Closing the Gap Between Training and Ownership
South Africa has no shortage of incubators, accelerators and enterprise development programmes. Most hand over skills. Very few end with the participant holding the keys to a business. That is the gap we intend to close.
This is the retail model participants train to own and run: a technology-enabled refill store dispensing staples like rice, maize meal and sugar into re-usable packaging. These photos show Sonke Retail's existing store network; SKUBU sethu Sonke NPC's own participant-owned stores have not yet opened.
Identify
We identify unemployed South Africans in township communities who want to run their own enterprise.
Train & Pay
Formal classroom instruction and supervised practical training, with a wage paid while participants train in store.
Establish
We support participants to establish and operate their own technology-enabled refill retail enterprises.
Support
Coaching, mentoring, and access to professional services, finance and technical assistance continue after opening.
Independent governance
An ecosystem like this deserves to be governed and funded as a public benefit activity in its own right: its own board, its own object, its own accountability to the people who fund it. That is why SKUBU sethu Sonke NPC was established as a separate non-profit company rather than a department inside a commercial business. No single person controls the decision-making of the Company, and all dealings with connected parties are governed by the conflict-of-interest, remuneration and procurement provisions of our MOI.
Our relationship with Sonke Retail (Pty) Ltd
Sonke Retail (Pty) Ltd is a separate commercial company that contributes systems, supply-chain access, set-up support, technical expertise and practical training placements to the programme at its own cost. Participants on placement are employed and paid at market rates for the work they do. Sonke Retail is a supporter of, and service provider to, the programme; it is not the purpose of the programme. Donations and other funds received by the Company are applied solely to the public benefit activities described on this site, and are not used to benefit Sonke Retail, any director or any connected person.