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The Eskom Development Foundation (ESDEF) has lauded learners in Limpopo for the innovative projects submitted in the 2021 Simama-Ranta high school entrepreneurship competition.

Launched in 2010, Simama-Ranta is an annual competition aimed at helping school learners to get involved in the economy, and providing them with a platform to explore their ideas on the different ways they can be achieved. The competition is open to all schools with enterprise clubs and is organised in partnership with the Education with Enterprise Trust (EWET).

“Eskom congratulates the provincial winners of the Limpopo leg of the 2021 Simama-Ranta high school entrepreneurship competition. The quality of entries continues to improve, and this demonstrates a steady growth in the numbers of our budding entrepreneurs,” said ESDEF Chief Executive Officer, Cecil Ramonotsi.

The Mahlasedi Special School walked away as the provincial winners of the 2021 Simama-Ranta school competition for Limpopo. Established in 2018, the projects at the Mahlasedi Technical Occupation involve agriculture, bricklaying, welding, hospitality, needlework and woodwork.

The club has given the learners at the school a creative outlet for producing a range of products to go to market, which has worked well to boost their confidence.

“The fact that the projects these learners embark on also help in developing the communities that the learners come from, is one of the more heartening aspects of this initiative.  Their club supports their local créche with fresh vegetables every month as a way of giving back – exactly the type of corporate citizens we wish to develop and exactly the type of example we want to set with Simama-Ranta,” Ramanotsi added.

“Our club’s greatest highlight so far has been supplying spinach to a local Super Spar. We are excited about the win. The prize money will enable us to include an additional workshop for our learners,” said Ntsoane Mahlako, club leader.

The 1st runner up, the Thengwe High School’s enterprise club, Vhaphulusi Social Club, has been running for eight years and was established to alleviate the poverty and unemployment rife in Thohoyandou.

The club’s service offering includes photography, videography, sewing of scarves, school uniforms and traditional wear, beadwork, selling ice-cream and take-aways, managing a vegetable garden, and producing their own compost.

The school is no stranger to winning in the Simama-Ranta competition. The prize money won previously was invested back into the business to buy much-needed equipment. “Our business employs four people from the community; one for making beads, one for selling ice-cream, one for cooking, and another for sewing school uniforms and traditional wear,” said club leader, Khakhu Rialivhuwa.

The Taxila Secondary School’s Taxila Yes Club took the 2nd runner-up position. Based in Polokwane, the club was established four years ago and is known for making juices, manufacturing traditional shoes, printing T-shirts, and knitting woollen scarves.

The club has grown considerably over the years. It started by running a tuck shop and now runs several other successful projects.

“Running a successful printing and sewing business has been our greatest success, as we have consistently managed to supply printed T-shirts and traditional footwear to learners, parents, and the community,” said club leader, Motlalepula Ramalepe

“It gives us great pleasure to accomplish the objectives that Simama-Ranta was designed to achieve, namely by nurturing thousands of aspirant young businesspeople through its enterprise clubs at thousands of schools throughout the country. They have been enabled to tap into their own potential and to free themselves from the chains of economic dependence,” said Nthato Minyuku, Eskom Group Executive, Government and Regulatory Affairs.

Issued by Madelline Kadzinga, Foundation Project Marketing and Communication Manager, Eskom Development Foundation