10 May 2021

Itsose Mosadi, a budding corporate social responsibility of Afri Sales Distribution Company has embarked on phaphatha project to elevate women in the informal sector.

In an interview recently, Itsose Mosadi  spokesperson, Ms One Rabantheng said phaphatha project was the first phase of their CSR initiative geared to boosting women in baking by selling flour at a discounted price and resell the phaphatha to Choppies stores.  

She said the distribution company realised that in the distribution business space more could be done to service the informal sector.

“As a distribution entity Afri Sales saw the need to support the informal sector especially in this time of economic recovery from the impact of COVID 19.”

She further said Afri Sales observed that a good percentage of the informal sector entrepreneurs were women therefore Itsose Mosadi was born with the objective of helping women in the informal sector.

“It is not a start-up initiative but one that is designed to support those that have already embarked on business ventures, one of its objectives being to encourage the spirit of self-reliance in women, and can be achieved by supporting them to trade in their talent and skills as well indigenous knowledge.”

She said the initiative aimed to support these businesses in three main areas of business being; training, raw materials as well as market penetration.

According to Ms Rabantheng Choppies was the first business to come on board and support this initiative through their Choppies Shared Value principle and as a retailer, Choppies offers a diverse product line aligned to the products that a good number of informal sector businesses were into.

“To reach women as far and wide as possible, the intention is to roll out the initiative through partnership with independent organisations targeting women in business, local authorities and the association of the informal sector.”

She stated that the first stage of roll out took off on a good start with the partnership of Women In Business Association (WIBA) as the latter has a large foot print providing the wide-reach that the project needed.

Ms Rabantheng said for now, Itsose Mosadi has ventured into Phaphatha being the first phase of the project, while two other phases being biltong (segwapa) and Itsose Mosadi value card to be ventured into in the nearer future.

For his part, Boseja North councillor Kabelo Pilane said the initiative was a welcome development because it encouraged women to be self-reliant, and added that he was optimistic that more women in the district would embrace initiative.
He promised to help women who have the potential in his area by connecting them with WIBA.
For her part, one of the beneficiaries Ms Masego Mooketsi said she registered for the poverty eradication programme in 2013, and in 2014 she started to supply schools with mapakiwa.

She said in August 2020 she made arrangements with the VDC in her local area to start operating her business, Lovelee Bakery in the committee’s premises. She said in November last year, WIBA connected her to Itsose Mosadi.

Presently she has eight employees and is optimistic about hiring more people given the support afforded to her by Itsose Mosadi initiative.

Ms Mooketsi said the initiative was a morale booster to most of her counterparts who always decried of lack of market.

She said unplanned power interruptions were one of the major challenges that her business faced.
She lamented the emergence of COVID-19 which had affected business. She said with absence and limited number of events attendees, she has been experiencing low sales. Ends