The annual awards, focused on encouraging pupils to take up entrepreneurship, took place in Woodmead and included speeches and words of encouragement from dignitaries.
Present at the awards ceremony was Minister for Small Business Development, Lindiwe Zulu, who gave the keynote address and shared some words of wisdom with the pupils.
“Our generation’s battle, the 1976 generation, was to fight for the country’s liberation and we did it, so now you need to find your own battle in the political space laid out for you,” she said.
She encouraged them to achieve this by finding their economic empowerment and using it to uplift themselves and others from their communities.
The minister also expressed excitement at the 2016 Step Up programme, which will focus on social and environmental entrepreneurship. Adding to this was Martin Sweet, managing director of Primestars, who explained the reason for the shift in themes.
“We decided to focus on this because social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health and development; they change the face of business,” he said.
“We need these kinds of entrepreneurs because they are able to identify solutions where others only see problems.”
Another speaker at the awards was Buti Manamela, Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, Youth Development as well as the Administration of the Presidency, who stressed the importance of cultivating young entrepreneurs.
Manamela also spoke of plans to help give young entrepreneurs a hand-up instead of a handout through a grant offered by the National Youth Development Agency.
“As a country we need to do more to stimulate youth entrepreneurship, particularly those who have never tried entrepreneurship and give them a hand-up instead of a handout,” he stressed.
Anna Mathiba Machaka and Precious Masetla, pupils of Ribane-Laka High School won the Young Entrepreneurs team award.
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