WORDS By Chanel Retief PHOTOS By Yeshiel Panchia



TOPLINE: After a tense week of public and violent unrest that left 117 dead across South Africa, reports of #CleanUpSA have come into effect since Thursday. South Africans have taken to social media to demonstrate how in some areas of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Gauteng provinces, which saw escalated lootings and lawlessness, volunteers are coming forward to help in rebuilding looted shops, recovering stolen goods and cleaning up the streets.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-photos">IN PHOTOS </h3>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51871" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-2-of-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



Volunteers and community members sweep the streets outside the looted and destroyed Pan Africa Mall in Alexandra, Johannesburg, 15 July 2021. The city was relatively quiet as community members and volunteers came out to sweep the streets and conduct repairs after days of unrest and looting. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-51872" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/15-July-2021-Alex-Cleanup-3-of-3-2048x1365.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></div>



Construction vehicles collect debris outside the looted and destroyed Pan Africa Mall in Alexandra, Johannesburg, 15 July 2021. The city was relatively quiet as community members and volunteers came out to sweep the streets and conduct repairs after days of unrest and looting.



Key Facts



● Since the arrest of the former president, Jacob Zuma, South Africa has been in flames. Following his incarceration for contempt of court, there have been multiple outbreaks of public violence in parts of KZN and Gauteng. Hundreds of shops and businesses have been looted and the government says it is acting to prevent food shortages.



● The layers of this unrest look at Zuma loyalists who want the former president to be free. However, Government has commented that there have been “opportunistic criminals”. But there have been those who have also observed this could be people grabbing the opportunity to put food on the table while getting governments’ attention on service delivery issues in South Africa.



● On Tuesday, Ramaphosa deployed the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) “in support of the operations” of the South African Police Service (SAPS). About 25,000 more troops were deployed Thursday which has been reported as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/africa-south-africa-59f7817632563dcf19d7e212de8046c9">“one of the largest deployments of soldiers since</a>” the end of apartheid.



● This has also led to racial tensions breaking out in some parts of South Africa but predominantly in KZN. According to the <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/2568028/15-people-killed-in-phoenix-following-racially-charged-clashes-cele-confirms/">CITIZEN</a>, Police Minister Bheki Cele took to Phoenix, north Durban, where 15 people have been killed. This follows after several reports indicated that the attacks may have been racially motivated.



● Even though the unrest has slowed down, about 117 people have died and more than 2,000 have been arrested. The Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services on Wednesday in a statement



said that the alleged perpetrators of the unrests that “ravaged Gauteng since Monday” have appeared in various courts within the Gauteng Local Division.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-food-insecurity">Food Insecurity</h3>



South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday in his address warned that if the unrest continued, the situation could lead to food insecurity. According to a report released by<a href="https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/agriculture/071621-unrest-in-south-africa-disrupts-agricultural-logistics-raises-food-security-concerns"> S&amp;P Global</a>, the unrests have had an impact on agriculture in South Africa.



“Unrest in South Africa&#8217;s eastern provinces is posing a threat to the country&#8217;s already precarious food security situation by disrupting agricultural trade and transportation, and damaging infrastructure and planted crops in the region,” the report stated.



&#8220;The biggest risk in the short-term is the free movement of goods, including food and agricultural produce on the roads, specifically to and from the Durban port,&#8221; said Wandile Sihlobo, Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa.

15 July 2021 Alex Cleanup (1 of 3)

Rebuild And Repair: Community Members Unite To Clean Up South Africa After Days Of Devastation

A traditional, informal means of saving, stokvel investment societies continue to bind communities in South Africa and is a multi-billion dollar industry. Their capital is trust, and their currency a central fund that spawns new opportunities.

