he is aware that tensions exist between black and coloured communities and will seek to use the Ezase-Kasi Business Fridays initiative as a vehicle to promote social cohesion.
There are neighbouring suburbs like Langa and Bonteheuwel living across the road from each other and separated by Jakes Gerwel Drive. Spine Road is the common boundary between Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha and Duinefontein Road between Gugulethu and Manenberg. Yet, these neighbours rarely share their music, culture and sport.
“This initiative, when we talk about township businesses, also includes Mitchells Plain and Lavender Hill – the traditionally predominantly coloured areas on the Cape Flats.
“It’s not only for Gugulethu and township areas like those in PE. These are also areas that were previously disadvantaged and in Cape Town it is still happening.
“Those businesses are part of what we are marketing, and coloured and black communities are part of this initiative. It is an initiative we should be driving together, moving together to get these communities to talk to each other.”
Siyanda’s project makes sense on every level – economically and socially. But it relies on consumer choice. The choice to spend your cash in a township for at least one day a week.
With this choice we are not just helping these communities to overcome joblessness and all the societal challenges that comes with depressed economies, but we are helping ourselves to realising a new economic and social order that begins to address the imbalances of our fragmented past in a meaningful way.
If my boss is reading this – because he’s the one signing off on the cheque for the Cape Argus year-end function – here’s advance notice: your money is going to be spent at a chisinyama in Gugs, Langa or Khayelitsha. And on a Friday. We can’t wait!
THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY OF DOING IT AND THAT IS BY BRINGING BIG BUSINESS BY THE HAND TO SUPPORT THE BUSINESSES IN THE TOWNSHIP THROUGH THE APP, MANY SMALL BUSINESSES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY WILL BENEFIT IMMENSELY