She says ordinary people by standing up for themselves can create jobs.
A report by Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs said women account for only 18.8% of business owners in South Africa.
And Trecie Makhubele from the rural areas of Bushbuckridge is one of them…
The 22-year-old who is now with Rhodes University graduated at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls before co-creating her own fashion company the Bohochic.
“Bohochic, like most black owned businesses in SA, was born from a desperate need for financial stability,” she explains.
“My friend who is a co-founder had it difficult to go on residence trips, to buy appropriate clothing for court visits and textbooks because our parents were just not able to provide us with everything that we needed.
“Instead of accepting our financial situation, we each started our own businesses, mine being Spiritus Mundi designs and hers being Rude-soul chains, making jewellery.
“But separately we were not making enough money to sustain ourselves. We then looked at trends and realised there was a growing fascination for crochet clothing,” she said when speaking to blogger Jeanette Nkwana.
“Having had basic crochet skills, we read blog posts and watched YouTube videos and soon we had a couple of designs. Once we were confident enough with the idea, we abandoned our businesses and used their respective profits to start Bohochic,” she said.
In another interview, Trecie said it is not really the education she got from school that had landed her to such clothing design successes.
She has a degree in International Studies and Politics and does tutoring at Rhodes.
“The skills that I learnt and developed while at school and University have been invaluable in running my business,” she said.
“Knowing how to manage deadlines, work in a team and drive towards reaching a goal have given me a strong foundation as an entrepreneur,” she added.
Formal education is said to be one of the obstacles to entrepreneurship in SA – it is mostly drop-outs who make sucessful businesspeople with inspiration from moguls.
“While accountancy and economics are part of the school curriculum, it is only when these subjects are effectively taught that graduates, such as Trecia, can transition into the work force and are able to successfully identify opportunities for fruitful business” says Rebecca Sykes, President of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.
(edited by ZK, with SA Good News)
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