In this house in Centurion in Johannesburg on a winter afternoon, there’s song, food, camaraderie and joy. And one common component that binds the women: stokvels.
For most South Africans honoring the traditional mode, this is the word synonymous with savings schemes that they have come to trust over generations.
And like this meet we are witness to today, it stands for a union in which a group of people who know and trust each other enter into an agreement to contribute a fixed amount of money towards a common pool.
The group of people we are meeting are the Akanani Sisters, stokvel members who occasionally come together, bantering over a hot meal and listening to music.
“The whole purpose of the stokvel is so that we may come together as ladies and mothers made of different age groups, so we may build and advise one another on life matters. It is not just about collecting money, we cry and laugh together,” says Bahedile Mooke, one of the members.
Stokvels, the traditional South African savings scheme with 11.5 million members in 810,000 groups contributing R50 billion ($3.76 billion) annually to the economy, is often overlooked.
“If you speak of something that is outside of that framework, then that is something else,” says Mizi Mtshali, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Stokvel Association of South Africa (NASASA).
The Akanani Sisters stokvel was formed in 2015 by three family members who gathered on a monthly basis. The group, however, is not registered with NASASA and does not save their money through financial institutions. However, they are looking at registering with NASASA as a precautionary step.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-37025 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokvel-958.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />
<blockquote>“We got tired of meeting only when there were funerals, so we decided to start a small stokvel even if it was just for groceries,” says Sibongile Motsoeneng, treasurer of the Akanani Sisters.</blockquote>
This afternoon, they are six professionals from Johannesburg who are close friends.
“Society forces you to always put money aside – I don’t play around when money has to be paid, because we all want to be happy at the same time,” says Motsoeneng.
The monthly premium for the stokvel is R1,300 ($98) for which R500 ($37.6) is set aside towards groceries and rest distributed among the members at the end of each year.
“Our groceries are not like other stokvels, where you see them buy maize meal in large quantities. We buy groceries as per our personalized everyday needs. So the grocery would last us for about six months and one would just add on meat and other small things on a monthly basis,” says Motsoeneng.
In addition to their stokvel, they contribute a R300 ($22.5) towards each other’s birthdays for buying presents, and R2,000 ($151) for their occasional weekend holiday trips.
Nonzolo Soldati, the chairperson of the stokvel, says they drew up a constitution which dictates the size of the contributions, when the accumulated money is to be paid out, and the roles and responsibilities of the members that have to be abided by.
“If you fail to pay your monthly premiums for more than three months, that would mean you forfeit your portion of your groceries and savings at the end of the year. Also, if you fail to attend the monthly gatherings, you are fined R50 ($3.76),” says Soldati.
“We used to deposit the money in the bank, but now we no longer do so because of the exorbitant bank charges,” says Soldati.
Through these stokvels, the members’ lives have changed, as they are not unduly stressed by financial woes come January. Their finances are in order and they also don’t feel the pinch of food price hikes through the year.
Apart from the groceries they purchased last year, they each saved R17,000 ($1,280), which is nothing unusual, according to Mtshali.
<blockquote>“On average in South Africa, a stokvel consists of 20 participants and they can save [as much] R50,000 ($3,765),” says Mtshali.</blockquote>
Investing in stokvels is not without risk however. Unlike the formal financial institutions, the only security members can bank on is trust. As a result of its unregulated nature, fraud in stokvels is common.
Ask one of the Akanani Sisters members, Bongiwe Mncube, who lost all her money. She was scammed in a burial society in Kempton Park.
“We lost two people [to death] in our community in the space of two months. That is when we realized that all the money we were ‘putting away’ was not there,” says Mncube.
They were able to pay for the burial of the first bereavement, but when it came to the second, they were scraping for funds.
“We last knew that we had money, but when we went to check the bank statement, we were surprised to find out that money was not being deposited for a couple of months. So I walked away because I had no leg to stand on,” says Mncube.
Mtshali says such stories are the reason why stokvel associations must register with NASASA so they can check the legitimacy of such societies. So, should the unthinkable happen one day, the participant is able to press criminal charges.
The word stokvels is believed to have originated from the term ‘stock fair’ used to describe auctions run by English settlers in the 19th century, but as the industry is becoming the leading form of savings and investment in South Africa, it is referred to in multiple ways, such as social clubs, gooi-goois, investment clubs, kuholisana, and makgotlas. The stokvels available vary according to the needs of the members.
“As much as there are holiday stokvels and property, social and party clubs, but grocery, burial society and saving clubs are still the most dominant,” says Mtshali.
Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes have also camouflaged as stokvels.
“What has happened over the years is that a lot of operators have started abusing the word stokvels…They use that word to attract customers for whatever product they are looking to sell,” says Mtshali.
While stokvels may seem like an informal way of making money, it is serious business. Members do their homework, deliberate about which companies to invest in and make investment decisions. And the best part about it is knowing there may be a financial windfall one day. It’s cash that is built on trust and binds communities.
<h3>Stokvel Homes?</h3>
<div id="attachment_37023" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37023" class="size-medium wp-image-37023" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Nicholas-261.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Nicolas Manyike</div>
Nicolas Manyike’s property stokvel leads to new investment opportunities.
Land ownership is a burning topic in South Africa, which is why publicist and businessman Nicolas Manyike founded Property Stokvel Investment, a stokvel that aims to buy and rent out properties, encouraging black people to be property owners.
Manyike, who grew up poor in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, watched his mother struggle with accommodation, yet she was a member of various grocery stokvels.
“My mother was in a lot of grocery stokvels and we would eat up all the food, then the struggle would continue. So I always thought ‘how about we use the same concept but for something that has long-term benefits for us as a black community’,” says Manyike.
He decided to rework the stokvel model to have long-term benefits.
“We need to shift our mind-set around stokvels,” he says.
He worked on his idea, through drafting the constitution and coming up with the two phases that will create the members enough capital to be able to purchase land.
“The first phase is to get 100 members that would contribute R2,100 ($158). The R100 (7.52) is for administration purposes. So that we could accumulate R1 million ($75,300) in 10 months that we will use to purchase property, or a franchise that will create profit for the members,” says Manyike.
It is only in the second phase that individual property will be bought for each member.
Manyiko says that ownership of the house will be registered in the stokvel’s name until all participants are house-holders within two years.
Property Stokvel Investment currently has over 80 members and is not registered with NASASA. Manyike believes stokvels do not need to be registered as they are self-regulating.
“All stokvels in South Africa are self-regulated. NASASA is more focused on grocery stokvels. We are bound by our constitution,” he says.
“We are banking with Nedbank as a club account and we have a committee, once we have a 100 members we will increase the number of people in the committee,” says Manyike.
Purchasing property in South Africa is a struggle due to increasing home loans and interest. Could stokvels be the future of acquiring property?
<h3>Download A Stokvel</h3>
<div id="attachment_37024" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37024" class="size-medium wp-image-37024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Stokfella-129.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Tshepo Moloi</div>
Tshepho Moloi says he has championed the future of stokvels.
Imagine being a stokvel member and never having to meet? Well, that is what the future of stokvels looks like based on an app designed by Tshepho Moloi, the founder of StokFella.
“Most businesses are bought out of frustration of people saying that we could do better. I wanted to start an investment stokvel but the administration behind it was a bit of a headache,” says Moloi.
Moloi went home to Soweto, where he grew up, and observed a burial stokvel that was in existence for two years and had developed into an investment and grocery stokvel.
“I found out that the common problem is maladministration… So that is how the birth of StokFella came about,” he says.
StokFella, is a smartphone-based app that seeks to help stokvels organize, manage, communicate and be more efficient in growing their wealth.
“By doing that, it gives them access to economic opportunities. So they grow from point A to point B,” Moloi says.
In just two years, the app has 5,000 active members and is user-friendly for all age groups and LSMs.
“When stokvels want to be endorsed by us, they need to come to our offices so that we may conduct due diligence on them. However, those that just want to use the app could just download it,” says Moloi.
The main challenge StokFella faced during its initial stages was with the paperwork of regulatory laws and reaching the right market.
“But I am happy to have championed the future of stokvels. Honestly, it is not a unique solution but our implementation is how we have been able to get far,” he says.
“If 10 years from now, we still have a R49 billion ($3.69 billion) industry, then we have not done our job!” says Moloi.
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Stokvel-943

