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Every July, South Africans unite in service for Mandela Month, dedicating 67 minutes to honour his legacy. But what if we extended this commitment throughout the year to create lasting change in our communities? Mandela's life was never about symbolic acts. It was about sustained commitment to justice, equality, and human dignity. His legacy was built over decades of sacrifice, not moments of convenience. If we truly wish to honour him, our contribution to society should not begin and end in July...

July 23, 2026

Beyond 67 Minutes: The Legacy Mandela Really Wanted Us to Build

Every July, South Africans unite in service for Mandela Month, dedicating 67 minutes to honour his legacy. But what if we extended this commitment throughout the year to create lasting change in our communities? Mandela’s life was never about symbolic acts. It was about sustained commitment to justice, equality, and human dignity. His legacy was built over decades of sacrifice, not moments of convenience. If we truly wish to honour him, our contribution to society should not begin and end in July…

Tsakani Nkombyane

The founder who builds that system is not reinventing the wheel. They are doing something in some ways more demanding, they are understanding the road well enough to build the infrastructure that makes the wheel work on it. That understanding does not emerge from a hackathon or a customer persona exercise. It emerges from proximity, from the kind of sustained, genuine engagement with a specific context that produces insight you cannot get from a market research report. It is, ultimately, the most important form of innovation available to a founder in this economy. Not what has never existed. What has never been made to work here...

July 16, 2026

The Wheel Does Not Need Reinventing. The Road Does.

The founder who builds that system is not reinventing the wheel. They are doing something in some ways more demanding, they are understanding the road well enough to build the infrastructure that makes the wheel work on it. That understanding does not emerge from a hackathon or a customer persona exercise. It emerges from proximity, from the kind of sustained, genuine engagement with a specific context that produces insight you cannot get from a market research report. It is, ultimately, the most important form of innovation available to a founder in this economy. Not what has never existed. What has never been made to work here…

Londani Mpharalala

South Africa is already contending with stagnant economic growth, persistently high unemployment and declining business confidence, which makes attacks on entrepreneurs, regardless of nationality, one of the most self-defeating responses imaginable. Instead of addressing the pressures communities face, such violence destroys productive economic activity in places that need more investment, not less, and targets many of the very people doing what policymakers encourage: starting businesses, creating employment and generating income. This contradiction should not be ignored. Legitimate concerns about undocumented migration and weak border management must be taken seriously, and every sovereign state has both the right and responsibility to regulate immigration...

July 9, 2026

From Violence to Economic Rupture: The Cost of Xenophobia

South Africa is already contending with stagnant economic growth, persistently high unemployment and declining business confidence, which makes attacks on entrepreneurs, regardless of nationality, one of the most self-defeating responses imaginable. Instead of addressing the pressures communities face, such violence destroys productive economic activity in places that need more investment, not less, and targets many of the very people doing what policymakers encourage: starting businesses, creating employment and generating income. This contradiction should not be ignored. Legitimate concerns about undocumented migration and weak border management must be taken seriously, and every sovereign state has both the right and responsibility to regulate immigration…

Boitshoko Shoke

Opportunity is only meaningful when it is accessible. If unemployed youth cannot reliably access the information, transport, safety, and support systems required to pursue those opportunities, then the promise remains largely theoretical. A house built on a weak foundation will not withstand pressure. The same is true of entrepreneurship...

June 25, 2026

Youth Entrepreneurship Cannot Thrive on a Weak Foundation

Opportunity is only meaningful when it is accessible. If unemployed youth cannot reliably access the information, transport, safety, and support systems required to pursue those opportunities, then the promise remains largely theoretical. A house built on a weak foundation will not withstand pressure. The same is true of entrepreneurship…

Khwezi Jackson

The programme launched in June 2024 is designed to address persistent barriers to digital participation, particularly limited digital literacy and restricted access to e-commerce marketplaces. Through structured training, technical onboarding and ongoing digital support, participating businesses will be capacitated to list and trade on leading South African e-commerce platforms. “Version three (3) represents a deliberate shift from access alone to preparedness and competitiveness,” says Bongani Ntombela, Executive: Programmes at 22 On Sloane...

