Home, but not home.

By Selokela Molamodi

Rationale

Realities of migrants and refugees in the entrepreneurs in South Africa.

Article

Conversations about migrants and foreign nationals are often met with disdain and xenophobic slurs. However, that does not change the reality of South Africa. Unlike other countries in the world, South Africa does not have camp policies which means that migrants, both legal and illegal, are housed in communities. When the survival instinct kicks in, many foreign nationals resort to entrepreneurship; selling vegetables on the roadside, plaiting or cutting hair, selling second-hand clothing, and running a spaza shop in a local’s garage are some of the ventures migrants explore to survive.

While business is a global phenomenon, there is no avoiding that there is a general sentiment that there is not enough for everyone, especially for South Africans. However, organisations such as CONECTA aim to change that narrative. CONECTA is a program launched by Bridge For Billions, a customized incubation program for inclusive entrepreneurship worldwide, designed for beginner entrepreneurs. The launch took place at African Pride in Melrose Arch on the 5^th of October 2023. “CONECTA has adopted an ecosystem vision approach which will focus on creating resilient ESOs, building a functional ecosystem, and better serving early-stage entrepreneurs,” said Ngata Holele,  CONECTA Program Manager for South Africa. The program is set to be implemented in South Africa, Spain and Italy.

The launch started off with a testimony of a Congolese migrant living in South Africa, Mirielle Mungomba, who runs a catering company. “I remember when I was catering for a 3-day government event in Olievenhoutbosch, I was told to stop on the day because the community was not happy,” she recalled. She learned later that day that community members complained about the government giving catering tenders to foreign nationals and had threatened to harm her if she continued rendering the services. However, this did not deter Mirielle from running her business as she decided to work in the private sector moving forward.

Her testimony was followed by a presentation by CONECTA’s Program Director Mahmoud who shared his journey of living around the world as a migrant, in search of a safe haven. Born in Egypt, Mahmoud realised early in his life that he would have to find another community that would be more accommodating to him. ”People create narratives about groups they do not know or understand,” he highlighted. “I left my birth country to live in Europe and I learned that even there, members of the LGBTQIA+ communities were persecuted,” he shared. These experiences and many others inspired Mahmoud’s decision to be involved in programs such as CONECTA.

A world café session took place where attendees were broken into 5 groups that had various topics. Table 1 focused on identifying opportunities, table 2 focused on access to funding and resources, table 3 focused on building support networks, table focused on skills and capacity development and table 5 focused on legal and administrative challenges. The groups were led by facilitators who gave summarised presentations at the end of the discussions. Some of the common resolutions that came out were that migrants need to meet the South African government hallway where compliance is concerned, there is an opportunity for locals to be involved in migrants’ businesses and benefit through skills transfer and migrants need to respect by-laws.

Although the world is a global community, it is issues such as youth unemployment and load-shedding that contribute to the frustrations of many locals where migrants and foreign nationals are concerned. South Africa continues to be the promised land for many Africans yet the same cannot be said for those born in the country. It is clear that conversations need to continue to be had and resolutions need to be reached. The question is: When will it end?

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About the author:

Selokela ‘Slu’ Molamodi is a conversationalist, creative and community development activist. Currently, she is the host of Hope Alive Breakfast at Hope Alive Radio. She is a Policy champion and Generation G champion. Also, she is a facilitator at Qrate. Slu is passionate about conversations, healing and empowerment.