Businessman Lebo Jood is the founder of Sedika Group, a company providing essential services to the mining sector.
The 33-year-old Jood’s entity specialises in strategic leadership and operational direction while developing acquisition and retention programmes in the mining, construction and manufacturing sectors.
Jood says his company is on a mission to attract more investments to compete beyond local markets. The broader vision of the company is to gain access into the Southern African Development Community and global markets.
The group was established in 2013 by Jood, who hails from the Northern Cape. He says he was motivated to start his business after he received “innovation accolades” at a young age. His entity is based in John Taolo Gaetsewe District, Kuruman. Its main operation is in iron ore and manganese at Kuruman and Khathu in the Northern Cape.
In 2007, Jood received Eskom National Science Expo bronze medal. At the time he was in matric. Then in 2013, he became the second finalist of the MTN Big Break Legacy. He says after his achievement, his passion drove him to explore opportunities and use his God-given talent to create a legacy for himself and others.
“I had the urge to translate my ideas into sustainable monetary value and create the necessary socio-economic impact in our local communities. We operate across the iron-ore and manganese belt within a 150km radius in the Northern Cape. The vision that we had towards taking Sedika Group to greater heights worked enormously as we realised that the passion we had to build this company to the best of our ability worked wonders for ourselves,” says Jood.
He also points out that it was not an easy ride to build his business as he came across challenges and mishaps on his way to the top. “However, I stood firm to build this business and I also take a leap. As you know, fear kills more dreams than failure ever will, I took it upon myself to be brave and the results came back positive,” he says.
Jood said the barriers to entry in industrial sectors such as mining are high and are financially and administratively demanding.
“The market confidence and appetite for local black youth to own business is low, meaning that, as a black youth-owned company you should have to be extraordinary to gain entry to some of these highly competitive sectors. As a youth-orientated black business, you need to come up with innovations and ideas to showcase your talent on how best you can turn around the industry’s fortunes and bring viable and sound business to your clients.
“Inclusive economic policies have made it possible for more black players to emerge in markets, which have been dominated by a monopoly of few players in the past. Economic stability and a more robust and deliberate policy to develop and capacitate innovative black youth-owned business to compete in the mainstream economy is necessary and it is also necessary to create a second
layer of business leadership in the marketplace,” says Jood.
“I didn’t have capital to begin with, but because of my ideas and positioning, I was fortunate to attract loan funding from respected local businesspeople and family members. I am thankful to have been part of the supplier and enterprise development programmes of Zimele under the Anglo-American Kumba Iron Ore as well as Assmang Black Rock Mine Operations,” says Jood.
“Both entities assisted the group, not only through soft loan funding but as well as with intangible services such as labour relations, accounting, procurement linkages and operational matters.”
Currently the company employs more than 90 people, including young engineers, quantity surveyors, artisans and general workers.
Jood says the business took a decision to initiate a graduate programme in 2023 that “will absorb young engineers and artisans into our operations, helping them develop and also position our group in the marketplace”.
“It makes me feel good that as a small medium enterprise we address the high youth unemployment rate and alleviate poverty”.
The company provides services such as civil engineering works, mining, tailings maintenance and earthworks to big companies such as Anglo- American Kumba Iron Ore, Assmang Black Rock Mine Operations, Mokala Manganese Mine and Transnet.
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