Our solution
In 1996, while still an undergraduate student at the University of Cape Town, Gavin Chait collaborated with the Student Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO), to develop an entrepreneurship program at their community centres. Initially, the project started as skills development in an HIV-support service aimed at HIV+ single mothers with HIV+ babies. Over the first few years, the program developed to include volunteer students, and then integrated with the University of Cape Town’s four-year Bsuiness Science degree program.
In 1999, Deloitte adopted the project into a national economic development Corporate Social Investment project called Business Beat with Whythawk responsible for leading its activities in the Western Cape.
We set up an entrepreneurship advice centre in Observatory, regularly collaborated with government in the city and province to deliver development programs, ran regular training courses, and set up satellite advice services in libraries across the region.
Outcomes
Business Beat ran from 1999 till 2006, during which it included:
- A team of five consultants, 20 interns and hundreds of student volunteers,
- 200 University of Cape Town fourth-year students each year consulted to 40 to 50 existing medium-sized businesses for academic credit,
- Our annual Thousand Rand Challenge created ten businesses a year for the cost of $40 each, with entrepreneurs earning a decent living within the first month,
- Which gave rise to a joint project Western Cape Provincial Government, the 1000x1000 with the challenge of starting 1,000 businesses for R1,000 each (about $100 at the time), which launched 600 sustainable new businesses and trained 200 new business mentors,
- Panel member of a special team that investigated tax reform for small business, reporting to the commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, Pravin Gordhan.
By the end of the project, we had supported the development of the Western Cape’s tourism industry, an expanding network of township businesses, and ensured experience with real-world economic and social problems to an entire generation of UCT graduates.
