Luvuyo Rani
Connecting Disconnected Communities

I used to be an accounting and business economics teacher and I resigned from teaching without any plan. I saw that teachers couldn’t use computers and I decided to resign and sell computers to teachers. I went to all the townships, schools from Dunoon to Khayelitsha, selling refurbished computers from the boot of my car.

Sales were very slow in the beginning and there was under financial pressure to repay debts.
The idea to let teachers pool their buying power in a stokvel model helped sales and at the same time my brother joined the business full time as well and that's when the business took off.

Stokvels is a big funding opportunity for financing in the township. It's one of the main sources of funding in the township because it's based on trust. It's a community based on people knowing each other.

Ubuntu means that people live through and for each other and even if people disappoint you, the essence of Ubuntu should remain intact.

For me, values are very important. It's part of our DNA. We give excellent service, excellent training and excellent content so that when you go out with a Silulo certificate, no one can question you in terms of the quality. When you come to our store, we excel in everything we do for you because that is what we are best known for.

Communicate often, talk with your people. Weekly,  I talk with the staff around values, culture, the DNA and the growth of Silulo. I meet with the core team and the senior team, but I also get feedback from the staff where we talk about what we need to stop, continue with or start. The next growth phase for us is not going to be up to me, it's going to be the senior team and the people that come in now.

The key to doing business in the townships is that you must be there. Townships are complex, they are not the same. In every township you need to establish a face and an identity for the business that people can connect with.

I learned that I needed to work hard to build Silulo into a national business with centres across the country, where people can come into our stores or be assisted in our centres, and through that government will come to us. They will come to us and pay our price, and we will be at the table and able to influence government policy in terms of assisting the poorest of the poor.

Silulo is set to grow and scale significantly in the next few years. I have it in my heart that I really need to get involved in the entrepreneurship space from a policy and ecosystem point of view.  We need to have black entrepreneurs who are successful because by doing that we create hope for others by showing them what is possible. A scaling business creates employment, creates more wealth, and deals with poverty.

There are two types of entrepreneurs. One sees an opportunity and a market and goes out and makes it happen. We've got those. What we don't have is the second type of entrepreneur, which is one that captures the value.