The eThekwini Municipality, represented by the Speaker Councillor Logie Naidoo, and the CEO of Shanduka Black Umbrellas, Mark Frankel, today signed an important Memorandum of Understanding which will help develop 100% black-owned businesses in Durban.
In the photo: Speaker Councillor Logie Naidoo and the CEO of Shanduka Black Umbrellas Mark Frankel sign the Memorandum of Understanding which will help develop 100% black-owned businesses in Durban. Pic by Megan Ndlovu
The partnership will also seek to actively grow sustainable businesses that are able to provide quality products and services to both the public and private sector.
Shanduka Black Umbrellas (SBU) – a non-profit SMME (Small Medium and Macro Enterprises) incubation enterprise development service provider, which began operating in 2005 – affords collaboration opportunities between 100% black-owned businesses, government, the private sector and civil society.
It provides its SMMEs with a solid foundation through subsidised infrastructural support, on-going mentoring and training, as well as access to markets, and has incubators in Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria. It began operating in KwaZulu-Natal in 2011 and already has 15 businesses in its Durban incubator.
The envisaged areas of collaboration are for the eThekwini Municipality to refer suitable applicants to SBU for incubation; make its training programmes available to SBU incubatees as well as facilitate meetings between SBU and eThekweni Municipality’s corporate and financial institution partners.
SBU, in turn, will share its small business development lessons with eThekwini Municipality and by so doing collaborate with the municipality to enable the sustainable development of 100% black-owned SMMEs in the area.
“We have been very pleasantly surprised by the strength of the entrepreneurship eco-system within Durban, both in terms of the significant support provided by organisations in the city, particularly the eThekwini Municipality, and the quality of the emerging businesses within the region. We’re very excited about the partnership with eThekwini, the resultant learnings we can share and benefits that can be provided to the Durban small business community,” says Mark Frankel.
The Durban incubator is located at the SmartXchange Building, 5 Walnut Road, Durban. Contact 031 327 3200/1.
For more about Shanduka Black Umbrellas, click here