Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) has produced its first class of entrepreneurs in the green economy through the Enterprise Development Programme managed by Tushiyah, a small and medium enterprises (SME) training provider.
The objective and purpose of the programme is to provide business development support to the collectors/SME’s as well as growth-orientated skills that will help them to be more sustainable in the long term. The deliverables include a high-level gap assessment of their main business needs.
“The completion of this leg of the programme has marked an important step in creating a world free of waste, especially in schools where the habit culture of reckless littering is first developed, and where a converse culture of recycling and care for the environment can be nurtured”, says Tsholofelo Mqhayi, Head of Enterprise and Community Development at CCBSA.
The collectors are responsible for collecting waste from schools, instilling a collection rhythm and reporting data on a weekly basis. They also assist with the motivation and the distribution of basic recycling infrastructure to schools.
As part of CCBSA’s Enterprise Development Programme, Tushiyah was appointed to manage the programme for the collectors. The Participants have been taken through intensive training on a number of courses and have completed successfully, through the ongoing support by CCBSA.
“We had the ambitious task of not only instilling a culture of recycling across all the schools, but to also develop viable businesses in the waste sector in a short space of time”, says Mqhayi. “Although we are at early stages of a long-term culture shift, we have already started seeing a change in attitudes and behaviour, not just on school grounds but in the communities as well, with a steady decline of littering in these areas”.
A graduation ceremony was held in Johannesburg at CCBSA’s Bedfordview Training Centre on 21 August, and partners in the programme such as Tushiyah Directors Abigail Khuluse and Marisa Truter, and Chief-Director at Integrated Waste Management, Mamogala Musekene from the Department of Environmental Affairs attended this special occasion.
