SONA REACTIONS: Interview With Nkosinathi Mahlangu of Momentum Group Foundation

SONA REACTIONS: Interview With Nkosinathi Mahlangu of Momentum Group Foundation. As South Africa sharpens its focus on infrastructure expansion, skills reform and youth employment, the conversation around how young entrepreneurs can meaningfully participate in economic growth is becoming more urgent. In this interview, Nkosinathi Mahlangu, representing the Momentum Group Foundation, shares his perspective on how startups can plug into large-scale development projects, the role of partnerships in strengthening skills pipelines, and the policy and private-sector shifts needed to unlock sustainable opportunities for young people across industries, including agriculture and technology. Read about it below!

You welcomed infrastructure and skills reform in this year’s SONA. How can startups plug into these large-scale projects?

These projects are big enough to give startups the opportunity get access to market and render a service by partnering with the established enterprises and role players. Some aspects of the projects could be ringfenced for startups and that could potentially set them up for growth and sustainability without compromising on quality.

What mechanisms are needed to ensure infrastructure investment translates into real entrepreneurial opportunities for young people?

Young entrepreneurs are always looking for a leg up instead of a hand out, this could start by investing in local economies through allocating some of the procurement to youth owned enterprises. This also speaks to a collaborative approach between the well established role players to sub-contract the youth owned businesses… this could be done using some of the already existing economic empowerment elements such as preferential procurement, supplier and skills development.

How can startups partner with TVET colleges to create structured workplace experience pathways?

The partnership between TVETs and startups could be the catalyst needed for the youth to get the much needed practical workplace experience to be ready to perform when that job opportunity comes, on the flip side this will help TVETs get resources they need without having to pay a lot of money and also grow their own timber where these TVET interns could be absorbed into long term roles/employment.

What role should SMEs play in absorbing graduates from reformed skills development programmes?

SMEs can play the role of providing opportunities for entry level jobs while they remain competitive since they have additional resources. This could be realised by having formalised processes and way of work with the skills development programmes that are identified as talent feeders to SMEs. This could also help with pro-active planning to manage numbers for training and placement purposes.

How can entrepreneurship be better integrated into youth employment strategies?

Entrepreneurship has the potential to unlock youth employment, for both formal and informal sectors. Aligning what young people study in post high school with the demands of the job market could give meaning to proper upskilling and adhering to labour practices when it comes to conditions of employment and minimum wage to avoid exploitation of young talent.

Agriculture was highlighted as a growth sector. What opportunities exist for agri-tech or youth-led agricultural startups?

The way we package Agriculture has to change, we have a massive opportunity to make Agriculture attractive to young people. Technology could be the launch pad for youth economic participation in Agriculture for data management, research, insights on climate issues for those who don’t wish to get their hands dirty with the soil… However, we still need to have young people playing an active role in crop farming, livestock, poultry and other forms of Agriculture as especially since it was reported that only 5% of SA farmers are under 35 years of age. We need more young farmer.

What policy shifts are needed to help emerging farmers scale sustainably?

There is scope to explore procurement models that intentionally include emerging farmers, encouraging retailers and fresh produce markets to ring-fence a certain percentage of their procurement to emerging farmers. Commercial farmers can also partner with as mentors to emerging farmer and allocate a portion of their off-take agreements to give a slice of the pie to emerging farmers, without seeing them as competition.

How can private-sector accelerators and incubators strengthen the impact of government youth programmes?

Breaking the silo way of doing things could advance the public, private partnerships ambitions. A focused approach can also get accelerators and incubators to make compliance tackled sooner in the entrepreneurship journey.

In your view, what measurable outcomes would signal that youth employment reform is genuinely working?

Rigorous monitoring and evaluating processes need to be put in place. In as much as we have figures for Matric passes and the NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) groups, we need to track participants in various youth empowerment interventions across the sectors through a centralised database. Better coordination across departments would allow for the youth’s career journeys to be tracked, so we can better identify upskilling programme and interventions that lead to sustainable economic activities through job placement or entrepreneurship.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs looking to position themselves within the government’s growth agenda?

Focus is key for young entrepreneurs… They can’t be everything to everyone and they need to know where government is investing and what is required to make it in that space. Aligning with national frameworks could helps especially where government keeps referring to National Development Plan 2030 and other sector specific strategies. Think out of the box and create businesses that solve for real problems… start with identifying gaps in your local surroundings and make compliance your friend.