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People say small businesses are the future of South Africa, yet small businesses lack support. Students and youth have the agency to drive change in our country, but lack practical experience. At Phaphama we believe that it is at this intersection, between education and entrepreneurship, that we can increase social awareness and make a more economically inclusive South Africa.
Phaphama SEDI is a non-profit student-run consulting organization. Phaphama trains senior University students who are innovative and passionate about making societal change, and who crave practical experience working with the local business community outside of their university environment. We connect these students with exceptional small and medium enterprises based in Khayelitsha and Philippi, who lack the necessary support to meet their entrepreneurial goals.
These diverse and dynamic teams of entrepreneurs (EPs) and students work together in order to grow the businesses of the EPs. Throughout the years, we have found that the increased entrepreneurial capacity is only one of many facets of Phaphama: networking, support, relationships, and compassion grow from the ground of our organization.
A brief history of Phaphama:
Phaphama SEDI was started in 2014 by a small group of dynamic UCT students. In 2014, Phaphama began work with 7 entrepreneurs from Khayelitsha. Just five years later, in 2019, we began the year working with 30 entrepreneurs from Khayelitsha, Philippi, Lange and Belhar.
To date we have worked with over 100 small to medium enterprises and over 300 student consultants.
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Phaphama SEDI’s mandate is to strengthen entrepreneurship in South Africa’s townships and develop more socially-conscious students. Phaphama’s business development programme was designed according to six key principles, which have developed over the past six years as we have been met with challenges, shifts and growth in size and scope. We are confident that a thorough application of these principles has resulted in a program which systematically adds value for the student-consultants and entrepreneurs. The following explanatory statements emanate throughout every corner of Phaphama.
- Inclusivity: Designing a program that can assist any committed entrepreneur, understanding and accounting for different personal histories, backgrounds, and identities.
- Adaptable: Avoiding a “textbook-style” rigid program that isn’t applicable to all industries, locations and people. It also needs to encourage entrepreneurs and consultants to shift according to trends and shocks, while encouraging the consultants to think beyond frameworks.
- Collaborative: Encouraging collaboration between consultants, entrepreneurs, community & industry leaders. Avoid “lecturing-style” learning.
- Innovation: Our data-backed and well-researched program is constantly evolving. Further, we will be fluid with the implementation of youth-driven ideas, with aims to constantly find new and better ways of impacting the lives of our student-consultants and EPs.
- Sustainable: As a visionary organization, we see a future in other parts of the continent, and eventually the rest of the world. Embedded in our growth projection is a sustainable framework to uphold the organization to its core values and standards.
- Community: Create an atmosphere that encourages entrepreneurs and consultants to push themselves, while forming lasting relationships. Establishing value systems, involvement in the community; going above and beyond finances, it is crucial to make an open space which acknowledges and encourages compassionate connections across a wide range of identities.
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2021 Executive Team
We are excited to announce that the executive team that will take Phaphama forward has been finalized. Here they are:
Kiren Rutsch – Retains his role as President
Catherine Gwynne-Evans – Program Coordinator
Poloko Kome – Entrepreneur Coordinator
Jonathan Boulle – Consultant Coordinator
Mulisa Bugana – Treasurer
Nandipha – Monitoring and Evaluations Officer
Gemma Allan – Marketing Director
2020 Executive Team (outgoing)
Kiren Rutsch
President
Ryan Anderson
Program Coordinator
Vhonani Sadiki
Entrepreneur Coordinator
Jason Moodley
Consultant Coordinator
Sophie de Bruyn
Consultant Coordinator
Maddy Silver
Treasurer and Logistics
Kayla Kolker
Marketing Director
Catherine Torrington
Monitoring and Evaluations Officer
Nuvika Pillay
Expansions Strategist - Research Team Lead
Guy Bowden
Expansions Strategist
Zak Essa
Expansions Advisor
Caleb Qoyo
Content Contributor
The Board
Rowan Spazzoli
Board Member
Sandiswa Gwele
Board Member
Lawrence Edwards
Board Member
Justine Burns
Board Member
Chalwyn Vorster
Board Member
Mzoxolo Kutta
Board member
Thandwefika Radebe
Board Member04
Phaphama SEDI Research Team Launched !
Phaphama is delighted to announce the launch of a permanent Phaphama Research Team opportunity in 2021. The team will consist of two-researchers who will tasked with the challenge of researching South Africa’s greatest asset, its ever evolving informal economy. This opportunity will be offered in partnership with the Chair of the Poverty and Inequality branch of the National Research Foundation and as such shall offer partial scholarships to successful our researchers.
The mandate of the Phaphama research team will be to spark academic interest in the informal sector. The informal economy is a vital source of employment for many South Africans. However, it is under- researched and misunderstood, leading to ineffective policies and support to this part of our economy. The research team will aim to contribute to literature around the informal economy and to spark interest in young academics into this vital sector.
Phaphama SEDI has recently shown the important role that academic research can have in creating awareness on the struggles and triumphs of the informal sector. Our COVID-19 report titled “The Impact of COVID on small and micro businesses” was covered by 15 national media outlets and was used in the creation of a R30 million fund for youth micro-businesses. This shows the impact a research- branch of Phaphama can achieve.
Meet the 2021 research team
Sophie de Bruyn
Sophie will be researching access to capital for businesses operating in the informal economy, as well as the impact of financial literacy on the informal economy. Through her research she aims to identify the challenges surrounding access to capital, and to provide relevant recommendations in order to drive inclusive growth in this sector.
Catherine Gwynne-Evans
Catherine will be analysing the informal economy using Isenberg’s Domains of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem to get a more nuanced and holistic understanding of entrepreneurship within South Africa than is currently available. Through this, her investigation aims to identify limiting factors to growth and potential support structures that can be implemented to improve opportunities for entrepreneurs to flourish within the informal economy.
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Insights on the SMME sector
Operational