The Social Capital of Stokvels

The Rat Race Against  The silent Killer

Tanzania’s reluctance to adopt a joint tourism visa arrangement with its East African neighbors offers an opportunity for the scheme’s proponents to rethink underlying challenges of security and illegal immigrants.
Since 2014, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda have implemented a joint $100 tourist visa. Tanzania, though, instead demands its own $150 visa fee for visitors entering its borders.
Having a joint visa arrangement is a no-brainer for the East African Community (EAC) bloc that is trying to increase earnings from visitor bookings and attract foreign investment into its budding tourism industry. A seamless visa boosts the attractiveness of a bloc because visitors are spared the hustle of having to make multiple arrangements to enter each of the partner states.
Dar es Salaam however maintains that there are always two sides of a coin and will not jump onto the bandwagon until it conclusively assesses the impact of the scheme.
Because of this, there is bad blood between the EAC partners and Dar es Salaam. Tanzania’s neighbors see it as standing in the way of a potential game-changing concept.
Kenya’s Tourism minister Najib Balala recently kicked up a fresh storm when he claimed that Tanzania had pulled out of the joint EAC single tourist visa pact because it was dissatisfied with the manner in which it was ratified. Tanzania denies this and maintains it has never been part of the deal and would only join if there was deeper consensus on security and revenue sharing formulas.
Dar es Salaam’s concerns, especially that of security, must be taken seriously by Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, rather than just focusing on tourism and investment.
It’s not new for some members of economic blocs to reject seamless travel arrangements with other partners. The UK and the Republic of Ireland opted out of the EU’s Schengen visa scheme over concerns on the security risks of seamless travel by visitors to member states. The UK opted to maintain its own borders, and Ireland preserved its free movement arrangement with the UK rather than join Schengen.
This issue has recently featured in key debates in the wake of terror attacks in France and Belgium, with some analysts linking the attacks to the lax border scrutiny that comes with the seamless border arrangement.
Similar challenges are present in East Africa where Islamist militants continue to pose a threat from their hideouts in the lawless parts of Somalia. Kenya and Uganda have borne the brunt of the militant groups, such as al-Shabaab, and the question of border security and immigration should be an obvious concern.
Kenya has also become a major transit route for illegal immigrants heading south in search of jobs, thanks to a raft of poorly implemented regional agreements that allow for the free movement of people.
For example, although Ethiopia isn’t a member of the EAC, its citizens are allowed visa-free travel to neighboring Kenya. This scenario has inadvertently seen Kenya become a transit route for illegal immigrants from Ethiopia looking for jobs as far as South Africa. Hundreds of Ethiopians and Eritreans have been arrested on Kenyan soil for being in the country illegally as they try finding their way to southern Africa.
This poses a serious security risk because militants can sneak into Kenya and onward to other countries in the region. The illegal immigrations also pose a challenge to the targeted countries because of the disruptions caused to their economies, exacerbating the scramble for jobs and housing and other basic amenities.
Countries targeted by the illegal immigrants that pass through Kenya, such as South Africa and Zambia, have witnessed xenophobic attacks due to pressure caused on resources by the uninvited guests.
The EAC partners need to then find workable solutions to keep out any cross-border security threats and illegal immigrants, even as they pursue a dream of a common tourism industry which has its obvious benefits.
On a visit to Kenya in mid-October, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma raised this issue with immigration controls in Kenya and said they posed challenges.
“We have to ensure that there are no loopholes for criminals to take advantage of,” he said in response to a request by his host President Uhuru Kenyatta to review visa conditions for Kenyans.

