Represent Interview: Mongezi Mtati – Netweb Events
He’s a youthful left-handed Aquarian (but of course!), he started his first business at 16 selling goods at robots and fervently believes in the untapped potential of the millions of innovative South Africans out there all waiting to find out how to make their business idea work. Mongezi Mtati is selflessly hustling the often barren terrain between those with business knowledge and experience and those with ideas and enthusiasm, this conduit role has brought about the growing Netweb Events in Joburg. There’s one taking place tomorrow night in Melville, go go go (details below) – Represent managed to find out more about Mongezi and the Netweb Event concept: “When I started in business, I searched everywhere for opportunities and work for the company. It was only much later that I discovered it was people who connected to any and everything that made companies what they are. The Netweb Event began from the premise that, there are many people with skills and expertise they are willing to share with others. However, with the rise of social media we network online mostly thus leaving a larger audience offline. Business changes hands over coffee and and a meal, which is where most small business have advantage. Your livlelihood could be sustained by that piece of business. The Netweb Event is a monthly networking dinner and talk that connects entrepreneurs. We are a developing community of passionate entrepreneurial minds, building an on offline community. As Howard Man, a speaker at our forthcoming Netweb Event says “80% of business is brought through by 20% of your contacts, focus on the 20%” Tell us a bit about your backstory Mongezi: I am from the East Rand, in the growing township of Vosloorus, where I lived most of my life and went to school. Some of my teenage years were also spent in a school at Welkom. After finishing high school, I began working part time as a filing clerk while studying banking with Technikon SA. It was more about archiving the largest heap of paper into a strongroom than work. My studies as a developing banker went uncompleted, and I then went and studied Human Resources 2 years later, which also wasn’t for me. What are you up to these days: Most of my time is spent doing research in business innovation, sourcing clients for Xenia Tech (an ICT company I’m co-founder of) and constantly growing the Netweb community. I’m a blogger and online entrepreneur, who hasn’t quite graduated to geek yet. When did you first venture into business? The earliest memory I have of venturing into business was after my 16th birthday where I...
Represent’s new baby
Apologies for being absent in June – but Editorista has been very busy creating her biggest most amazing creation yet – a baby! Yip, our Editorista is now a baby mama and we wish her, her man and her lovely cute little baby all the best. But of course, she’ll be back!….
Experimental project space opens in downtown Jozi
GoetheonMain is opening tonight as part of the Arts on Main development in downtown Johannesburg. The 273 m2 space is intended as a multi-disciplinary project room, tonight’s launch will feature Isicathamiya and Oswenka performances and a photo projection of Sabelo Mlangeni’s new body of work Men Only, which will be followed on 8 to 10 May by the Informal Architecture master class – an architecture workshop on the structures that fills the gaps left by city planning. Ismail Farouk’s Trolley Works, the first of eight projects chosen by an independent jury, will open on 29 April. Opening Night: Mai Mai goes Main Isicathamiya and Oswenka Performances & Men Only – a photo projection of Sabelo Mlangeni’s new body of work on the George Goch hostel When: 8 May, 6 pm Where: GoetheonMain, Arts on Main, 245 Main Street (Closest corner Berea Street), City & Suburban, Johannesburg. From May onwards GoetheonMain will host eight projects selected from the open call for proposals that was launched in early March. The process will be repeated later in the year and is set to run twice a year. The distinguished jury consisting of Paul Grootboom, Sibongile Khumalo, Melissa Mboweni, Simon Njami and Hans-Georg Knopp met to decide the projects to be realised at GoetheonMain this year. The chosen proposals are reflective of the multi-disciplinary nature of GoetheonMain and the urban space that surrounds it. Art outreach project Sutherland Reflections; city intervention Trolley Works; a music and dance performance entitled Trespassing Permitted; visual art exhibition dedicated to Women’s day; Rhythm Tap. Multimedia Dance Project; a performance piece Fragile and Selogilwe; interdisciplinary presentation Merry Christmas Minister!; as well as Red Arts photography presentation and literature workshops, found the judges’ favour. With GoetheonMain, the Goethe-Institut engages with issues central to metropolises all over the world, and in particular Johannesburg. Through an engagement with the arts, urbanity is looked at: the hybridity, frenetic energy and constant transformation that make up our cities. Informal Architecture Master Class When: 9 & 10 May Despite the UN-Habitat’s call for “cities without slums” pronounced in 1999, the number of informal settlements has drastically increased. Similar ambitions are expressed closer to home: In South Africa housing lists dating back to 1998 demonstrate that formal approaches to housing delivery are not effective enough. The informal city fills the gaps left by what the formal city does not and cannot provide. Yet it is largely condemned and outlawed – its potential hidden. 26’10 south Architects has, in partnership with the Goethe-Institut, embarked on a research project to gather information in the form of mappings and drawings which capture the spatial and functional qualities of...
