Vusi Vokwana
Business In Communities

Looking at my dad, looking at the world through my dad's eyes is probably what made me the kind of entrepreneur that I think I am.

I started Kasi Catalyst because when I moved back into the township to run my family businesses, the businesses around us were shutting down at a rapid rate and a lot of foreign traders were moving into some of them. They were dilapidated and these are commercial properties - there was something about it that just wasn't right. It was one of those things that became my cause. So what started out for me as an opportunity to own or get titles for the businesses that my family owned or had rented from the municipality ended up being a justice thing - that every single one of these historical tenants should qualify for titles based on the bylaws. 

The thing about the majority of corporates, I think, is what they misunderstand about the bottom of the pyramid - they look at it as a market that is poor and that's it. Because it's poor, it has no value to them. What they don't realize is that poverty or no poverty, people still need to eat. And if you've got a billion people at that level, and you just made one rand off each one, you're doing pretty well.

The message is very clear to everybody in South Africa that in the township, there's no money there, it's a dangerous place to play and, really, the only brand that can survive there is Shoprite. That's been the message and I think we're actually quite lucky with that message because what it does is that it keeps other predators out. 

There are so many boxes that we need to fit in. There are so many different levels of all of these societies and categories. Either categories within the township that we, as black people, give each other and then there are the categories that are outside the township - so how corporates view the market. And the sad thing is none of these identities align.

So you learn to understand the system that you're operating in. Whether it's the ecosystem or it's just the social contracts that we have with each other as township residents. But we all know what our lane is - I think that's the best way to put it - and we stay in that lane. For me, who grew up in township businesses, as a child, my parents emphasized, "Don't judge people for what they do. Don't look down on anybody. Our customer is king - end of story." So you grow to know these guys.

What I've learnt about the township is, it's in the bad stuff that we find the opportunities for growth. So where crime is the most rampant is where I will put down the most successful retail business. And the key there is to find someone from that community who's going to run it, who's going to be the driver of that retail business. Because where people are being robbed as they get off a taxi, you don't want those people to have to get on the taxi - they must walk to that store. And it's easier for me to secure passage in a smaller community.

A customer said to me, "Vusi I can't tell you what an amazing experience it is for me to walk into a clean store in the township with the same quality of products that I would normally get in the urban space, but where I know everybody that works there and everybody knows me." And you cannot understand the importance of that 'everybody knows me' until you've experienced being a black consumer in an urban space. Where you walk into a store, they follow you. You get to the till, you get the worst service. You pick something up and they're like, "Do you know that we don't have lay buys here?"

My biggest customer is taxis. So how do they fill up? R5 coins and to fill up a taxi is R600. I pay a fee to the taxi associations to divert them to my site, so I want a taxi business because that will drive my reach range. But it's also a double-edged sword because I spend a fortune on cash because coins are expensive. None of the big cash in transit companies, so G4S, Fidelity or even SPV, none of them will carry coins. They all want the soft, quiet money. So you've got to hire a separate cash in transit to come in and lift your coinage. 

Probably the most critical is to start exactly where you are. When people think about starting a business, they're always thinking, "I'm going to wait until the stars line up," or "I'm going to wait until Monday. It's the weekend, so I'll start on Monday," or, "I'm just waiting for the electricity to come in in my neighbourhood." There's always an excuse or some kind of hurdle that they're waiting for someone else to climb over and then they'll start. Those are not my people. My people, my own true entrepreneurs, the visionary types are the ones who start their business that day. The moment they recognize that opportunity, they just go ahead and take it. There's a confidence that you need in yourself and in your interpretation of that vision and I don't think it's something that you can teach.