Secure Borders Before Making Them Seamless

More than 60 years ago, brutal authorities choked the life and jazz out of a vibrant corner of Africa.
They called it Sophiatown – the Chicago of Africa – a free-wheeling, musical, multiracial community close to the heart of Johannesburg and the birthplace of many an African musician. Too close, according to the apartheid authorities.
“We won’t move!” was written on the walls. Police made sure people did on a February morning in 1955. Before sunrise, they drove out 110 families with nothing but hastily packed belongings. This foreshadowed almost two decades of forced removals of thousands throughout South Africa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5548" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0019aaa-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
One of them was 14-year-old Don ‘Bra Don’ Thinane who had grown up with Indian and Chinese neighbors – “a mixed bag” he says. He recalls his father leaving to search for a new home two days before the trucks and bulldozers arrived to take him away. “He knew that in about a day or two days they are going to demolish the place,” says Bra Don, who found himself dumped in Meadowlands, Soweto, with his grandmother and uncle, because of his race.
We go for a drive in search of memories from 60 years ago. Bra Don tells me this was his playground where he used to rollerskate: we are on 5th avenue heading towards Sophiatown. “Hey! Isn’t that Xuma’s place,” he exclaims as we pass the home of the first black South African to become a medical doctor, former ANC President A.B. Xuma. One of few places that survived the nationalist government’s wrecking ball.
We drive on looking for Gerty Street, where Bra Don used to live. I spot the name, barely visible, worn and stencilled in black. We turn right into the street, immediately the mood in the car changes, and so does Bra Don’s face; his eyes widen and light up as nostalgia washes over.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5547" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0879-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“I used to scale this wall,” says Bra Don when we get to the barrier that stretches from Gerty into the Melville Koppies, a place where he spent his afternoons, and one of the few things left. “There’s nothing that can show me our house here! They literally broke it down,” he says as we carry on looking for anything familiar.
It was also in Sophiatown that he found the discipline of boxing, under the strict coach Harry Mikela. In playing the trumpet, he learned from the elder brother of Stompie Manana, one of the fathers of African jazz. It helped him escape the rough streets and in 1980, through study, he became a lawyer. Now, at the age of 71, he is one of the best known black advocates in the land.
Bra Don is one of many happy to see Sophiatown back on the map. The apartheid administration renamed it Triomf – meaning triumph in Afrikaans. In 2006, it was rechristened Sophiatown.
The jazz that died under the ugly din of bulldozers, removal trucks and police batons, is also back.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5544" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC_0336-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />

Back To The  Future In The Streets Of Soul

Cape Town’s townships were once referred to as “apartheid’s dumping ground”. Today, 22 years into democracy, the stories usually told of these spaces speak of poverty, rampant crime and socioeconomic marginalization.
But Tony Elvin, the charismatic founder of Ikhaya Le Langa, has a very different view. “When I first discovered Langa, not only was it not what I was told in terms of supposedly being a sad and fearful place,” he says, “It was the place where I found a community still intact. There’s an energy and a spirit that is in Langa, and if we can capture that, it’s like gold.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5041" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Langa_Tony_JC-2-of-10-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
Seated in the café at his headquarters in a repurposed Langa primary school, Elvin uses a detailed and dog-eared map of Cape Town to introduce what his NGO is trying to achieve in Cape Town’s oldest black township.
What the map reveals is surprising and powerful: Langa does not sit on the isolated peripheries of the metropolis where common lore has long positioned it, but right at its pulsing heart.
As a black Londoner living in Langa, Elvin admits that he’s used to surprising people. Before he moved here permanently in 2010, the long-neglected Langa community’s interaction with the rest of the world had been limited to occasional groups of white tourists passing through on a quick “poverty safari”, as Tony disdainfully calls the archetypal township tour, before heading back to their cushy city hotels.
Through the ongoing development of the so-called Langa Quarter, Elvin hopes to emphatically change that trend.
“The aim is to create an aspirational cool place, not just for tourists, to create a new place in Cape Town where Capetonians can also go, not only for a history lesson, but to listen to some great jazz, see some great art, chill out and have a great time. I want the Langa Quarter to be to Cape Town what the French Quarter is to New Orleans,” says Elvin.
The Langa Quarter is the pilot model of a concept that Elvin has dubbed the “Social Enterprise Precinct”. The idea, he says, is to overlay the social enterprise principles of “people, planet and profit” onto particular neighborhoods, and to thereby create “viable, sustainable spaces where investment will flourish, and the poverty will then take care of itself.”
Elvin has considerable experience doing this in Cape Town, having first come here as a social enterprise consultant for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in 2004. Elvin soon fell in love with the city and went on to set up his own social enterprise consultancy firm in the center of Cape Town, where he came into contact with a number of young township-based social entrepreneurs.
“I became aware that there was a lot more I wanted to do in Cape Town, and particularly in the townships,” says Elvin.
He concedes that he still “wasn’t quite sure” what he was setting out to achieve when he moved from his luxurious Hout Bay residence into the township to start Ikhaya Le Langa.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5039" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Langa_Tony_JC-7-of-10-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“Even today, I sometimes describe it all as being at sea, in the middle of a storm, in a boat that I’m still building, without knowing what shape it will take, and I’m not sure what direction I’m headed in either. It’s still new, this approach.”
But Elvin can already boast a number of successes, including the Langa Quarter Homestay Hotel, where visitors are fed and accommodated in the home of a Langa resident. Since its inception a little over a year ago, this initiative has contributed more than R100,000 (roughly $6,400) to the 15 households currently involved – a considerable amount of money in an area where the majority earn less than R4,000 (roughly $250) a month.
Then there’s the annual, and increasingly well-attended, Uplifting Langa Through Reachable Art (ULTRA) street art event, which this year drew talented artists from across the Langa community and far beyond; world-renowned French street artist Jace stayed in Langa for a week as the event’s artist in residence.
Other fledgling ventures – including a media, graphics and advertising studio, an online shop for local artisans and designers, and a new restaurant – have drawn support from multinational companies, including Amazon and Ikea.
But take a walk with Elvin through the intricate crisscrossing streets of the quarter and it’s evident that he’s not resting on his laurels. He talks incessantly, throwing out countless ideas and plans for improving everything that he passes.
The effusive greetings he receives from the local residents along the way pay testament to the time he has invested in gaining their trust, and ensuring that they will be a central part of every step of this process.
“Above all, I’m focused on how the wonderful, cool transformation of Langa can positively influence the community and what is the opportunity to drive change. Langa deserves to be shown some love.”
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It’s also clear that Elvin feels more than just a philanthropic affinity for Langa.
“I love living in Langa. I’ve got friends here, I love the noise of Langa, I like the people that you walk around and see every day – it’s really very charming. After six years, Langa’s my home.”
With so much still in the pipeline, Elvin is not looking to uproot himself anytime soon.
“The Langa Quarter is far from a finished product, but we are at a stage where we can invite people in and, critically, they can stay,” he says. “So that’s a stake in the ground and we will grow from that, and more and more people will benefit from that. Essentially what we’ve done already is create hope.”

