Eastern Cape entrepreneurs are breaking new ground in the local information communication technology (ICT) space after scooping prestigious prizes at the 2022 Enterprise Development Awards.
This has seen three Nelson Mandela Bay Innovation Hub (iHub) clients receiving top business presentation commendations at the first Tech Entrepreneurship Xperience (TEX) in Cape Town on September 15.
Curated by Innovator Trust, the event — a one-day hybrid experience exposing small and medium ICT-based entrepreneurs to business and industry leaders — honoured top-performing SMMEs in the sector.
Through bespoke workshops and technical skills development, Innovator Trust supports and nurtures business know-how by facilitating entrepreneurship training and development.
The company also provides financial, educational and other resources and mentorship programmes to ensure small black-owned businesses become sustainable and can contribute meaningfully to the ICT sector.
With the TEX stage set, leading start-ups from the province were recognised alongside other thriving small businesses across SA.
Business owners were celebrated for their excellent participation in an enterprise development programme, culminating in a successful two-year incubation journey.
SMMEs received awards across several categories, including top employment creator and highest percentage growth experienced.
Businesses with the highest turnover achieved for the 2021/2022 financial year — more than R39m combined — were also acknowledged, each walking away with cash prizes to inject into their businesses.
East London entrepreneur Piwe Sweleni, 34, achieved first place for his top business presentation with Loomee Group, a company specialising in remote work and online business training.
Sweleni, the company’s founder and MD, said it was an honour to get the award.
“I think it's confirmation we’re doing something right,” Sweleni said.
“It’s an honour to be recognised for our contribution to [fighting] unemployment using technology.
“It gives us more confidence to knock on other doors and to continue our work in the Eastern Cape and [spread to] other provinces.”
Loomee Group was founded in 2016 and operated as a part-time business until 2019.
The company presently employs two permanent staff and four project-based facilitators.
Sweleni applauded the Nelson Mandela Bay iHub — a leading technology business incubator supporting innovation-driven SMMEs in the metro.
The incubator has been instrumental in developing ICT SMMEs in the city.
“The iHub is my hero. When they found me in 2019 or 2020, my business was just an idea,” he said.
“People thought the business was too futuristic.
“But with the innovative training I received, the networks they introduced, and the funding with which they supported my business, I owe them a lot.
“Because their mandate is to find innovations that disrupt, we are working well together.”
Khaya Tantsi, 39, the founder and CEO of Khula Tech Solutions, a company established in 2014 in Makhanda and which started operating in 2019, said his business strived to connect the previously forgotten.
“Our focus is to connect the unconnected by focusing on the township, where people are usually the last to get anything [from the government].
“We concentrate on the lower LSM [Living Standards Measure] and have usually been the first to provide internet in the township [in Makhanda].”
Khula Tech services 2,000 clients in Makhanda townships.
In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company embarked on connecting schools to assist teachers in creating online content.
In Makhanda, the company has connected 30 schools, with three in Gqeberha — Motherwell Senior Secondary School, James Jolobe Secondary School and Masiphathisane Senior Secondary School — recently benefiting from the programme.
“We’re in partnership with Cape Town companies which identify schools in Makhanda or the Eastern Cape and supply tablets, and we provide the internet.
“There’s a lot more schools we’re identifying.”
Tantsi said the activity on his LinkedIn had increased, with more companies wanting to partner and leverage his success.
“It’s good for the company and gives us the advantage to explore and get to the next level.”
The third Nelson Mandela Bay iHub client, Kanya Nqelenga, 36, founded Bona Phandle Media in 2014 as an outdoor advertising media company in Gqeberha.
The company specialises in out-of-home media solutions, including bus and billboard advertising and LED digital screens.
He described the support his company received from the iHub as tremendous.
“They have a genuine interest in making sure that your business grows.
“They have a direct impact on your sales and operational growth and offer support in various ways,” Nqelenga said.
Impressed by the quality of ideas for innovation sprouting from other young minds in the tech space locally, Nqelenga said the province could achieve more.
“There is a huge opportunity for this province to get more out of the potential it has.
“We have many bright minds, particularly in rural villages and townships.
“Most of them can flourish only once they step out of high school,” he said, adding that it was always best to capitalise on young minds early.
Ultimately, against the backdrop of a 60.2% youth unemployment rate in the province, the top business presentation winners agreed that government support for young black entrepreneurs was lacking.
Nqelenga said: “The government has a long way to go.
“Local government can certainly do a little more, at least much more.
“But it’s not only a government challenge.
“Corporate [also] has to lend a hand and black SMMEs need to contribute.”
Sweleni said: “I think the government should start by looking at its own organisation because it is behind on the technology we’re trying to implement.
“Educating and equipping its staff is the first place it should start.”
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