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Suren Gopi (51), the sole owner of filtration supplier Zululand Filters, is giving more established companies a run for their money after securing two big contracts.

After an unprofitable start, Gopi approached the Small Business Enterprise Agency (SEDA) and was given the support he needed to turn his business around. Zululand Filters is now doing so well that it recently secured long-term contracts with two big Richards Bay companies, South 32 and Rio Tinto subsidiary Richards Bay Minerals. The company also provides emission services to Tongaat Huletts and Mondi.

Twenty entrepreneurs who have come up with new technologies that will help the tourism sector grow and create jobs will be given the wings they need to fly, thanks to the recently launched Tourism Technology Grassroots Innovation Incubator Programme.

The programme is run by the Department of Tourism in collaboration with the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation.

Various government programmes offer funding and guidance to help young people start or grow their businesses.

State institutions, such as the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), exist to promote small business development.

They shared more about their youth-focused products during the recent Youth in Industries: Enterprise Development Support and Access to Markets webinar hosted by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.

NEF

Aspiring commercial poultry farmer Mandisa Gumede (29) used a portion of her Wholesale and Retail Sector Education and Training Authority (W&RSETA) learnership stipend to open her chicken start-up.

In 2019, when Gumede’s parents could no longer afford to pay for her maritime industry studies, she was unemployed and frustrated.

“My dad found out about a one-year learnership programme with the W&RSETA. I didn’t think twice, I applied,” she says.

Pig farmer Dinewo Ntshanana (25) is one of the many entrepreneurs who have been assisted by the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to get her business off the ground.

Ntshanana, the owner of a piggery in Middelvlei, Randfontein, applied for NYDA grant funding after taking part in the agency’s seven-day business management training course.

It has taken Cynthia Mokgobu (29) only three years to grow her business from a small vegetable garden in her backyard to a successful three-hectare farm in Bochum, Limpopo.

After obtaining a Diploma in Ornamental Horticulture from UNISA and commencing a horticulture internship, Mokgobu decided to drop out of the programme and start a small vegetable garden in her backyard.

Lesedi La Kreste Anglican Primary School in Orange Farm is helping to alleviate hunger in its community through aquaponics.

Aquaponics, a food production system in which fish are raised in tanks of water where plants are also grown, is being used by the school to provide fresh, top-quality fish and vegetables.

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will in the 2022 academic year spend R47.3 billion funding the tertiary education of 691 432 students.

This was recently revealed by Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande during a press briefing in Pretoria, Gauteng.

Health Minister, Joe Phaahla recently cancelled COVID-19 regulations relating to the wearing of face masks, gatherings and persons entering the country.

The regulations were promulgated by the Minister on 4 May in the Regulations Relating to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions. President Cyril Ramaphosa in a national address in April said the regulations would be eased gradually.