The National Council of Province’s (NCOP’s) Johannesburg Delegation that focuses on economic development in Gauteng went to visit the Soweto Ekasi Innovation Hub in Diepkloof, which is part of the Gauteng MEC of Economic Development and its e-Government Department.
This impressive business hub focuses on ICT expertise, electronic coding and advance technological inventions that will bring solutions to township challenges. This lab is a direct response to calls to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It forms part of the electronic corridor of Soweto, said its Programme Manager, Nothile Mpisi, “which is located next to the higher education institutions and colleges that we have a Memorandum of Understanding with. Some of the prototype products we produce are created and researched in these institutions”.
Currently, the students at the lab are busy working on two apps: one on events notification, and another one on street art marketing.
One of the members of the delegation, Mr Xitlhangoma Mabasa, commended the fact that young people are stretching their minds innovatively to come up with solutions to the challenges their communities are faced with.
There are today several entrepreneurs who emerged out of this programme who have created jobs for others. The success, pointed out the Programme Manager, of the hub “is due to the due diligence that we undertake before accepting any product idea. Currently, there are 16 award-winning entrepreneurs whose products have been commercialised, who now employ more than 130 people”.
On acceptance to the lab, the young innovators are assigned to mentors and commercial experts. The former will impart much-needed expertise that will enhance the success of the product. And the last-mentioned will assess the viability of such a product.
According to her, “they will then sign a one-year contract and through its course they must be committed to the expectations of the contract. This process is aimed at harnessing their ideas into viable products, a process that costs the hub more than R250 000”.
This formula proved to be successful, she emphasised, “out of which we have produced a number of entrepreneurs who now run their own innovative businesses, who are businesspeople in their own right”.
The hub derives most of its intake from surrounding schools. “We have schools programmes where we introduce the work we do. Most of all, we believe that pupils should be introduced to technological education at an early age if we are to meet the challenges brought to bear by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
We are constantly on a lookout for innovation, she stressed animatedly, “that will bring solutions to challenges in our communities and one of our students has created a devise that will detect water leaks, which could save so much water lost due to leaks. This product is currently being assessed by the City of Johannesburg for its feasibility”.
When members asked if the lab is getting any funding from departments in their line of business or fund youth development, she responded that funding remains a challenge. “We would like to have relationships with this cluster of departments and be involved in crafting policies, set standards and principles that could move innovation forward.”
She also cited the need for industrial parks in the townships for business revitalisation. “We have manufactures who need to be assisted with a sharable space for their businesses. But currently they don’t have a place to do so. That is what can take our country’ industrial revolution to the next level.”
Asked about private sector involvement, she responded that IBM is assisting with internet technology businesses and they are in communication with Coca Cola to make them part of its supply chain.
Mr Mabasa advised that the lab should start exploring the concept of cooperatives in the field of technology. “I will encourage you to have a team that will visit Spain. There, cooperatives produce parts for automobiles. That has off-set the idea that cooperatives are about agriculture or bead works. But they can also be involved in broader concepts of industrialisation.”
Thereafter, the delegation went to the Monangeng Pick n Pay franchise in Soweto, run by Mr Solly Legae, a model which was brokered by the Department of Economic Development in Gauteng.
He lamented the effect of migration on his business. He decried government’s failure to regulate general dealers in the townships after 1994. “Before 1994, businesses were regulated and zoned. You could not run a business in your yard. After 1994, that changed. Everyone now can open a shop anywhere and anyhow. That has affected us as formal business owners.”
Worst of all, he decried, “we are made to comply and pay all the dues expected from us. But many migrants who run spaza shops are exempted from doing so”.
“Why foreign migrants are allowed to do as they please? The government must set rules to ensure that their businesses don’t impact on ours negatively. For instance, it is normal to have 10 migrant spaza shops in one street. That is an anti-competitive business behaviour.”
He also complained that he is running his business on overdraft due to this anti-competitive behaviour of illegal spaza shops run by migrants in his catchment area. Ms Tsapane Mampuru compelled the Economic Department to respond to that. “As a department you should have picked up this problem of overdraft and advised him accordingly. It should not have taken us for this matter to surface.”
The Director of Special Projects in the department, Mr Tseliso Mohlomi, responded that “they will look at the issue of overdraft and report back to the NCOP Delegation about the outcome of their intervention”.
Ms Mampuru also emphasised that as long as our borders remain porous, the effect of migrants on township economy will persist. “We are sitting with a Bill in Parliament that seeks to regulate our borders, but there is no department that wants to own it. When enacted, it would solve some of the migration problems we are currently faced with.”
“Have you tried to club together as township business to harness your buying power or to open up your own warehouse that will supply your businesses at an affordable price?” asked Mr Mabasa. The answer was no, they have not done so. They have not yet thought about that for they spend all their energies to survive for another day. Mr Mabasa chipped in: “This shows a lack of understanding how you can harness your buying power as small township businesses. You can use the Soweto Ekasi Innovation Hub to help you solve this problem. Those young people can bring innovative ways on how you run your businesses.”
“As legislators we are glad to hear your side of the story,” Ms Ellen Prins pointed out, “it has enriched us and made us much wiser about the problems that small formal businesses are faced with in the townships. When we craft legislation related to small black businesses in the townships, we will do so in an informed manner than it would have been the case before.”
By Abel Mputing
20 November 2018
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