TBZ’s emerging entrepreneurs gets R150 000 for big ideas

Joshua Motsomane

THABAZIMBI – ThabazimbiYouth Biz Competition awarded three Thabazimbi youth the opportunity to develop their businesses.

This was in partnership with Thabazimbi Municipality Planning and Economic Development section, LIBSA and Anglo American Platinum mine.

A number of people gathered at the Regorogile Multi-purpose sports centre to witness for themselves the winners of the Youth Biz Competition for the year 2012. By the end of the proceedings, the dreams of three young entrepreneurs were placed within their reach as they were each awarded as much as R25 000, R50 000 and R75 000 respectively to invest in their businesses and transform their ‘big business ideas’ into reality.

The three winners were chosen over eight other hopefuls by an exceptionally rigorous judgment process. The entrants were required to submit and present their business plans as well as attend compulsory training sessions conducted by LIBSA.

“Unemployment and underdevelopment in our society remains one of the disconcerting factors in our lives today. It becomes even critical when our youth are victims of these consequences. South Africa is a youthful country, which makes our youth the majority by far. For our country to prosper and become successful, it requires our youth to be active players in the mainstream economy,” said Mayor Mosito.

“It is for this reason that all of us here have to make sure that our youth remain key to achieving this mammoth task. In our many interventions to mitigate the situation, as the Municipality, Anglo Platinum and Libsa we have come up among others with the Thabazimbi Youth – Biz competition to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship in our youth. This is to ensure that young people who are unable to get absorbed by the job market would be able to start their own businesses, succeed and create job opportunities for the impoverished communities of the municipality. We are proud to realize that many of our youth have taken advantage of this opportunity and have meaningfully benefited from this competition,” she added.

The Youth Biz is the brainchild of Limpopo’s Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET) and its main objective is to inculcate a culture of entrepreneurship among the youth of Limpopo and to provide support for the province’s emerging youth entrepreneurs to ensure their success in developing to the point of entering the mainstream economy. The entrants were chosen from diverse sectors like technology, fashion, farming and construction. It was first started in 2006.

The competition has had its challenges wherefrom valuable lessons were learned to improve the competition processes annually.

Mayor Patricia Mosito congratulated the winners, urged them to take advantage of networking opportunities and further expressed her desire for the development of strong networking platforms to aid in the growth of businesses in the municipality and of Province. The winners are 1st price – R 75 000 (Mrs Chips) by Adel Diboko, 2nd Price – R 50 000(Hills Restaurant) by Christine Fisher and 3rd Place – R 25 000 (Harmony Recycling and Projects) by Mzwandile Lieta.

The Mayor also thanked Anglo American Platinum mine (Tumela) for their good gesture of making sure that the youth of Thabazimbi get incentives and Libsa. The event was attended by councillors, senior officials from the Municipality, Anglo American Platinum mine (Tumela), Libsa and stakeholders.

From left to right: Ms M Mabitsela, Ms K Mohafa, Adel Diboko the overall winner of Thabazimbi Youth Biz competition 2012 receiving the cheque from Mayor PA Mosito.