June 24, 2026

22 On Sloane Launches Version Three Of The Township Digital Market Access Programme In The Western Cape

The programme launched in June 2024 is designed to address persistent barriers to digital participation, particularly limited digital literacy and restricted access to e-commerce marketplaces. Through structured training, technical onboarding and ongoing digital support, participating businesses will be capacitated to list and trade on leading South African e-commerce platforms. “Version three (3) represents a deliberate shift from access alone to preparedness and competitiveness,” says Bongani Ntombela, Executive: Programmes at 22 On Sloane…

Press Release

South Africa has a predominantly young population, with over 26 million people between the ages of 15 and 34. Yet this generation faces a difficult reality. According to Statistics South Africa, youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 34 stands at over 46%, making it one of the highest youth unemployment rates globally. For many young people, a traditional job remains out of reach. But something remarkable is happening. Instead of waiting for opportunities, many young South Africans are creating them. This is visible across townships, cities, and rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are launching technology startups, fashion brands, logistics companies, digital agencies, agricultural enterprises, and social businesses...

June 18, 2026

The New Uprising: How South Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs Are Turning Freedom into Ownership

South Africa has a predominantly young population, with over 26 million people between the ages of 15 and 34. Yet this generation faces a difficult reality. According to Statistics South Africa, youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 34 stands at over 46%, making it one of the highest youth unemployment rates globally. For many young people, a traditional job remains out of reach. But something remarkable is happening. Instead of waiting for opportunities, many young South Africans are creating them. This is visible across townships, cities, and rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are launching technology startups, fashion brands, logistics companies, digital agencies, agricultural enterprises, and social businesses…

Tsakani Nkombyane

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Every July, South Africans unite in service for Mandela Month, dedicating 67 minutes to honour his legacy. But what if we extended this commitment throughout the year to create lasting change in our communities? Mandela's life was never about symbolic acts. It was about sustained commitment to justice, equality, and human dignity. His legacy was built over decades of sacrifice, not moments of convenience. If we truly wish to honour him, our contribution to society should not begin and end in July...

July 23, 2026

Beyond 67 Minutes: The Legacy Mandela Really Wanted Us to Build

Every July, South Africans unite in service for Mandela Month, dedicating 67 minutes to honour his legacy. But what if we extended this commitment throughout the year to create lasting change in our communities? Mandela’s life was never about symbolic acts. It was about sustained commitment to justice, equality, and human dignity. His legacy was built over decades of sacrifice, not moments of convenience. If we truly wish to honour him, our contribution to society should not begin and end in July…

Tsakani Nkombyane

The founder who builds that system is not reinventing the wheel. They are doing something in some ways more demanding, they are understanding the road well enough to build the infrastructure that makes the wheel work on it. That understanding does not emerge from a hackathon or a customer persona exercise. It emerges from proximity, from the kind of sustained, genuine engagement with a specific context that produces insight you cannot get from a market research report. It is, ultimately, the most important form of innovation available to a founder in this economy. Not what has never existed. What has never been made to work here...

July 16, 2026

The Wheel Does Not Need Reinventing. The Road Does.

The founder who builds that system is not reinventing the wheel. They are doing something in some ways more demanding, they are understanding the road well enough to build the infrastructure that makes the wheel work on it. That understanding does not emerge from a hackathon or a customer persona exercise. It emerges from proximity, from the kind of sustained, genuine engagement with a specific context that produces insight you cannot get from a market research report. It is, ultimately, the most important form of innovation available to a founder in this economy. Not what has never existed. What has never been made to work here…

Londani Mpharalala

South Africa is already contending with stagnant economic growth, persistently high unemployment and declining business confidence, which makes attacks on entrepreneurs, regardless of nationality, one of the most self-defeating responses imaginable. Instead of addressing the pressures communities face, such violence destroys productive economic activity in places that need more investment, not less, and targets many of the very people doing what policymakers encourage: starting businesses, creating employment and generating income. This contradiction should not be ignored. Legitimate concerns about undocumented migration and weak border management must be taken seriously, and every sovereign state has both the right and responsibility to regulate immigration...