Represent Interview: Babazeka.com
Thanks to Twitter (do you follow Editorista’s tweets? http://twitter.com/sisiwami )Represent was introduced to a ‘socially aware online store’ recently called Babazeka that sells a range of colourful South African handmade goods, supporting numerous craftspeople throughout the country. The shopping bug immediately kicked in and we of course needed to know more. We chatted to Sarah, the lady that makes it all happen. (Crafters, find out how to get in touch with her below) We love your website Babazeka, please tell us what your inspiration for creating Babazeka is? What does Babazeka mean and where did the name come from? Babazeka was created for a few reasons. One, I moved to a small town (Knysna) and realised pretty quickly if I wanted to be truly happy in my career, I would need to start my own business doing what I enjoy (as opposed to the jobs the town had to offer). Two, I’ve always loved making things by hand – my favourite hobby is sewing. Three, I’m one of those people who has just always had the urge to help others. So, after chatting with lots of people, I put it all together, and agreed with my cousin, Scott, to set up an online store which would sell handmade things made by job creation projects. Scott developed the site and helps me with the online marketing, pretty much everything else is up to me. The word Babazeka is zulu, and means “be beautiful” or “be admirable”. I found it in an online dictionary, got all excited about how suitable the meaning was to what we were doing, and then got even more excited when the .com was available. (It’s VERY difficult to find available .com’s) What is your background? What is your backstory? Where did you grow up? I grew up in Joburg, and studied Business Science Marketing at UCT. I always thought that I’d go into advertising, but after travelling around the world for 3 years, I figured out quite a bit more about myself and realised that the advertising industry is definitely not where I belong. I’m just not a corporate or big city girl. Moving back to South Africa and to Knysna, is where everything was put into perspective for me. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a South African who helps the country in my own little way, that it’s not all about money and that it is all about quality of life. How are you finding online sales in SA, are people trusting of the system? Do you have much interest from overseas clients? Our sales are growing steadily which is the most...
Represent ♡’s the Gautrain website
We love this site. Nice work Gauteng Provincial Government, great innovative thinking and spot on with the social media information sharing habits of today. Gautrain is essentially a content and story aggregator for the imminent Gautrain and the ongoing, some would say painful, others superbly exciting development of this marvellous fast choochoo we’re all waiting for. We know it’s going to be worth all the stress and reading the everyday people’s tales of suspense around it just gets us panting at the bit! Share your impressions, photo’s and love of the Gautrain here. PS: GPG, remember from now on, your social media guy is always right. Image: From the Gautrain site, by Lambert du...
The JAG honours fallen resistance artist
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind— But how could I forget thee? – William Wordsworth. So many of us do not know about the brave, the selfless, the unnamed, the unmarked, the forgotten heroes of our past who sacrificed everything, even their lives, for us to have our freedom today. Let us NEVER forget them, but instead ensure that their names and their deeds are forever close to our hearts and minds, keeping them alive in respect and love. Make sure you get to the JAG to share this poignant retrospective of the art of the master artist Thami Mnyele who was killed at the hands of the brutality of the apartheid security forces. Do yourself and your children this favour, and feed your mind. Details below on the conference to be held pre-exhibition and the exhibition details. From the end of November, the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) will be hosting an exhibition honouring Thami Mnyele, a South African resistance artist who died at the hands of apartheid security forces in the 1980s. The Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition opens at the JAG on Sunday, 30 November 2008 at 6.30pm, and runs until 30 March 2009. Thamsanqa “Thami” Mnyele (1948-1985) was a talented artist from Alexandra who was committed to bringing about social change in South Africa through the medium of art. This quest led him to exile in Botswana in the late 1970s, having decided to take a stand and actively participate in the struggle. In Botswana, Mnyele became a cultural worker with the Medu Art Ensemble, co-founded by his friend Mongane Wally Serote. Medu had units dedicated to the anti-apartheid struggle, dealing with music, theatre, visual arts, graphics and cinema, and counted among its ranks South Africa’s current Deputy President Baleka Mbete as well as musicians Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa. In 1982, Medu hosted milestone conferences relating to South African art, including the Symposium on Culture and Resistance in Gaborone and Culture in Another South Africa in Amsterdam. Today, the Thami Mnyele Foundation’s residency programme for African artists in Amsterdam continues to bear testament to the late artist’s far-reaching influence. As a result of their commitment to the struggle in general, and to the ANC in particular, Medu members became targets of the apartheid security apparatus. In 1985, a day before he was due to move to Zambia, Mnyele was killed along with other activists and civilians in a cross-border raid orchestrated by the South African Defence Force in Gaborone. The JAG will be paying tribute to the work of this seminal South African graphic artist during the retrospective exhibition, and...
Proudly brought to you by:
