Township Entrepreneur Awards in March
ALEXANDRA - Entrepreneurs from Alexandra will be among their other counterparts from various Gauteng townships to be honoured by the Gauteng Department of Economic Development at the inaugural Township Entrepreneur Awards on 12 March at The University of Johannesburg's Soweto Campus.
Entrepreneurs from Alexandra will be among their counterparts from various Gauteng townships to be honoured by the Gauteng Department of Economic Development.
This will be at the inaugural Township Entrepreneur Awards on 12 March at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto Campus.
The awards will showcase Gauteng and reinforce why it is the economic heartbeat of South Africa, and will also mark what the department described as ‘a spectacular display of triumph over hardship and adversity’.
A first of its kind in South Africa, the awards will recognise and celebrate inspirational businesses coming from the province’s disadvantaged areas. And from Meadowlands to Mamelodi, the list of start-ups and established businesses from the townships is as varied as it is impressive, said Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, Lebogang Maile.
“In Gauteng, the plight of youth unemployment has hit our young even harder than the rest of the country,” said Maile, himself an Alex resident. He added that Statistics South Africa’s recent data showed that the employment share of youth declined by the largest amount in Gauteng, down 6.2 percentage points.
For the awards, more than 250 entries were received, screened and adjudicated resulting in four finalists in each of the 11 categories. Selection criteria included innovation and creativity, financial management and performance, social and community impact, sustainability and economic opportunities, as well as management systems and processes.
All nominees will receive R100 000 for their business – R50 000 will be used to fix business needs stipulated by the business assessors while the other R50 000 will be an unconditional cash injection.
Category winners will be given an additional R200 000 for their business – R150 000 of which will be used to fix business needs stipulated by the business assessors while R50 000 will be an unconditional cash injection. The woman entrepreneur category winner will be awarded a R60 000 scholarship at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.
Details: www.ecodev.gpg.gov.za
