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SA Update
· Roddy Bray's Story-Letters from Southern Africa
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Social Entrepreneurs
'Umsebenzi unqabile'. It was one of the
first phrases I learnt in Xhosa. A commiseration. An attempt to show
empathy… 'work is scarce'. How many times I heard the soft knock at the
door and the words 'I'm looking for a job'. And all I could say was: I am
sorry, I cannot help; I understand things are hard, 'Umsebenzi unqabile'.
 This week I was privileged to guide a
couple that wanted to meet South African 'social entrepreneurs'; people that
stop and think about the army of unemployed people in South Africa - and do
something about it. The government say unemployment is at 28%, many NGOs put
the figure at 40 - 45% (over 8 million people) and certainly in some townships
and rural areas the figure climbs to two-thirds. There are no grants for the
unemployed, although extended family networks effectively share wages, pensions
and disability grants to ensure that remarkably few people in South Africa
starve, although many live on less than $1 a day; 'absolute poverty' as the UN
would term it.
We had an inspiring few days. We met Charles Mezell, winner of international
prizes and awards. Charles described one of his projects 'Men By the Side the
Road': every day hundreds of thousands of men across the country stand at
intersections hoping that a builder or contractor will stop and pick them up as
labourers, reminiscent of how men used to stand at the gates of shipyards
during the depression. They are always there, from early in the morning, in all
weathers. They demonstrate that South African men are determined to go out and
seek work - but too seldom does work come to them. So Charles has developed a
network whereby these men are given access to training, tools, qualifications
and placements. The project is self-funded through a scheme fixing and
re-selling donated tools. The project is now active at over 500 intersections:
an astonishingly successful project that is expanding very fast,
nationwide.
'The Business Place' takes training further. Over lunch, Denise Dookoo
described to us the centre she has established where micro-entrepreneurs (they
may simply be selling fruit by the road) are offered training and access to
micro-finance. They quite
 literally work their way
through the building, starting with elementary business principles on the
ground floor. As the business expands so they are coached and learn how to
manage their finances, register a company and employ others. By the top floor
they are taking courses with titles like 'How to Export' and 'Business Process
Re-engineering'. The Business Place is supported by companies, pro-bono, and a
government-funded scheme providing vouchers for training. In the last few
months they have helped hundreds of businesses become established.
Many people have heard of 'Carol Boyes', who produces very popular pewter
'functional art'. On the top floor of her design centre in Cape Town, we
visited ceramicist Barbara Jackson, who runs a non-profit company called
'Monkeybiz'. Five years ago Jackson began to provide beads, free of charge, to
women in the townships, promising to buy the designs they made. These
extraordinary works of beading have become known internationally, and Monkeybiz
has not only pioneered a new genre of beaded art but has become an important
exporter. The project now supports over 450 township artists. Other new design
companies, such as Streetwires, have developed wire-based functional art and
focused on innovative office and home products: wire business card holders,
wire magazine racks, radios. They employ 70 formerly jobless people as
'wiremasters'.
 South Africa is enjoying its longest period
of sustained growth since the Second World War. Inflation and interest rates
are at record lows. For thirty years the economy has not been so strong, nor
optimism as high, as they are now. But all this means little to the mass of
people that are outside the formal economy. Big business and government have
shed jobs over the last ten years and these sectors will not be the solution to
South Africa's massive rate of unemployment. It is the programmes that develop
skills; the mentorship and training behind new entrepreneurs, and the wild
ideas that create new industries: these are the pioneering schemes that hold
out a branch of hope to the unemployed of South Africa.
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