The Londoner Capturing African Spirit And Spinning It Into Gold

It was the saddest moment of my entire existence, not even my mother’s death was as sad as getting Sarah Baartman home,” says Chief Jean Burgess of the Ghonaqua First Peoples, one of the tribes of the Khoikhoi community in South Africa.
Sadness haunted Baartman until the end of a life of misery and exploitation. She was paraded and abused before rich Europeans and went to an early grave.
It took more than a century for her remains to be brought and buried into the red soil of Africa, the land of her birth.
Baartman was born in 1789, at the Gamtoos River Valley, in the Eastern Province of South Africa, into the Ghonaqua sub clan, part of the Khoikhoi.
When she was two, her mother died and her father, a cattle driver, died when she was a teenager.
Death followed her young life.
At 16, Baartman’s fiancé was murdered by Dutch colonists. Soon after, she was sold into slavery to a trader, Pieter Willem Cezar, who took her to Cape Town, where she became a domestic servant to his brother, Hendrik. It was during this time that she was given the name ‘Saartjie’, a Dutch diminutive for Sarah, according to South African History Online.
It was here she met William Dunlop, a British ship doctor, who persuaded her to travel to London with him. She signed a contract but couldn’t have known how her large buttocks would be ruthlessly exploited to make a fortune for Dunlop.
She was called by the stage name Hottentot Venus, which means Khoisan sex symbol. She was displayed as a freak, used as a scientific curiosity and kidnapped in a cage that was the life and struggle of the icon.
Five years in a foreign land, after enduring humiliation and exploitation and before her death, Baartman underwent scientific experiments by French scientist Georges Cuvier who wanted to prove she was the link between human and animal. He concluded she was not human yet.
In 1815, at only 25, she died of an unknown illness, thousands of kilometers from home, with no means of getting back.
“Nobody knows the exact date she died because she was surrounded by people who didn’t care about her. Their aim was only to exploit her,” says Burgess.
In life, and in death, she was treated as an exhibit. Her remains were displayed for 159 years after she passed on.
“After her death, a plaster cast was made of her body. Sarah’s brain and genitals were placed in jars which were displayed at the Musée del’Homme, which means Museum of Man, in Paris, until 1974,” says South African History Online.
Sadly, Burgess had to place her remains in a coffin.
“To us, she is a woman who suffered immensely,” says Burgess.
She wore an apron and was mostly half-naked. When asked about Baartman’s clothing, Burgess refuses to discuss it. She says discussing her clothing and body is an insult to her spiritual strength as an Indigenous First Descendent.
Two hundred years later, Baartman is still being talked about, following reports that American singer and Drunk In love hit maker, Beyoncé Knowles, was producing a film on her life, even though this is unlikely to happen.
Jack Devnarain, Chairman of the South African Guild of Actors, says as a producer Beyoncé has the right not only to tell the story, but also to include herself in whatever capacity she sees fit in a production.
But Devnarain says the story of Baartman is a painful episode in South African history and should be about more than creating a showpiece for the skills of an actress intent on earning accolades.
“We believe that any attempt at capturing the character, her treatment as carnival showpiece and as an object of perverse fascination is an endeavor that demands thorough research and a sensitive, respectful approach to the issues and the person,” says Devnarain.
Julie Wells, Head of the Isikhumbuzo Applied History Unit at Rhodes University, in Grahamstown, says a film about Saartjie should be done thoughtfully and sensitively.
“There is a general uneasiness about Beyoncé playing Saartjie’s life. She strikes me as an unlikely person to do justice to the character…there should be an inclusion of local actors in the film,’’ says Wells.
Wells is wary of Americans who wants to play South African icons.
Burgess believes if an American artiste played the role of Baartman, the story would lose its spiritual sensitivity.
“No one has the right to portray Sarah’s life&#8230; I would never support another person from another country who wants to tell our stories. It is not theirs to tell. We have local actors who have the understanding, insight and sensitivity to do justice to the role,” says Burgess.
In March 2002, her remains were finally returned to South Africa, her homeland. She was buried on August 9, Women’s Day, at Hankey on the Gamtoos River Valley, in the Eastern Cape, her place of birth.
One of the people who helped bring Baartman’s remains back to South Africa is Diana Ferrus, a writer, poet and storyteller of mixed Khoisan and slave ancestry, who wrote a poem in 1998 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
“I wrote the poem for her, when I felt home sick and knew she wanted to go home. Her longing to be home, the physical home where she would feel safe and away from the mocking, exploitation and abuse,” says Ferrus.
Ferrus believes Baartman should be made a part of South African history.
“Her body was used to write racial theories that followed us for centuries. She suffered for us,” she says.
“At last she is resting in peace in her mother country, where she belongs,” says Ferrus.

