Winners of the SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards announced
INANDA – The 24 winners of this year's SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards were announced at a ceremony on 23 October.
The 24 winners of the SAB Foundation Social Innovation and Disability Empowerment Awards were announced at a ceremony on 23 October in Inanda, Sandton, where a total of R9 million was awarded to a number of small businesses.
SAB Foundation director Bridgit Evans said that this is the seventh year that the competition has taken place, drawing in just under 400 entries from rural and urban areas across the country.
“The quality of entries and finalists were superb and the camaraderie amongst finalists at the event was amazing. I hope that [all] of them will be a support for each other going forward.”
The first prize of R1.3 million was awarded to Gauteng’s GrassBeef, developed by Ntuthuko Shezi, providing a new healthy way to produce beef that involves the upliftment of rural communal cattle farmers. Livestock Wealth, based in Newtown, assists farmers to produce good quality calves and provides them with an off-take agreement, where the owner of the cow can earn a return on investment of 15% per annum.
Sandton Chronicle spoke with Philile Mkhize, co-founder of Commuscore, which is a new start-up based in Sandton that won the Development Award in the Social Innovation category. Commuscore makes it easy to manage stokvels and capture members’ payment patterns. They won R300 000 to scale their business, which launched in April this year.
“What is most challenging as an innovator is funding and thanks to the SAB Foundation, all the finalists gained access to financial backing and mentorship so that we can make an incredible impact in Africa with our innovations,” said Mkhize.
This is the first year that SAB Foundation introduced the Disability Empowerment Awards category, opening up opportunities for much-needed innovations in this space.
GreenABLE and Brownies & Downies were joint first place winners in the Disability Empowerment awards category, winning R1 million each. GreenABLE is an NPO based in Pinetown that empowers disabled people to dismantle empty printer cartridges into their recycling components for recycling. It is the first facility of its kind in Africa that also provides training for disabled people. Brownies & Downies is a coffee shop based in Cape Town that strives to train people with intellectual disabilities on site in soft-skills, hard-skills and social-skills training.
Evans commented that the credibility of the awards and the prize money has grown significantly over the last few years, helping the SAB Foundation to solidify themselves as key players in the innovation space.
The foundation provides mentoring and online support for innovators that assist them through the sometimes lonely journey of innovation.
“Our awards aim to draw attention to social innovation and help innovators to access funding to support social change. We want to promote innovative, cost-effective and sustainable solutions to social problems,” added Evans.
