07 Apr 2013

At face value, the frail and humble looking Ms Naledi Seiketso comes across as an ordinary personality with little or nothing to offer. However, she comes out as a proud, self-motivated and successful individual with so much to offer to society. 

Star, as she is affectionately known, is an accomplished leather garment designer who is proud to have penetrated South African and Namibian markets from her humble factory shop known as Chaiya Traditional Supplies in Kanye.

In South Africa, she has dressed big names such as Idah Mojela, popularly known as Thuntsha Dithole Traditional Troupe and Gaabo Mosha Traditional Group. Several schools in South Africa's North West, Gauteng and Free State provinces know her for dressing their singing groups. In Namibia, she has been invited by many artists to showcase her artistic designs.

That the leather designer of note has made in roads into the South African market should not be a shocker because although she was born in Kanye 38 years ago, Star was raised in that country, where her family lived and worked.

They say daughters grow up to emulate their mothers and this perhaps fits Ms Seiketso’s success story perfectly well. Although it was not so easy at the beginning, she says she owes it to her mother, who is a professional fashion designer.

Her mother studied tailoring in Port Elizabeth and has spent most of her life working for South African companies as a fashion designer.

“I would always play with her tools such as scissors, cotton and threads just like you would do with toys,” she says of her nascent days and adds, “little did I know that I was slowly but surely shaping my own future.”

When she was of age, Ms Seiketso got her first support from the family, including her elder sister, Helen who is based in Denmark; “Helen did not only assist materially, she also advised me to acquire education in the field I had chosen,” she points out.

Today, her range of leather products includes wedding dresses, special coats for both men and women and traditional dance attire for musical groups and schools.

In 2004, Ms Seiketso began her leather works in earnest, initially targeting local people and weddings. She says her break through was when schools started calling to be supplied with traditional attires.

She still remembers how hard it was; particularly because the demand was more than she had bargained for. However, she was not ready to give up; “Some schools wanted more than I could afford at short notice for that matter, but I had to find a way out somehow,” she says.

Ms Seiketso says of completion in her chosen industry: “I was never scared of any threat; in fact I was a threat to most of my rivals.” She adds that her strength is in quality products and effective and timely delivery.

Getting a business loan from the Citizens Entrepreneurship Development Agency (CEDA) in 2006 was a turning point in Ms Seiketso's business. Having depended for sometime on family members during hectic times, she says she is now able to employ her own permanent staff to assist with production.

Although she still had the challenge of training her new employees herself, some were sponsored to take proper training in vocational training institutions such as the Rural Industrial Innovation Centre (RIIC) in Kanye.

Today Chaiya Traditional Supplies factory has created employment for five people. Unlike her siblings, Ms Seiketso says she was not gifted in academic education, thus she went the vocational route. “I could hardly do any paper work, I was poor in that area, but my siblings were better”. ENDS