July 9, 2026

From Violence to Economic Rupture: The Cost of Xenophobia

South Africa is already contending with stagnant economic growth, persistently high unemployment and declining business confidence, which makes attacks on entrepreneurs, regardless of nationality, one of the most self-defeating responses imaginable. Instead of addressing the pressures communities face, such violence destroys productive economic activity in places that need more investment, not less, and targets many of the very people doing what policymakers encourage: starting businesses, creating employment and generating income. This contradiction should not be ignored. Legitimate concerns about undocumented migration and weak border management must be taken seriously, and every sovereign state has both the right and responsibility to regulate immigration…

Boitshoko Shoke

Opportunity is only meaningful when it is accessible. If unemployed youth cannot reliably access the information, transport, safety, and support systems required to pursue those opportunities, then the promise remains largely theoretical. A house built on a weak foundation will not withstand pressure. The same is true of entrepreneurship...

June 25, 2026

Youth Entrepreneurship Cannot Thrive on a Weak Foundation

Opportunity is only meaningful when it is accessible. If unemployed youth cannot reliably access the information, transport, safety, and support systems required to pursue those opportunities, then the promise remains largely theoretical. A house built on a weak foundation will not withstand pressure. The same is true of entrepreneurship…

Khwezi Jackson

The programme launched in June 2024 is designed to address persistent barriers to digital participation, particularly limited digital literacy and restricted access to e-commerce marketplaces. Through structured training, technical onboarding and ongoing digital support, participating businesses will be capacitated to list and trade on leading South African e-commerce platforms. “Version three (3) represents a deliberate shift from access alone to preparedness and competitiveness,” says Bongani Ntombela, Executive: Programmes at 22 On Sloane...

June 24, 2026

22 On Sloane Launches Version Three Of The Township Digital Market Access Programme In The Western Cape

The programme launched in June 2024 is designed to address persistent barriers to digital participation, particularly limited digital literacy and restricted access to e-commerce marketplaces. Through structured training, technical onboarding and ongoing digital support, participating businesses will be capacitated to list and trade on leading South African e-commerce platforms. “Version three (3) represents a deliberate shift from access alone to preparedness and competitiveness,” says Bongani Ntombela, Executive: Programmes at 22 On Sloane…

Press Release

South Africa has a predominantly young population, with over 26 million people between the ages of 15 and 34. Yet this generation faces a difficult reality. According to Statistics South Africa, youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 34 stands at over 46%, making it one of the highest youth unemployment rates globally. For many young people, a traditional job remains out of reach. But something remarkable is happening. Instead of waiting for opportunities, many young South Africans are creating them. This is visible across townships, cities, and rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are launching technology startups, fashion brands, logistics companies, digital agencies, agricultural enterprises, and social businesses...

June 18, 2026

The New Uprising: How South Africa’s Young Entrepreneurs Are Turning Freedom into Ownership

South Africa has a predominantly young population, with over 26 million people between the ages of 15 and 34. Yet this generation faces a difficult reality. According to Statistics South Africa, youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 34 stands at over 46%, making it one of the highest youth unemployment rates globally. For many young people, a traditional job remains out of reach. But something remarkable is happening. Instead of waiting for opportunities, many young South Africans are creating them. This is visible across townships, cities, and rural communities. Young entrepreneurs are launching technology startups, fashion brands, logistics companies, digital agencies, agricultural enterprises, and social businesses…

Tsakani Nkombyane

Younger founders are becoming less interested in spaces where people perform competence at one another; instead, the focus is shifting from presentation to presence. This is not tradition being rejected for the sake of rebellion, but rather tradition being interrogated. Why must a pitch happen behind a stand? Why must credibility be staged like a TED Talk audition? Why must access flow in only one direction? These are not abstract questions; they are design questions, and the answers are quietly reshaping how new ecosystems are built...

June 11, 2026

The Year of Action Meets the Age of Deconstruction: How Young People are Rethinking Old Systems

Younger founders are becoming less interested in spaces where people perform competence at one another; instead, the focus is shifting from presentation to presence. This is not tradition being rejected for the sake of rebellion, but rather tradition being interrogated. Why must a pitch happen behind a stand? Why must credibility be staged like a TED Talk audition? Why must access flow in only one direction? These are not abstract questions; they are design questions, and the answers are quietly reshaping how new ecosystems are built…

Boitshoko Shoke

The fifty years since 1976 have given South Africa’s youth more political freedom, greater access to education, and stronger institutional support than any generation before them. Yet the next chapter requires a different kind of courage. Not the courage to march, though that will always be honoured, but the courage to build, to launch, to fail publicly, and to begin again...

