KwaZulu Post

Businessman Nhlakanipho Mkhize opens a coffee shop in KwaMashu.  By: Bandiswa Mngomezulu           Picture: Nhlakanipho Mkhize co-owner of Mkhize Coffee Shop and Print in KwaMashu.  Coffee shops are rare to find in townships, they are usually located in office areas or subtle places . However, Nhlakanipho’s passion for coffee has bought novelty in the streets of KwaMashu when he opened Mkhize's Coffee Shop and Print.  The 35 year old businessman born in Umlazi South of Durban started showing talents for entrepreneurship at an early stage of his life by selling fudge in grade 7 and when he went to tertiary level he worked as a waiter for numerous restaurants where he saved most of his salary with a hope to open a business one day.  The turning point in Nhlakanipho’s life was when his parents got divorced, he had to move KwaMashu to live with his granny where his business aspirations took off. Nhlakanipho delineated that “its extension of love for coffee and the desire to bring quali

  By: Mfundo Mabaso Over the past months, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has seen conflict between oMalume and the taxi associations. Scholar transport is popularly known as oMalume - which means Uncle when loosely translated. T his is a mode of transport that commutes scholars to and from school, from home on a daily.   Reports suggest that taxi associations bar scholar transport from operating on their route.   A credible source who did not want to be named said she had to use her private vehicle to pick up pupils who were left stranded because the transport driver had not picked them up from school. “I was driving past a certain school in Umlazi and I saw a friend’s child on the road alongside many other kids walking home. So, what I did was I called my friend as it was at around 16h45 and that is late, to ask her what is going, why is the child walking home instead on being on a scholar transport. She asked me to drive back and check what was going on which I did. I figured that their scholar

Local Women Entrepreneurs Succeed in the face of Adversity. By: Tsholofelo Letsholo Thandeka Gumede The global economy benefits significantly from the socioeconomic contributions made by female entrepreneurs. According to data from the Boston Consulting Group, companies run by women typically have higher returns and are more successful financially than those run by men, making them a safe haven for funders and investors. In South Africa women’s entrepreneurial engagement increased in 2021-2022, with 11,1 % of working age women engaging in early stage entrepreneurial activities. However, just 21% of formal SME firms are owned or operated by women. Despite poor access to funding, land and unsupportive entrepreneurial conditions faced by women in the agricultural sector, Thandeka Gumede, a retired social worker, fashion designer from Ndwedwe, located northwest of Durban chose to follow her passion and is now a mixed farmer entrepreneur. With an early fa