0-0-7 0-0-7 At ocean eleven And now rudeboys a go wail 'Cause them out of jail Rudeboys cannot fail Cause them must get bail [Bridge] Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail A Shanty Town Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail A Shanty Town Dem rude boys deh pon probation A Shanty Town Them a rude boy a bomb up the town A Shanty Town
Any excuse to post a Desmond Dekker song.
You can't say much about what's going on. But within all of this there is a fair amount of hope. There is rampant looting, but there is resistance to it. Communities are standing up to the looters. It's hard to describe them all as thugs because they aren't. There is also a sign of leadership from Cyril. It's not good enough but I hope he now takes charge. His cabinet is made
The country has burned, what few jobs there were are now fewer. Hunger is going to get worse and the pandemic is going to take greater tolls on this anc-ruined country.
But there must be a future. And this future lies in the youth who are unemployable and live within communities that have not known employment for decades. We see this as a huge opportunity for the future. because it's now absolutely apparent that this government is not going to be forthcoming with jobs and security. Their future, and ours, lies in entrepreneurship. It lies in the youth creating businesses that employ people from their communities. This is completely different to large retailers moving into their communities. It's also different to people who aren't from their communities who open spaza shops. The youth in those areas and townships can now own those communities.
Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be learned. Like any other skill or profession it requires application and practice. We've thought about this for a long time. Our solution is the SMME Accelerator. It's a yearlong programme that takes the entrepreneur through the various stages of entrepreneurship - from identifying opportunities to buying and selling stock and managing cash. There's also a strong emphasis on community involvement, ranging from social issues like alcohol and substance abuse to HIV and employing people.
The amazing thing about this is that it's all online. It's a practical course that pays a stipend and it is done completely online.
This is typically offered for BEE skills development points. We have 5000 people on the programme, all of whom are being sponsored in the name of BEE points. Whilst we are still looking for sponsors we're getting calls from huge companies who see this SMME Accelerator as a sort of pre-incubator for their own enterprise and supplier development programmes. What they see is that you have young people who want to learn and want to go beyond the year's programme. It's the graduates that are very enticing to them. These are the people who they want on their programmes. They may be emerging but they have a track record.
We love this, their videos and advice to our entrepreneurs are creating an excitement for their future business careers. It motivates them to learn more and practice their skills whilst earning money.
There are a number of opportunities for involvement. You can sponsor or you can contact us to talk about sponsoring or creating content for these future business leaders to get involved in your own programmes once they graduate.
Stay safe everyone. The news is still bad - but this old cynic has hope.
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