Mamelodi Kasi Revitalisation Business Forum
The Business Forum has been established in order to gather a membership collaboration of SME’S and SMME’S in Mamelodi.
SNS Group SA is actively participating in the Township Economy Revitalisation Programme in Gauteng, a government initiative headed by MEC for Economic Development, Lebogang Maile.
The programme is committed to creating an environment conducive to the revitalisation of township economies. SNS Group SA subscribes to the MEC’s plan to look at the whole value chain in order to support local businesses.
Township people have been going it alone for decades, resolute in their human spirit of survival there have always been little businesses like minibus taxi operators, spaza shops, shebeens, hair-salons, mechanics, burial societies, stokvels, savings groups, plumbers, furniture producers, fresh produce sellers and any the provision of any imaginable product or service; on every corner and from any type of makeshift structure. Their entrepreneurial spirit has always risen above injustices, hardships and adversity.
SNS Group SA doesn’t change lives; it gives people the ability to change their own lives. Small businesses in the townships need to be recognised as productive enterprises with recognised skills which are able to provide goods and services in their areas.
Hundreds of billions of rands leave the townships to sustain businesses in other regions every year. Money which should be invested in the township economy of community-based enterprises aimed at meeting the needs of the township residents.
South Africa needs to address its own problems in a way which will suit South Africa, without conforming to standards and models which work in countries with different economic factors. The Township Economy Revitalisation Programme is one possible solution.
In support of this objective, SNS Group SA is utilising the skills of trained professionals and artisans, predominantly in the SME and SMME categories, in many of their projects.