Small Business Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu has urged businesses to go beyond making money out of the community and contribute by helping the youth.
Zulu was speaking at the Mandela Day commemoration event in Pimville Zone Seven on Saturday. The event was organised by Sakhile Ezweni Group of Companies which operates in the area.
Zulu was impressed by Sakhile Ezweni’s initiative which has helped a group of young men who were Nyaope addicts.
The company took an initiative to rehabilitate and gave them employment in their bakeries in Pimville.
“I like the fact that Sakhile Ezweni as a business took the initiative to help these youngsters without even coming to government for help,” said Zulu.
She went on to encourage everyone to make Mandela Day an every day thing.
“I encourage everyone especially businesses to make this a 365 days thing like Sakhile Ezweni has done by helping the community long before we as government came on board,” said Zulu.
The Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) and the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) took part in the event.
Theirs was to provide young people who were at the event with information about funding when starting their businesses.
Rehabilitated Nyaope addicts entertained residents with a soccer match.
The soccer match was part of Sakhile Ezweni’s business against drugs campaign.
It is through this campaign that a group of young men managed to overcome the problem of Nyaope.
Minister Zulu presented them with bicycles which they will use to deliver bread to residents from Sakhile Ezweni Bakery.
Leeroy Sidambe Sakhile Ezweni chairman said, “We did not want to do the cliché of painting schools and orphanages on Mandela Day but we decided to invest in the future of our youth by donating these bikes which will help them start their delivery business.”
