These are Chivas Regal’s top 5 social entrepreneurs of South Africa

Popular luxury whisky brand Chivas Rigal has just unveiled its five finalists of its Win the Right Way campaign.

With a focus on social entrepreneurship, 2015’s finalists are Rethaka Trading, Subz Punts and Pads, Inspiracion, Carbon Disclosure South Africa and Lumkani Fire Detection.

The competition provides aspiring social entrepreneurs with a share of US$1-million in financial assistance, international exposure for their company or idea, and mentorship from world-renowned business moguls.

Mandla Holomisa, Brand Manager, Chivas Regal, says: “The idea of social entrepreneurship is using business as a force for good which is one that appeals to Chivas Regal in a meaningful, powerful way. Chivas Regal prides itself on being a brand that inspires nobility, and positive change.”

One of these startups will be crowned the South African winner at the end of February, after which it will join twenty other entrepreneurs from around the globe in Silicon Valley for the mentorship programme.

With a toast at hand, here are the finalists:

Rethaka Trading
The company is a for profit social enterprise that specialises in green innovative solutions for social development. They redefine societal problems into solutions and the first product to do this is their social innovation, “The Repurpose schoolbag”. Designed to do more with less: The Repurpose Schoolbag is a solar powered backpack made from 100% “upcycled” plastic shopping bags. Giving low-income communities a chance to capture value from plastic waste.

Subz Punts and Pads
There are 7 000 000 girls in SA between 10 and 19 that miss 3 months of school education per year, as they cannot afford sanitary pads or do not access to them. Sue Barnes designed, developed and patented a sustainable washable sanitary pad that will last these young ladies for 5 years to keep them in school. Also SABS absorbency approval. She distributes the pads to the girls free with a full educational on female reproductive organs as many are not educated in this sphere.

Inspiracion
Inspiracion is a company that provides consulting services to agencies that fund small businesses and entrepreneurs. Over the last 12 months they have collaborated with their incubator clients to develop an entrepreneur diagnostic tool and a training curriculum that addresses the gaps identified by the tool. We would like to introduce this diagnostic tool and corresponding training as a standalone service that we will use to train and provide business opportunities for 240 emerging entrepreneurs. www.inspiracion.co.za

Carbon Disclosure South Africa
As a company, CDSA focuses on profit driven projects that offer substantial environmental and social benefits while being profitable. This is also the background of the founder. The idea for this entry is a micro combustion engine that is driven by existing fuels used by low income groups, like candles, to provide very small scale electricity supply for a cell phone charger and lighting. The equipment can be modularly expanded to generate and provide more electricity to more household appliances.

Lumkani Fire Detection
Also a winner of Cape Town’s Seedstars Competition (though under a different name), Lumkani offers a fire detector & alert service using radio frequency transmission designed for informal dwellings. The device is a heat detector, measuring the rate-of-rise of temperature in the home. In the event of fire the device will ring in the home giving the family an opportunity to be proactive before the fire is unmanageable. After 20 seconds the device transmits a signal triggering neighbouring homes’ heat detectors up to a 60 m radius, creating a community-wide response to the fire.