University hosts entrepreneurship summit in Mbombela
The main speaker, Vuyani Jarana, addressed the various challenges in South Africa and discussed the ways to build a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Many came out in their numbers to attend the successful Entrepreneurship Summit at the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) last Thursday, August 22, hosted under the theme ‘Innovate, inspire and impact’.
In her welcoming address, the vice chancellor, Prof Thoko Mayekiso, said most leaders are kept awake at night because of the rate of unemployment in the country and an economy that is not growing.
She said the summit’s timing with the UMP’s 10th anniversary celebration works out perfectly, and she shared the university’s journey over the past few years and its achievements.
The keynote speaker was Vuyani Jarana, the founder and CEO of Ilitha Telecommunications, who discussed building a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is the former CEO of South African Airways and is a seasoned business person.
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As a development activist, he always looks at the most appropriate ways to address some of the most challenging and stubborn social issues facing Africa.
Jarana said the importance of the seminar cannot be overemphasised, given the challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality flooding South Africa today.
“I must therefore commend the university for taking the lead to convene this dialogue, because many people may feel like there are a lot of conversations about the all-important role of small and mid-scale enterprises in the economy.
It is clear we have not yet found a pivot point to upscale the success of small enterprises in the economy, and therefore initiatives like this must be commended and encouraged.
Things get solved through dialogue and sharing of ideas, and I think this summit is going to do exactly that.”
He said the state of unemployment in the country, especially among the youth, is unacceptably high, and unless a solution is found, we are likely to see the disintegration of our social fabric leading to possible social instability; that is unless the country and all of us start to do things dramatically differently.
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According to Jarana, the high unemployment rates among the youth will undermine the gains of democracy. “I will give a quote from Nelson Mandela:
‘As long as many of our people still live in utter poverty, as long as children live under plastic covers, as long as many of our people are still without jobs, no South African should rest and wallow in the joy of freedom’.
I think all of us here today have taken that call to say we shall not rest in the joy of freedom. We shall gather today to do something to make sure that everybody in South Africa can enjoy the fruits of freedom in their lifetime,” said Jarana.
