Chartered accountants do not just crunch numbers, they also create value and wealth.From the township of Alexandra, the poor and under-served neighbour of Sandton, emerged the 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner, Theo Baloyi, the owner of footwear company, Bathu, based in Centurion.
The event, organised by Business Partners: The Entrepreneur’s Financier, was held at the Houghton Hotel in Johannesburg, on Thursday.
Bathu is the black townships’ slang for shoes, and as Baloyi accepted the crown in his acceptance speech, he told the audience it was “only sheer determination” that drove a passion in him to create a sneaker that is “aesthetically pleasing to the eye but also reflective of the country’s “rich and diverse culture”.
The ecstatic Baloyi told Sunday World: “It is my community in Alexandra that inspires me to do what I do, a passion that defies all forms of disadvantages.”
His company was first established in 2015, with only three employees, and has grown to employ 300 people.
With delight, he said he owed his success to the many people of Alexandra who encouraged him to go on even when things appeared gloomy. “I am proud of my achievement, and owe it to my community,” he said.
A chartered accountant, turned entrepreneur, a township boy, nogal, and with victory won, defiantly cocked a snook, and told doubting Thomases, that barriers, even racial barriers, and barriers of poverty, should not mean there is no future to look ahead to.
Baloyi’s victory was underscored by the words of Gloria Serobe, a guest speaker for the evening. She didn’t mince words, berating those who pay lip service to the idea of SMMEs.
A businesswoman entrenched in broad-based empowerment, respected for the role she plays in black economic advancement, argued that economic growth should impact every person, in all parts of the country, creating leaders, including in villages and remote parts of the country.
She berated those who fail to support the SMMEs programme and its mission and objectives, stating that “entrepreneurs do not stand alone, but need to
be supported”.
She also argued that economic empowerment should be bolstered by legislation and sound policies geared towards actively supporting SMMEs.
To back up her views on true economic development, she cited her experience on Vietnam, telling her audience that although the country embraced socialism, it is alive to the hard realities that entrepreneurs must be supported, as an imperative, a lesson she said South Africa had to embrace.
Serobe turned her focus on Dr Sam Motsoenyane, the father of black business, and former president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce, whom she described as “the face of hardcore struggling SMMEs, without whom this country would not have had the birth of the African Bank, which was built on the strength of sheer determination and guts when there was no big money to support economic empowerment ideals”.
If there was any South African businessman who was distraught about the slow pace of black economic development, Dr Thami Mazwai is that person, she said, describing him as the father of black economic development – a former journalist and editor of newspapers.
Serobe argued that when there is no infrastructure meaningful business efforts will be thwarted and by extension, small business growth will be hindered.
So, in the end, Baloyi, as a recipient of black economic empowerment policy, should serve as an example to encourage black people to aim for the stars in following their dream towards economic emancipation.
