4.2. Background of participant social enterprises
4.2.3 Enterprise objectives and main activities
Each participant's social enterprise's social objectives and main activities is presented in Table 4.3.
It shows that the participant enterprises implement various social and business activities to achieve their social objectives of helping people, especially the disadvantaged members of communities.
Enterprise Age Sex Position in the Enterprise Social Enterprise 1 27 Male Founder and Director Social Enterprise 2 30 Female Founder and Director Social Enterprise 3 42 Male Managing Director Social Enterprise 4 29 Male Founder
Social Enterprise 5 36 Female Deputy Chairperson and Co-founder Social Enterprise 6 59 Male Founder and Executive Director Social Enterprise 7 37 Male Founder and Manager
144 Table 4.3: Enterprise Objectives and Main Activities
Enterprise Purpose/Objectives Main Activities
Social
Enterprise 1 To equip people for better, environment-friendly practices of planting and cultivating and for self-employment and income generation
- Consultancy
- Cultivation (on personal land)
- Training and skills development for better agricultural results and development
- Technology (develop hydroponic systems to sell as a subscription model to clients and any business)
- Create a product that assists farmers in saving resources and being eco-friendly
- Conservation of resources and development of hydroponics.
Social
Enterprise 2 To assist young children with the community, government, and other stakeholders' support to build a drug-free generation
- Assist young kids in high school in preparing application forms for further studies, assist in the identification of courses provided by the universities and opportunities for studying certain courses
- Assist kids who drop out of school due to reasons such as financial. However, they have unique skills and talents like woodwork. An electrician with a CITA credited organization uses their talent and converts it into a business where they can make money for themselves.
Social
Enterprise 3 Skills development, black youth empowerment, social and enterprise development
-To train and place unemployed youth into a job.
-To provide enterprise support to hundreds of small business entities' development annually, mainly funded by NPC cement company for the community around KZN.
-To help facilitate big property developers' engagement with local stakeholders.
- To train hundreds of people for a driving license to work with Uber Eat.
- To provide support in tourism projects: the foundation helps tourism companies struggling due to COVID-19 by providing support and advice on overcoming the COVID-19 struggle.
Social
Enterprise 4 To help substance abusers and ex- offenders reintegrate into society after leaving rehab.
To help them in finding jobs and sustaining the livelihood
- To train substance abusers
- To hire substance abusers once they leave the rehab in terms of engaging in manufacturing our products or selling items/products
- To launch their business activities, follow-ups and monitor their behaviours
Social
Enterprise 5 To promote rural art brands and
facilitate market access - To promote collaboration between artists and crafters - Facilitate markets and platforms for product placements
- To assist with product development of craft products.
- Promote culture through lifestyle.
Social
Enterprise 6 To develop four co-operative entities (poultry, aquaculture production, hydroponic and skills
-To provide infrastructure, such as one training room for poultry, aquaculture, hydroponic, and training facilities
145 development, and training) in the
first year of the business incubator centre
-To provide infrastructure for member co-operatives when the training is undertaken. Take the form of an incubator.
Social
Enterprise 7 - To produce crops and vegetables - To train and teach community members about crop and vegetable production and marketing strategies and assist the community in farming
- To provide consultation on soil tests, crop production, and water conservation.
- Co-ordinating agricultural activities training for students coming from universities and colleges
- Facilitating a farming learnership programme
- Provide training and consultation on agricultural activities
- Production of crops and vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, ginger, etc.
As the interview participant stated:
"We help the areas nearby big lands holding and property development and integrating people from the communities into opportunities of development and other kinds of opportunities. They had side offices in townships like North Durban, Waterloo, Blackburn, and Tongaat.” (Social Enterprise 3 interview respondent).
Social Enterprise 4 interview respondent stated:
“We have a business company (Welding Service) established to generate revenue for our social activities. Our welding service company engaged with the production and sales of gates, burglar guards, food trailers, camping stoves, braai stands, and products that deal with metals.”
Enterprises conduct national and international business activities to support social objectives. For instance, Social Enterprise 5 sells leather products online and in exhibitions, nationally and internationally, to reduce leather waste and offcuts in the environment; to recycle and upcycle materials; and to create revenue for the rural communities.
The activities implemented by the enterprises, depending on their respective areas of expertise, include consulting; capacity building (education and skills development); technological advancement; infrastructure development; nature conservation; cultural promotion; business support; and providing access to markets. For instance, Social Enterprise 3 co-ordinated a project to place and train interns in an internship programme for clients.
“We have trained and set with Mr. Price's 6000-7000 unemployed youth project. Additionally, in the internship programme, one thousand and fifty (1050) interns are placed with ABSA Bank
146 around the country. Also, the internship programme with Spar Client set four hundred unemployed youth with one year project. We provide enterprise support to hundred small business entities development every year, mainly funded by NPC cement company for the community around KZN.
The enterprise has a satellite office with Tongaat Huletts company. We help the areas nearby highlands holding and property development and integrating people from the communities into opportunities of development and other kinds of opportunities. They had side offices in townships such as North Durban, Waterloo, Blackburn, and Tongaat.” (Social Enterprise 3 interview respondent).
The Social Enterprise 7 interviewee stated:
“Currently, we are helping twelve subsistent farmers who receive a social grant from the government. The enterprise allows farmers to cultivate on a skill basis with much more
environmentally friendly resources and hake crops and yield them for sale or home use. Create a product that assists farmers in conserving resources and being eco-friendly”.
The Social Enterprise 4 interview respondent explained that the enterprise’s main activities have three pillars:
“One is to train substance abusers. The second is to hire once the substance abusers leave the rehab in terms of engaging help in manufacturing our products or selling items/products; and third is to launch their business activities, follow-ups and monitor their behaviours.”