The Eskom Development Foundation has announced Intsebenziswano Senior Secondary School as the provincial winner of the 2021 Eskom Simama Ranta high school entrepreneurship competition for the Western Cape.
Intsebenziswano, a farm school located in Philippi, formed its enterprise club in 2018 and runs various projects including a tuckshop, beadwork, woodwork, sketch art and painting. The club has managed to sustain itself with profit generated from these projects. They plan to invest their prize money in new materials and equipment to help develop the club.
Club lead, Misiwe Thungela-Matete said, “Our club was impacted by Covid-19 and could not carry out many activities last year. We look forward to resuming our fundraising activities to enable us to support local orphanages and the elderly. We have also started a “Donate a book cover” project to help learners from poor backgrounds. We also purchased a sewing machine to produce face masks and school uniforms.”
In second place is Sinethemba High School, also located in Philippi. This school established its enterprise club in 2019, and they sell snacks, drawings and offer training in leadership skills. The club takes pride in having developed their members’ sales and presentation skills, which they have applied practically over the years. The club plans to expand their projects to include selling samoosas and pies.
The 2nd runner up, Thembelihle High School’s enterprise club was recently established in 2020 and has projects including a vegetable garden, running a coffee and snack stall, a scout’s project, and a bicycle ride project.
The club experienced several setbacks due to Covid-19 but is optimistic that as sales begin to pick up again, it will be able to resuscitate its soup kitchen to feed local pre-schools, as well as the donation of food parcels within the community. Their prize money will be used to purchase raw materials, a deep fryer and a fridge.
“Congratulations to the Simama Ranta winners for the Western Cape for a great representation of the entrepreneurial potential in the province. Eskom recognises the impact of its Simama Ranta high school enterprise education programme in grooming young entrepreneurs that will soon become business owners and contribute to the 11 million new jobs that the National Development Plan anticipates by the year 2030”, said Cecil Ramonotsi, Chief Executive Officer of the Eskom Development Foundation.
