Members of Civic Independent recently hosted a youth indaba in Mthatha, with the aim of advising youth about places to get help to start their own businesses.
According to the spokesperson for Civic Independent, Siphamandla Simelane, their aim was to educate youth about various opportunities and the involvement of non-profit organisations.
Among the stakeholders who participated in this initiative were the National Youth Development Agency, Coega Development Corporation, Small Enterprise Development Agency and Thembelitsha Rehab.
“By hosting this indaba we wanted to open their (the youth’s) eyes and (let them) know which doors they could knock on when they wanted to be assisted in terms of getting information about their businesses.
“Even now, we are still assisting those who visit our offices to get clarity because we want to help where we can as we see that we are facing a challenge of lack of employment,” said Simelane.
He added that by doing this they were trying to uplift the economy and to help them to provide job opportunities. Simelane confirmed that this indaba was attended by youth from the Nyandeni and Mhlontlo local municipalities.
He said there were plans to host it in other areas.
The founder of Mthatha Cleaning Service, Lulama Gqoli, said in this programme he learnt that youth must have something to do.
“Our challenge in my company was that we were not getting jobs, like if there is an event we are not called to clean and we do not get tenders. This means that we are having a problem in terms of marketing but now we have learnt something new,” said Gqoli.
Chairperson for Zimele Co-operative, Yolanda Jejane, said they had gained a lot of information about the structures that were invited to this event.
“We are having our own co-operative where we are ploughing, so the information we got on that initiative would uplift us a lot,” said Jejane.