KHOISAN LEADERS GATHER TO BURY SARAH BAARTMAN.

Let Her Rest  In Peace

Twenty eight-year-old Fikilie ‘Fix’ Moetsi’s story demonstrates how one person can make a difference to the lives of several others. Slowly, but surely.
Born in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, she was raised – the first four years of her life – by her grandparents, who led a modest life. Her parents were still studying and working abroad.
Her grandmother was a school teacher and after reluctantly retiring, started giving extra lessons for school children in the community. They were so popular it led to the opening of another school and Fix’s grandmother went on to teach for another 20 years.
Her grandparents were a constant source of inspiration.
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“There was always a child in our home who my gran had taken in, and that taught us to share…I was told whenever there was a new child, ‘this is your cousin’!” she laughs.
After matriculating, Fix studied Film and Media for a year at the University of Cape Town. She entered a talent search competition for MTV Africa, which she won; thereafter she quit her studies to move to Johannesburg and focus on MTV Africa full-time.
After three years with the channel, she was approached by 5FM, a popular South African radio station.
She was with the station two years and while this experience proved invaluable, she felt she still wasn’t where she wanted to be, so took it upon herself to follow her true passion – art.
She did a course in small arts business at Columbia College in the United States but after a year, funds dried up and Fix had to make a plan to try stay in the country and fulfil  her dream.
She scoured the scene for an opportunity and got lucky with a bursary to New York University to study social entrepreneurship. This sparked a deeper passion in Fix and she was reminded of how her grandparents worked to uplift their community.
After returning to South Africa, Fix decided she needed to understand her subject from a local perspective, so she pursued a course in social entrepreneurship at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg.
During this time, 5FM got wind that Fix was back and she turned her attention to what she already knew to help get the Fix Scholarship Foundation off the ground. The scholarship covers the cost of the GIBS social entrepreneurship course.
“I didn’t want people to see this as an ‘ag, shame’ business,” she says.
Since its founding in 2013, Fix’s Foundation has put six people through the course, with the tuition for the first year’s two entrants coming straight out of Fix’s pocket.
She currently plays at gigs and holds various fundraising events to support her initiative. She believes it doesn’t take much for someone like her to support individuals who have not had the opportunity to further themselves.
“Just be a friggin’ human being,” she says. That seems to be her abiding motto.

Fix-Profile-Pic-3-1

‘Just  Be A Friggin’ Human Being’