June 4, 2026

The Degree Was Never Meant to Be the Finish Line

The fifty years since 1976 have given South Africa’s youth more political freedom, greater access to education, and stronger institutional support than any generation before them. Yet the next chapter requires a different kind of courage. Not the courage to march, though that will always be honoured, but the courage to build, to launch, to fail publicly, and to begin again…

Londani Mpharalala

Across South Africa and much of Africa, entrepreneurship has never lacked attention. Governments have launched schemes and support mechanisms, funders have built programmes, corporates have expanded supplier development, and ecosystem actors have multiplied. The intention is right, and much of the investment is necessary. Yet, for many entrepreneurs the experience remains deeply frustrating, not because nothing is there, but because nothing quite connects. ..

May 29, 2026

Everyone Is in the Room. But No One Can Find Each Other.

Across South Africa and much of Africa, entrepreneurship has never lacked attention. Governments have launched schemes and support mechanisms, funders have built programmes, corporates have expanded supplier development, and ecosystem actors have multiplied. The intention is right, and much of the investment is necessary. Yet, for many entrepreneurs the experience remains deeply frustrating, not because nothing is there, but because nothing quite connects. ..

Noma Ngubane

Small businesses are often expected to solve unemployment, drive innovation, and stimulate local economies, yet many remain excluded from formal financing systems. Traditional banks still view many small businesses as too risky to finance, particularly in their early stages. As a result, entrepreneurs are frequently trapped between being

May 21, 2026

Why Small Business Growth in Africa Cannot Wait for Venture Capital

Small businesses are often expected to solve unemployment, drive innovation, and stimulate local economies, yet many remain excluded from formal financing systems. Traditional banks still view many small businesses as too risky to finance, particularly in their early stages. As a result, entrepreneurs are frequently trapped between being “too small” for institutional funding and not yet attractive enough for venture capital. In recent years, fintech lenders have emerged to help bridge this gap by offering founders more accessible pathways to capital with streamlined requirements…

Khwezi Jackson

African children deserve products reflecting their own languages, environments and experiences, not only imported characters from Hollywood franchises and foreign streaming platforms. The challenge now is whether African businesses, policymakers and investors are prepared to treat the economics of play as a serious sector worthy of innovation, investment and strategic attention, rather than simply a retail afterthought. Because in the end, the toys children play with do more than entertain them; they shape imagination, identity and how the next generation sees both itself and the world around it...

May 15, 2026

The Economics of Play: Africa’s Rising Toy Industry

African children deserve products reflecting their own languages, environments and experiences, not only imported characters from Hollywood franchises and foreign streaming platforms. The challenge now is whether African businesses, policymakers and investors are prepared to treat the economics of play as a serious sector worthy of innovation, investment and strategic attention, rather than simply a retail afterthought. Because in the end, the toys children play with do more than entertain them; they shape imagination, identity and how the next generation sees both itself and the world around it…

Boitshoko Shoke

Right now, if two small farmers have a conflict over water rights or boundary lines, it drags on, it festers. Businesses die in that uncertainty. Traditional courts could resolve these matters in days, not months, giving entrepreneurs the stability they need to grow. There are roughly two million smallholder farmers in this country, most of whom work under traditional authority. And most of them are one market connection, one secure land agreement, one act of leadership away from something much bigger...

May 6, 2026

Traditional Leaders as Strategic Enablers of Rural Agribusiness Growth in South Africa

Right now, if two small farmers have a conflict over water rights or boundary lines, it drags on, it festers. Businesses die in that uncertainty. Traditional courts could resolve these matters in days, not months, giving entrepreneurs the stability they need to grow. There are roughly two million smallholder farmers in this country, most of whom work under traditional authority. And most of them are one market connection, one secure land agreement, one act of leadership away from something much bigger…

Londani Mpharalala