By Staff Reporter
The overall winner of the Sarah Baartman District Women Entrepreneurs Awards (WEA), Kholiswa Seti, from Makhanda, says she aspires to be a fabric design factory owner who is able to employ local people in the Eastern Cape town.
Speaking from the National Arts Festival where she is displaying her products following the award ceremony that saw her also named the best smallholder in the rural development category, Kholiswa Seti of Kholi Designs yesterday expressed joy for winning the awards.
“Winning this prize has happened at a time when I have just identified my niche market. It was only on Monday when I got great reviews about the quality of my work when I decided to have two pop-up stalls to showcase my products in a solo marketing venture.
“Just when the excitement got the better of me about this idea, the question was ‘Where are you going to get the money girl?’ So, this prize money will make me pull off this idea of pop-up stalls and I am grateful. Slowly but surely my dreams are coming true and soon I will be able to employ more people and have a factory, thanks to the government,” Seti said.
The objective of the awards, which are organized by the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) is to empower and honour women in agriculture, rural development and agro-processing sectors by recognizing their contributions. The awards are an instrument through which the contribution of women in food security, job creation, economic growth, and poverty alleviation is recognised.
Seti, who received overlocker and straight industrial sewing machines last year from DRADR, said before the assistance, she had only one domestic machine and was working alone, but now she has been able to hire someone fulltime and another parttime.
“I call the industrial machine I received from the department the ‘magic machine’ because it is fast and delivers great quality while the overlooker is doing wonders,” she said.
Kholi Designs produce traditional wear, smart to causal, including matric dance attires and Seti said their designs catered for specific seasons, adding that she was currently displaying and selling winter wear at the 50th National Arts Festival in Makhanda.
Seti is not new to winning awards, having won the Best Designer range at the 2017 Nelson Mandela Bay Fashion Week.
Another big winner at the awards was Bongeka Gebuza (34) of Khanyisa Agro-organics in Gqeberha. She was awarded the Youth Special Award for her sterling work in her rabbit farming enterprise where she is conducting her Honours Degree research about rabbit manure.
Speaking about her love for rabbits and organic farming, Gebuza said she was always interested in rabbits, especially their nutritional value and how to take care of them. She started with three rabbits given to her as gifts and she now has 72.
All the district winners will compete for silverware at provincial awards to be awarded by DRDAR MEC Nonceba Kontsiwe and then represent the province at national awards in August.
