After receiving substantial grant funding in the latter half of the year from the Ekurhuleni Peermont Chambers of Commerce Trust (EPCoCT), a BBBEE vehicle within the Peermont Hotels, Casinos and Resorts group, two businesses in the Kathorus Mail’s distribution area can look forward to a prosperous 2016.

The enterprises, K 1 Recycling in Katlehong, which was started by husband and wife team, Tshepo and Thando Mazibuko in 2011 and MB Wood and Paper in Thokoza, founded by Richard Baboile in 2006, received funding of R195 000 and R299 820 respectively.  

K 1 Recycling, a plastic recycling concern in Moshoeshoe Section, the industrial area of Katlehong, used its funding to purchase an additional bailing machine which has had a massive impact, not only on the business, but also for the company’s suppliers – the individuals who collect the plastic waste which they bail and sell.

“With the bailing machine we compress the plastic which allows us to sell more weight and have gone from selling 12 tons of waste to 58 tons a month and we now do a turnover of R600 000 a month,” says a happy and enthusiastic Tshepo.

He started out in the recycling business with a trolley collecting plastic in 2009 and then saw a gap in the market when he noticed there were three recycling companies in the area, but they were too small and not able to fully serve the needs of the market. 

So K 1 Recycling was born and the Mazibuko’s now employ 16 permanent staff and when needed up to 23 people, even working nights if necessary to separate the plastic scrap that comes in before it can be bailed.

“One of the main aims of the EPCoCT and the grants we allocate is to create jobs and make a positive impact on the lives of the people of Ekurhuleni,” say the Trust’s Administrator, Makomane Ntabo.

“K 1 Recycling is a perfect example of the type of small businesses we like to assist. Not only do they employ 16 permanent staff but the community in the area also benefits as K 1 has an established network of trolley plastic scrap suppliers and households that collect their household plastic scrap for them. Some of these suppliers take the scrap to the company premises with others notifying the company when they have amassed 200kg of scrap, then the company arranges to collect from the suppliers’ establishments and pay them in cash, on a weight basis. There are about 500 suppliers in the area of which 150 are regular providers which means K 1 is making a difference in at least 150 more households,” adds Ntabo. 

Another major positive of the business is obviously the environmental aspect as waste is being removed from the streets and being recycled.

MB Wood and Paper, situated in Fanie Malepe Hive Centre in Thokoza, used the funding (R299 820) they received to purchase a Reignmac wood moulding machine to manufacture, predominantly, school desks.

The company’s main business is to manufacture school desks, kitchen units and cabinets and has built a track record of manufacturing and supplying brand new furniture to schools in Gauteng and even Limpopo with one of their biggest contracts supplying new furniture to Palm Ridge Secondary School two years ago.

Apart from contracts from the education department and schools to make new furniture they also go door-to-door to schools to procure work, says Baboile. “We are also in the business of repairing school tables and chairs and making educator cabinets.”

With the new machine, which enables them to cut, edge and pattern wood they are also offering these services to local carpenters who do not have access to this type of machinery.

Like the Mazibukos, Baboile is also making a difference in the local communities lives employing 15 permanent staff while, if he gets a big order, he will employ casual labour or approach schools for assistance transferring skills to learners.  

Apart from these two concerns the Trustees of the EPCoCT have granted funding of a further R570 642 to four other community-based small business projects, which fall in the Emperors Palace catchment area, during the past year.

This brings the total funding provided by the Trust since 2008, when it gave its first grant, to just under R22-million with 46 businesses assisted and nearly 400 jobs created. 

Pictured below: Ekurhuleni Peermont Chambers of Commerce Trust (EPCoCT) Trustees, Desley Fortuin (left),  Sheila Sekhitla (second right), Israel Ndakane (right) and Trust administrator, Makomane Ntabo (third right) with K 1 Recycling’s Tshepo Mazibuko (blue overall) and some of his suppliers during a site visit to the business on Tuesday morning, November 24.