In March 2012, a young family’s peaceful sleep turned into a harrowing experience when burglars broke into their home in Tembisa, a crime-ridden township on the East Rand of Johannesburg. At 2AM, the family woke up to the noise of the intruders looting their belongings. The father was stabbed several times before the assailants turned their attention to the teenage girl, attempting to rape her.
No arrests were made, resulting in the community living in fear.
Thuli Mthethwa, a software developer turned entrepreneur, was devastated when she received the news hours later about what had happened to the family of her 36-year-old sister, Thembi Nonyane.
“If my younger sister had something to protect her, a simple panic button, surely the neighbors could have been alerted and rushed in to help,” says  Mthethwa.
A few days after the break-in, a traumatized Mthethwa became more frustrated when she could not find a security company with a reasonable alarm system she could instal in her sister’s home. Mthethwa says she realized the harsh fact that only the rich could afford home security.
“The cheapest was a R430 ($35) monthly subscription on top of the installation that costs about R7,000 ($565),” says Mthethwa about alarm systems available in the market.
The moment of becoming the change that you want to see struck Mthethwa. She quit her fulltime job as a software developer and took it upon herself to conceptualize and design cheaper alarms to help curb crime. After a year of consultation and negotiations for a government subsidy, the first personalized panic buttons were made available in 2013, and later followed by home alarms.
This experience led to the birth of the Memeza Home Community Alarm system, the first public alarm system in South Africa connecting a household to the nearest police station and community policing sector. The system also allows  integration with a private security company and can be configured to as many people as possible, sending text messages to their cellphones.
“Following a year’s intense research for an affordable alarm system, the Memeza Home Security System concept was born. Initially, I couldn’t sleep, I could not rest. It bothered me that we are in a free country but we are still feeling unsafe in our homes. If my sister had an alarm in her house, the crime could have been prevented,” says Mthethwa.
Business Against Crime South Africa, a nationwide organization established in 1996 after former president Nelson Mandela called on businesses to join government in fighting crime, bought into Mthethwa’s concept and approved the system.
The installation of Memeza’s system costs a household under R1,000 ($80), a once-off payment. Memeza is currently operating as a non-governmental organization with a budget of over R1.2 million ($96,000) from the South African National Lottery. The company has 10 staff and is using Mthethwa’s home as an office.
In February 2015, a pilot project consisting of 600 alarm units began in the township of Diepsloot. The Diepsloot police station welcomed the program to help reduce the high crime rate in the area notorious for murder and house break-ins.
The South African Police Services crime statistics shows that the number of home invasions remains at an alarmingly high rate, with a total of 6,336 reported in the Gauteng province in 2014. Mthethwa says a thorough introduction of Memeza alarms will reduce household intrusion and violence on women by up to 90%.
“The uniqueness of this is it is the first alarm system in Africa which the owner doesn’t need to pay a monthly instalment. You only need airtime for the device to text police when it is required. As little as R5 airtime would be sufficient for a month and the system has a back-up battery when the power is off,” says Mthethwa.
Mthethwa’s journey started with a leap of faith. In 2012, she entered a competition funded by the SAB Foundation looking for budding entrepreneurs with social innovation concepts in the country. Mthethwa’s project placed fourth and she won R250,000 ($20,000) to finance the implementation of her business. She was also entered into a five-month mentorship program.
A year later, Mthethwa was trained at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria, where she was afforded an office space and a full-time mentor for a year.
Mthethwa also works with community policing forums distributing thousands of personalized panic buttons to women and girls in poor communities for free. This is one of Memeza’s community building projects.
From software to alarms, Mthethwa used technology for social service. Thanks to her, the communities she serves sleep easier now.

Thuli-Mthethwa_1300

Raising the Alarm

When starting a business that stems from a passion, like being a doctor and having a desire to make an impact in a community, the last thing you would worry about is an accountant stealing from you.
Dulcy Rakumakoe grew up in the dusty village streets of Temba, just outside South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. Growing up in the townships, she was often encouraged to become a doctor because she was one of those smart children.
“When I looked around in the township, there was one Dr Mosala, and he lived in a very nice house. But I also noticed that the community really loved him,” says Rakumakoe.
So in 1999, she completed her medicine degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and started her internship in Klerksdorp, a small town in the North West province. She then went to do her community service at Ganyesa Hospital and this is where the entrepreneurial bug bit.
“I saw how people were struggling to access healthcare. People would travel plus-minus 100 kilometers just to see a doctor. I thought that is unfair and I must do something,” she says.
Rakumakoe went on to open up her first practice in Vryburg, a North West province town which had a shortage of doctors. There were also around 20 villages around Vryburg which had no medical facilities. In this small town, Rakumakoe also joined a female football team, doubling up as its goalkeeper and team doctor.
As a small practitioner, she had little knowledge of financial management and accounting. So she entrusted this to a small town bookkeeper, recommended by her dentist cousin who’d worked with the accountant before. It also came at an affordable fee of R2,500 ($235) every two months.
For five years, the accountant handled everything financial in the business, including payments to the South African Revenue Services (SARS) – the government’s tax collecting agency. The accountant, as Rakumakoe thought, paid around R15,000 ($1,400) to SARS every second month for value added tax (VAT) and around R40,000 ($3,770)for annual income tax. All seemed well and good.
“I didn’t pay much attention to the financial side of things, as long as I saw the money I made at the end of the month… the type of relationship I had with him was that he would tell me, ‘this is how much you owe to SARS’ and I’ll just give him a cheque and tell him to sort it out,” she says.
After reaching the ceiling of being a doctor and the community having been saturated with more medics, Rakumakoe left Vryburg for a mining town in Carletonville, just outside Johannesburg and the accountant decided to continue working for her.
Here, Rakumakoe opened a practise focusing on the health of the miners, especially with HIV being a big problem in the mining industry. According to the World Bank, migrant miners between the ages of 30 and 40 are 15 percentage points more likely to be HIV positive and a woman whose partner is a migrant miner is eight percentage points more likely to become infected.
While plying her trade around the mines, the South African Football Association called her up to be the team doctor for the women’s national football team Banyana Banyana. This led to the international governing body, FIFA, calling her up to be a field medical officer during the World Cup in 2010.
But back at the mines, something else was brewing. In March 2008, a year after moving to Carletonville, Rakumakoe received a phone call. She relayed the message to the accountant that SARS had just done an audit on her business and she needed to prove that she didn’t owe the taxman around $75,000.
“After that first call he switched off the phone and disappeared,” says Rakumakoe.
A few days later, a letter from SARS arrived warning Rakumakoe that  she needed to settle the debt in two weeks or her business would be shut down.
“That’s when I felt the world crashing down on me. That’s when I felt what’s the point of being in business when I owe close to R1 million. How was I going to pay back that money in two weeks?” she says.
“I even tried going to the police, we just couldn’t find [the accountant]. I felt like it was the end of my business. I didn’t feel strong enough to face SARS. At that point I thought let me just allow them to come and evaluate what I owe so that they can take it and I’ll go look for a job because this business thing is not working.”
In her devastation, a friend introduced her to Kamva Chartered Accountants, who came at a much higher fee than what she was used to. She paid the firm R20,000 ($1,884) to manage her case with the tax collector and also for their services every two months.
“They re-audited my books for the past five years and presented cases to SARS with explanations of what had happened. It turned out my accountant was a fraudster who was directing all the money that he told me was due to SARS to himself,”
says Rakumakoe.
Luckily for her, the amount she owed was reduced and the tax collector allowed her to make payments of what was due over a six-month period.
“That was the lowest six months for me in that basically all my income was going to SARS to pay the debt and get my things in order,” she says.
“I knew at that point that I had to understand the financial side of the business. It was a risk for me to have been running a business for so long without financial understanding and knowledge.”
This prompted her to register for an MBA with the Gordon Institute of Business Science to help her understand all the facets of her business. While studying, Rakumakoe managed to pay off the debt.
Since then, her business has grown.
After completing the degree, the 39-year-old was able to properly develop Accessible Quality Healthcare (AQH) into a recognizable brand in Mondeor, south of Johannesburg. AQH is a private medical center providing healthcare for low to middle income markets through building integrated health and wellness centers.
Besides running AQH, Rakumakoe still runs the practise in Carletonville’s mines and is now able to follow her passion and keep one eye on the books.

