City of Ekhuruleni, Sabtia to set up forum to support township economies

Township entrepreneurs may be in for added support. The City of Ekurhuleni and the Southern Africa Business and Technology Incubation Association (Sabtia) plan to work together to develop incubation and acceleration programmes for entrepreneurs based in townships and rural areas.

The two have agreed to set up a forum that looks at how to set up such programmes for rural areas and townships.

Sabtia chairperson Zaid Mohidin (pictured above, right) told Ventureburn today that the agreement to establish the forum was one of the main outcomes of the Sabtia Africa Tech Conference, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday (25 and 26 September) at the Emperors Palace in Johannesburg.

The City of Ekurhuleni and Sabtia will work together to develop incubation and acceleration programmes aimed at entrepreneurs based in townships and rural areas

“Through initiatives like this we will be able to test the propensity for the ecosystem to work together for the betterment of our society,” he added.

Mohidin said Sabtia plans to also work with key industry stakeholders and the Department of Trade and Industry’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) commission to improve impact metrics and monitoring and evaluation for all enterprise and supplier development programmes.

Speaking at the event, which was held in partnership with the City of Ekurhuleni and Monash SA, the Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu (pictured above, centre) pointed to the critical need to reduce government bureaucracy to help the country’s small businesses to grow.

Zulu said through the Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda) and initiatives like the Sabtia Tech Conference, the country can help unlock the economic potential of SA entrepreneurs and enable them to access high quality and innovative business support.

Featured image (left to right): Seda CEO Mandisa Tshikwatamba, Minister Lindiwe Zulu and Sabtia Chairperson Zaid Mohidin at the first Sabtia Africa Tech Conference (Photo by Montsho Pheeha, DBE Media )