Durban — A young Durban entrepreneur Sifundo Gcaba will represent South Africa in the Founder of the Year Awards (Foya) which will take place in Kenya, next month.
Gcaba, who was born in Nkandla but is now based in Durban, is in the energy sector and owns LiteBruim – a company that manufactures rechargeable electricity globes which are proving to be in demand amid load shedding.
Gcaba, 24, took advantage of the rolling blackouts and founded his company in 2018 at the age of 19. He is the only South African and only black businessman to be nominated for the awards.
A thrilled Gcaba said on Sunday that he was excited to be nominated and urged South Africans to rally behind him by voting in their numbers.
“I am thrilled by the nomination and would like to appeal to all South Africans to vote for me. I am overwhelmed … as a young businessman I never expected to be nominated; I thought it was for the big businesses.”
As a way of encouraging people to vote for him, he said a lucky voter stands to win a two-night stay with his or her partner at the luxurious RadissonBlu Hotel in Mhlanga, Durban. It was important to win such an award, he said, since it will expose his business in Africa.
The awards were established in Kenya in 2020 to recognise young entrepreneurs who are contributing to job creation and have now expanded to include South Africa, Nigeria and other few African countries.
Voting will run until September 15. Gcaba said those who want to vote for him must sign up to //https://foya. africa/ then click countries and select preferred country. The next step would be to select a preferred category and vote for the candidate of your choice. Multiple voting is accepted.
Gcaba grew up in Nkandla and attended Etulwane Primary School.
Gcaba said as a rural boy from a poor village like Nkandla life was not easy and the year he started school, Etulwane’s Grade 1 had only two classrooms partitioned by desks. The sun was hot so they were forced to learn under the trees because of congestion in the classrooms. He said he developed his entrepreneurship skills when he was forced to sell sweets and eggs to raise money for his education since his family was poor. After finishing matric he moved to Durban and founded his company. In 2019 he was a delegate at the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 conference in Malaysia discussing decent work and economic growth.
Gcaba also uses his poor background to motivate others and in 2022 he delivered motivation at Muzingezwi High School in Ndwedwe north of Durban.
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Daily News