Doctor, you are IN the red

Growing up in Apartheid South Africa, examples of bravery, heroism and inspirational humanity were all around me. Some of my heroes were personal; ordinary people working quietly to overcome injustice and keep their dignity, while trying to escape poverty.
Other heroes I share with the world: Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, JB Marks, Walter and Albertina Sisulu.
But my greatest hero of all was my mother – widowed with three children, living in a poor Cape Flats community. She showed me every day that our circumstances need not define us, and how important it is to balance strength and determination with love, kindness and humanity. My mother showed me how to be brave.
My heroes shaped the value system that defines who I am today – values such as equality and equity, diversity and inclusivity, freedom and responsibility, hope and faith for the future.
I believe that social and economic justice must prevail. I believe in the importance of remaining grounded and humble. And I believe in my ability to achieve anything I set my mind to.
My first chance to test these values came when I was thrust into the minefield of labor negotiations at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
As a union, we had to succeed, because the work we were doing impacted on the lives of hundreds of thousands of black mineworkers. And they were depending on us to safeguard their livelihoods and improve their lives.
Working at the NUM taught me a great deal and laid the foundation for my future in the corporate world. In order to do my job – negotiating increased wages and improved conditions of employment – I had to master all of the issues, irrespective of their complexity.
I learnt that success lies in finding the balance between legitimate business imperatives and our broader, human responsibility to make a positive, sustainable contribution to society.
Naturally, the issues we dealt with were emotionally charged. We had to negotiate professionally and responsibly, navigating the inevitable trade-offs, to ensure that mineworkers’ lives improved while the company made money. Afterwards, we needed to explain the issues and solutions to our members in an accessible way.
The nature of the challenge led to three important lessons.
First, learn fearlessly. Follow that old piece of advice: when others sleep, you read. Secondly, never think that you know everything; have the humility and courage to keep asking until you understand. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.
And thirdly, you only really understand something when you can explain it, in simple terms, in less than three minutes.
These lessons guided me when I moved from the negotiating table to the boardroom table. As an executive director at Johnnic, which at the time was an industrial conglomerate, I represented the unions and the black business consortium.
I also had the opportunity to play a leading role in the negotiation of a number of transactions that ultimately led to Johnnic’s makeover as a focused media, entertainment and telecommunications group. One of these contracts resulted in the reverse-listing of MTN Holdings through M-Cell Limited, and the subsequent transformation of the mobile operator into one of the pre-eminent black-empowered companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
At MTN, I became aware of the inc-
redible impact that information and communications technology can have on people’s lives. Access to information and the ability to communicate makes us masters of our own destinies, empowered to uplift families, communities, businesses, and ultim-ately, the societies in which we live.
The statistics speak for themselves. According to the World Bank, for every 10% increase in broadband penetration, there is a 2-3% increase in employment and a 1.38 percentage point increase in gross domestic product.
This realization, and the freedom that I felt after achieving my objectives at MTN, inspired me to establish Smile Communications.
An African telecommunications operator, Smile has a presence in Tanzania, Uganda, the DRC and Nigeria.
Our mission is testimony to what I have learnt: To deliver affordable, high-quality and easy-to-use broadband access and communication services across Africa, using low-cost, innovative business models and technologies.
Although my journey is – hopefully – nowhere near its end, I suspect that some of the most important lessons still lie ahead. Every day, when I step into the office, I feel that in some small way I am making a contribution to changing the world for the better. That sense of mission makes every problem surmountable and every victory more meaningful.

Tag: Community

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Let Her Rest In Peace

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Raising the Alarm

Doctor, you are IN the red

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