Inanda Club conference centre welcomed established business leaders and developing entrepreneurs for the 2019 Social Innovation Awards and Annual Disability Awards hosted by the South African Breweries (SAB) Foundation on 9 October.
The SAB Foundation provides funding for small, medium and micro-sized enterprises in order to contribute to the economic and social empowerment of historically disadvantaged persons through entrepreneurship development. The organisation has provided more than 67 million in support of 163 social innovations and disability businesses.
The Disability Empowerment awards promote social innovations that improve the quality of life for people with disabilities through assistive devices, training or employment. The Social Innovation Awards are aimed at innovators, entrepreneurs and institutions with prototypes or early-stage businesses that solve a social problem.
This year’s award ceremony had three finalists in the Disability Empowerment category and 17 finalists for the Social Innovation category. Last year’s overall winner of the Social Innovation award Ntuthuko Shezi owner of Livestock Wealth explained how he has benefited from the SAB Foundation.
“My business has grown ever since I won this prize money, we have managed to expand the business into other provinces and I have managed to create employment for others.” Shezi also revealed that he now supplies beef to Woolworths.
The first-place winner of the Disability Empowerment Award went to Mpho Mohlolo who developed specialised seats for disabled children. The chairs are custom-built for children with physical disabilities.
Chad Robertson and business partner Nkazimlo Miti walked away with 1.3 million after being winners of the Social Innovation award pocketing 1.3 million for their business Regenize which is a rewarding service that offers individuals rewards in form of virtual currency based on the weight of their recyclable materials.
SAB Foundation Chairman Moss Ngoasheng said the work social innovators do is crucial with the rise of unemployment. “It is our vision to take as many businesses to scale as possible so that they can make a meaningful contribution towards building the country.”
Social Innovation Award winners:
- First place (R1.3m) Regenize owned by Chad Robertson partner, Nkazimlo Miti
- Second place (R900 000) PlastiBrick owned by Kekeletso Tsiloane
- Third place (R 750 000) Put It out Mini Fire Extinguisher owned by Toli Altounis.
Disability Empowerment Award winners:
- In joint first place were, Specialised Seating for Disabled Children and The OptiShunt. Owned by Mpho Mohlolo and Dr Daemon McClunan who received 1.3 million respectively.
- Third place (R750 000) ShowerBath owned by Xelda Rohrbeck.
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