Car Wash

The first car wash operation was started on 1st September 1990 and for about five years it operated at van Riebeeck Mall on a Saturday and later at Eden Mall carpark.  At that time there was only one car wash in Edenvale (at a garage on van Riebeeck Avenue that operated an automatic car wash).  There were also teams going to companies to do car washes for company cars.  Unfortunately, the Council issued a by-law stating that cars could not be washed in a public road or public place.  The reason given was because it made the tarmac slippery and so ended this successful employment initiative.  Today there are dozens of hand wash car washes in Edenvale, so through our initiative we have created employment for hundreds of people in our community!

 

Upholstery

Thanks to SAB who sponsored premises in Sebenza, we had a woodwork tutor and in those premises were able to support a team who made a business out of re-upholstery of taxi seats.  The business became very successful and once it was flourishing, they moved on to their own premises.

 

House Cleaning

Unemployed people were engaged to clean houses for an estate agent when tenants changed hands.  The initiative was successful and eventually broke away and was run as a stand-alone business.

 

Office Skills School

During the time when SAB sponsored the premises in Sebenza, classes were provided for basic office skills.  Once the lease expired the trainer relocated and went on to rent premises in van Riebeeck Avenue to operate her own business.

 

Furniture Manufacturing

In conjunction with Reinol Janek, Khanyisa sponsored an ex-convict from Boksburg prison, who had learned carpentry skills whilst in prison.  He had a dream to establish a business to employ ex-cons to find employment.  We sponsored a lock up factory in Sebenza to assist him getting his business going and later he grew and was offered factory space in Elandsfontein by a Christian businessman.  He received a grant from Eskom of over R400k to enable him to purchase an industrial lathe and he had great success supplying the furniture retailers with coffee tables.  Unfortunately, one of his business partners did him a disservice that affected his business and he has since passed away.  But he did build a business that employed several people thanks to the local businessman and Khanyisa.

 

Industrial Cleaning

A client of the Khanyisa chairman was using a corporate industrial cleaning service and wanted to develop a black owned business (they had done this before and continue to have a supplier of parts from such a business sponsorship).  Pauline Mijayko was the Assistant Centre Manager at Khanyisa at the time and took up the opportunity.  Mbeshwe Consulting was created as an entity to operate this business.  Pauline has successfully operated this business since 2011 and employs ten full time staff.

 

 Sabelo Créche

As a result of Paulina’s success with Mbeshwe, she wanted to give to the community out of her success, so she started Sabelo Créche.  She has over 50 pre-grade children and Dipuo, Khanyisa’s Centre Manager, and John Povey attended their graduation ceremony a couple of Decembers ago and the concert was a magnificent commendation on the work of the school.  We support them with groceries and we donated tunics to the newbies made by N’Lemo Meda and her sewing class.