Ahoy Enterprises turns hazardous waste into a goldmine

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Five years ago, Thabo Valoyi and John Katjedi were working full-time jobs as sub-contractors at Anglo American Platinum’s Mogalakwena mine. Today, these two entrepreneurs are supplying critical services to the mine and providing jobs for more than 50 people in the process.
Valoyi and Katjedi are the directors of Ahoy Enterprises, which provides general maintenance and hazardous waste management and disposal services. Ultimately, they aim to expand the business beyond the mining industry, and grow their staff complement even further as they provide a greater range of services.
Ahoy Enterprises is the latest success story to emerge from Anglo American’s enterprise development programme, Zimele, which aims to build small businesses by including them in the local procurement networks of their mining operations.
Ahoy Enterprises was founded in 2014 on the back of a small contract from Mogalakwena, with a staff complement of exactly four: the two co-founders, and two employees. Today they have 46 people on-site at Mogalakwena alone, to maintain pollution control dams and manage hazardous waste and any spillages that occur during operations.
Thabo Valoyi was quoted to have said the support of Zimele and Anglo American Platinum has been instrumental to their growth and success. “Zimele helped us with the finance to purchase critical equipment, like our three skip trucks and 200 hazardous waste skips. They have also provided intensive business skills training and mentorship, which has really helped us understand what is needed to run a sustainable, healthy business.”
Zimele the Nguni word for ‘Stand on your own’ – was established in 1989 to develop emerging black businesses, empower entrepreneurs and facilitate job creation. Since then, it has funded more than 2,300 Small Medium Enterprises and supported more than 50,000 jobs.
Anglo American’s Head of Zimele, Larisha Naidoo, was quoted to have said the success of small businesses like Ahoy Enterprises highlights the need to build sustainable small medium micro enterprises that can grow their businesses and in turn, create and sustain jobs locally.