Humble beginnings a start to bigger things

THE INFORMAL sector enterprises are a useful and self-motivated sector which can contribute or help to lessen the impact of the severe shortage of new job opportunities in South Africa.

An empowered, well-supported and dynamic small operations or business can be a powerful mechanism for creating more wide-ranging growth, redistribution of wealth, and nation building.

I recall how my father in the early 1970s opened a small shop in a farming town with little cash.

Together with my mother, they both put in long hours of hard physical labour, selling almost anything they could lay their hands on and built themselves up from there.

My father used to tell us “save the pennies and buy a farm”.

Apartheid South Africa’s repressive laws were about so much more than just separate amenities.

Growing up during the apartheid era was very blinkered and, due to the lack of recreational facilities, my father – in order to keep me away from mischief and the streets – made me work in the shop during the weekends, packing the shelves or the fridge, operating the till.

He would send me to the bus rank to sell small items to commuters or to attract customers to buy from our shop.

Similarly, many children and grandchildren will be able to tell parallel stories of how, from difficult and humble beginnings, they climbed the ladder.

It was through these small enterprises that parents sent their kids to school, university and bought basic necessities such as clothes, food, electricity, water, homes and the occasional luxury item.

MOHAMED SAEED Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal