Winners
The overall winner of SAB Kickstart 2015 is Clement Pilusa, owner of Pilusa and Mabotja Farming based in Tshwane, Gauteng. His business will be provided with a first place grant fund of R500,000, which adds to the seed capital of R170,000 he received at the start of the programme early this year. Pilusa, 26, established his farming and fresh produce business in 2012, beginning with vegetables and later expanding into broiler chicken production.
In second place is Ranjan Sewgambar of Private Practicing Audiologist based in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, who won a grant of R400,000. He established his health care practice in 2009 and provides diagnostic audiology and hearing aid services.
Third place winner, Caroline Kgomo of Meqheleng Waste Management based in Ficksburg, Free State, received a business grant of R300,000 and Chantelle Smith of Health View Clinic in Johannesburg, Gauteng, who is in the fourth place received R200,000. Fifth place, Angelo Maart of EnviroCare from Cape Town, Western Cape, was awarded a business grant of R100,000.
All five winners will receive an additional six-month long programme of business development support and mentorship to assist in efficiently employing the grant investment provided.
The top five winners were selected from a group of 18 SAB KickStart finalists who completed a year-long programme of business development support, which included a business growth strategy designed for their business, grant funding of between R100,000 and R200,000, and individualised business mentorship.
"Our support model is designed to build and strengthen the capabilities of the SMEs so that they become sustainable entities with the ability to achieve one of government's top priorities - create jobs while at the same time make a worthwhile contribution the country's economy," says Octavius Phukubye, SAB Economic Development Manager. The top 18 national finalists created more than 100 fulltime and part-time jobs in 2015.
"The key objective of SAB KickStart, with its model of business development support, is to ensure that the start-up businesses thrive rather than merely survive. This support creates an enabling environment in which young entrepreneurs are able to assist others in becoming economically active," says Phukubye.
"In addition, it allows SAB and its entrepreneurs to make a genuine contribution towards the national vision, indicated by the National Development Plan, of creating one-million jobs by 2030 through involvement of big business and the power of entrepreneurship."
