A well-known informal business guru, GG Alcock, inspired the youth of Kids Haven to start their own businesses in the informal sector during his visit to the centre in Cranbourne Avenue recently.
GG was welcomed with the Jerusalema and gumboot dance performed by the children at the centre.
The entrepreneur shared his story with the youngsters and staff of Kids Haven during his motivational talk.
GG was raised in a mud hut in one of the most poverty-stricken and violent parts of KwaZulu-Natal, Msinga.
“My parents, who were community activists, raised me and my brother in a hut with no electricity and running water. Instead, we were raised like young Zulu men, hunting and herding in the hills,” he said.
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GG is fluent in isiZulu and intimate with local African cultures while also conversant in many other South African ethnic languages.
The author of Kasinomics believes the secret to more jobs and the economic growth in the country lies in the informal sector.
During his talk, he said a lot of young people should look around them and they will see that money-making and employment opportunities are right in front of them.
“Young people do not notice those opportunities because they are wired to get a “job”, even if that ends up being in the retail market of long hours and a miserly pay hardly enough to sustain a decent living,” said GG.
“The Kasinomic Revolution is a business revolution in the townships, responding massively to South Africa’s unemployment problem, with enormous potential to grow bigger.”
He decided to focus on his passion, Kasinomics, a freelance business specialising in the informal mass market.
GG gave a few examples of what he calls Kasinomic guerrillas.
He said township dwellers have been running successful and enduring businesses for over 25 years.
He made an example of a woman who sells fat cakes from one of the case studies in his book.
“The woman sells about 3 000 fat cakes at R1 each, with polony and coffee, and she collects R3 600 daily with a 50 per cent profit.
“Yet, we feel sorry for her. The woman has found another spot to expand her fat cake business and she said her unemployed son will not come and join her because this is not a ‘job’. The son has chosen to be employed at a clothing store for R2 500 a month as a trainee.”
He said when we talk unemployment we need to distinguish between formal employment and informal work generating serious money with potential to grow.
GG urges young people to think differently and look for opportunities staring them in the face.
“It is not about where you start. It is about starting something because if you are sitting and doing nothing, then your mindset is wrong,” he said.
He challenged the youth to think deeply about how to prepare a new Afripolitan generation to make decent livelihoods by looking for Kasinomic opportunities right on their door steps.
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