18 Feb 2013

Mr Keotshabile Gaelesiwe, just like the biblical Adam, confirms that a man shall reap the sweat of his brow to make the earth produce anything.

The young man toils in the scorching sun of Tsabong, moulding bricks for sale, relying predominantly on availability of sand and water to put bread on the table.

Upon realising that livestock farming was a common business for young farmers, Mr Gaelesiwe decided to delve into a business that would be marketable and with minimal competition, hence he chose brick moulding.

“It is a viable business that needs hard work and some passion,” Mr Gaelesiwe says about brick moulding and warns that it is not every worker who understands the trade.

In May 2012, the young entrepreneur started moulding bricks in earnest after receiving P96 000 funding from Youth Development Fund. He started servicing his loan six months ago and he was excited by the fact that half of it was a grant.

It is from the above fact that he finds the government magnanimous and consequently encourages unemployed young people to craft sound business plans and submit to Youth Office for consideration.

“This is a very good programme for young people and I can encourage them to take advantage of it now and graduate from poverty,” Gaelesiwe advised his fellow youngsters and advised against running away from challenges because business naturally comes with challenges.

Brick moulding is an all-time, dirty and hands on type of business venture and hence they take turns preparing their lunch at work while the rest are either moulding or watering bricks.

Mr Gaelesiwe says he becomes very busy when trying to meet orders.

Although he is the managing director of Olsvia Investment Brick Moulding he never takes time off more especially that some of his workers have left his employ.

However, with the potential of customers increasing, the business has the capacity to soar more especially that people are moving away from the traditional mud huts.

Since he is renting a Village Development Committee plot, Mr Gaelesiwe wants to own a business plot despite his first application being rejected by Kgalagadi Land Board. He argues that renting a plot is expensive.

Like he observed that business by its nature has some challenges, Gaelesiwe cannot mine sand in Tsabong because land board has already allocated plots on the earmarked sites. As a result, he drives to Logaganeng, a few kilometres from Tsabong, to fetch sand.

As if that is not enough, he hardly delivers his bricks to people outside Tsabong because of poor and or bad terrain though there are some prospective clients there. A single brick costs P6.50 and he opines that it is cheaper to buy bricks than to mould when building a house at home.

His claim is premised on the fact that one will need to buy a bag of cement, truckloads of sand, labour, water and transportation.

Though people are accustomed to producing their own bricks because of lack of manufacturers then, Mr Gaelesiwe says his priority is to advertise his business aggressively more so that he is anticipating more brick moulders in the near future.

Water is scarce in Tsabong and as such poses a threat to brick moulding business because bricks survive by water. Mr Gaelesiwe waters his bricks twice daily. ENDS