SOUTH Africa is entering a transitional phase in its history. While it faces many challenges that need to be overcome, innovation and creative solutions offer hope.
Metropolitan introduced the Metropolitan Collective Shapers programme as part of their drive to walk the journey of financial freedom with all South Africans. This youth empowerment initiative aims to equip youth entrepreneurs with specialised knowledge and technical skills in various sectors. To cultivate these leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators, there is a need to provide opportunities and empower the youth to reach their full capabilities.
In September 2021, Metropolitan established local economies in towns and cities across South Africa. Their goal was to uplift communities across South Africa by honing in on existing skills and passions driving local economies and developing them further. Polokwane was chosen as the first stop because of the promising talent and drive the youth had shown.
As the 2022 Metropolitan Collective Shapers programme countdown has begun, one of the 10 entrepreneurs that won R50 000 was Hlulani Takalani, 28, who started his business in 2020 after working as a quality control manager and a general manager at a poultry company in Limpopo. Takalani is looking forward to sharing his experience with other young entrepreneurs.
Takalani started a company that specialises in producing fresh produce. The vegetable produce includes cabbage, butternut, baby marrow, and more recently peanuts and dry beans. He supplies the products to clients in Polokwane, Pick n Pay, Roots, Boxer Supermarket and major markets in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Takalani is among various young people who have benefited from the initiative. His business took off in 2020, shortly after he was awarded the funds.
He thanked a close friend and said that he would not have known about the programme if it were not for him. “A close friend recommended the Collective Shapers to me and urged me to apply. I applied and fortunately got in,” he said.
Takalani said that at the inception of his business, he had challenges understanding the soil as there was part of the vegetable farm where cabbages would not grow. Only baby marrow would grow on that part of the farm.
“This then led me to lose so much before I understood what was happening with the soil in that area, ” Takalani said.
Once he got into the Metropolitan Collective Shapers, he understood soil structures as well as NPK ratios (the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in a product) and how it affects soil performance and contributes to the growth of the product.
“As a result, I’ve been able to understand better which type of ingredients and fertilisers to use in relation to my soil,” he explained. “I also used to have trouble regarding paperwork as I was running the farm old school and not as a full-on professional business.”
He would struggle to see where the money was going due to poor record keeping.
The young entrepreneur said that the programme taught him how to run his business and make it more lucrative and different from his competitors. Takalani said he wants to pay it forward by participating in the 2022 launch next Wednesday to motivate young entrepreneurs to take advantage of the initiative to grow their businesses.
“I have a few farmers I work with, concerning getting them access to the market, so I definitely help impart this information I got from Metropolitan to help them farm better and also better manage their employees too,” Takalani said.
Metropolitan head of marketing, Phumla Mavundla, said the programme is the organisation’s answer to young entrepreneurs.
“The Collective Shapers initiative is a call to action really for youth entrepreneurs in the towns we go into, to join us on the journey of collectively solutioning for the challenges we face together of youth unemployment in our country,” she said.
According to Mavundla, what sets the programme apart from similar initiatives is that it is tailored for a specific region it targets with each edition.
“Going into each town is informed by in-depth research to help us understand the economic drivers for the youth in that particular town. It is not one-size-fits-all, so, as a result, with Polokwane, the focus was the agriculture sector, and for our next town, Tshwane, we are honing into the food and hospitality sectors. If we want to make tangible change and begin to address the issues of youth unemployment, we have to be deliberate in our approach to a sustainable solution,” she said.
Mavundla explained that the programme was first kick-started in Polokwane last year as it aims to drive real change one region at a time. This year, the programme will focus on 125 entrepreneurs in the City of Tshwane who are between the ages of 18 and 25.
“The Tshwane leg of the programme will empower 125 young people with broad entrepreneurial, soft and mindset skills. Twenty of these will be selected through a different selection process to receive focused Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta)-accredited technical skills training associated with the relevant industry they operate in. The final selection of the top 10 will be made, and they will receive customised mentoring and coaching, facilitation of market access, and each get a cash injection into their businesses and various other prizes,” she said.
In ensuring that the entrepreneurs have all the support they need after the programme, Metropolitan partnered with other organisations to sharpen and instil business skills among the entrepreneurs.
“We recognised that delivering a quality programme for Metropolitan Collective Shapers is not at the core of our business. That is why we have partnered with Value Ed and BPO Skills Academy to design a bespoke programme that can deliver quality soft, mindset and Seta-accredited skills training. All the Tshwane Collective Shapers will be upskilled with tangible technical skills and ongoing soft and business skills they can access for an entire year. We have ongoing monitoring of the programme through our partners,” Mavundla said.
She urged young entrepreneurs to take advantage of this programme to help their businesses. One of the entry requirements for the programme is that the registered and established company has been operating in the identified sector for no less than 12 months.
“The participants must be permanent South African residents between the ages of 18 and 35 who would have an uninterrupted commitment to participate in and complete the programme. As part of their entry process, they need to submit a short video or 200-word motivation about their business and what the next level would look like for them,” she explained.