By Katleho Vuyani Moloi | Kasi Korner
Youth Month has come and gone, the speeches fade, the campaigns disappear, and life returns to normal.
But one question remains.
What kind of businesses are we encouraging young people in our townships to build?
For years, we’ve celebrated entrepreneurship, and rightly so. Every business started in a township deserves respect. Whether it’s a spaza shop, a tavern, a car wash, a shisa nyama or a hair salon, these businesses keep families fed, create jobs, and keep local economies alive.
But if we’re honest with ourselves, we also need to ask a difficult question.
Is this enough?
The next generation of township entrepreneurs shouldn’t feel limited to businesses they’ve seen before. They should also believe they can build technology companies, manufacturing businesses, logistics firms, renewable energy businesses, digital agencies, food processing plants, software companies, fashion brands that export globally, and businesses that solve real problems at scale.
The township should not only be a place where businesses start. It should be a place where businesses grow.
That starts with changing how we think.
Too often, we encourage young people to become self-employed instead of helping them become business builders. There is a difference.
Being self-employed means your business depends on you being there every day. Building a company means creating systems, employing people, attracting investment, and growing beyond your neighbourhood.
South Africa doesn’t only need more entrepreneurs.
It needs entrepreneurs who are building businesses that investors can back.
Investor-ready businesses don’t begin when someone walks into a boardroom. They begin the day an entrepreneur decides to keep proper financial records, understands their customers, builds a product people want, and creates a business that can be repeated in another township, another city, or even another country.
That is how wealth is created.
Imagine a young entrepreneur in Tembisa developing software for township retailers. Imagine a manufacturing business in Mdantsane producing school furniture for the country. Imagine a logistics company in Soweto connecting township businesses to national markets. Imagine an engineering company in KwaMashu designing solutions for South Africa’s infrastructure.
These are not impossible dreams.
They are businesses waiting for someone to believe they can be built from a township.
But belief alone is not enough.
We need schools that teach entrepreneurship alongside employment. We need universities and TVET colleges to encourage innovation, not just qualifications. We need funding that rewards businesses with the potential to scale. We need experienced business leaders to mentor young founders. And we need media platforms that celebrate more than survival stories, we need to celebrate businesses that are changing industries.
The township economy should not be measured only by the number of businesses it has.
It should be measured by the number of businesses that become national brands, export products, create hundreds of jobs, and inspire the next generation to think bigger.
The future of the township economy will not be built by asking young people to copy what already exists.
It will be built by giving them permission to imagine what doesn’t.
Because somewhere in a township today is a young person with an idea that could change an industry.
Our job is to make sure they believe they don’t have to leave the township to build it.
The township economy has always had entrepreneurs.
Now it’s time to build industrialists, innovators and business leaders whose companies can compete on the national, African and global stage.
That is how we grow the township economy.
That is how we build the South Africa we all want.
