Seventeen young entrepreneurs have been selected to join a partnership to own a Dunlop Business in a Box tyre fitment facility.
This is part of the tyre company’s entrepreneurship booster programme.
The youngsters were chosen after a rigorous selection process to join the programme that is being run as a strategic employment initiative by the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Office under the Youth Development Fund.
The partnership aims to provide entrepreneurship opportunities to the youth, equip them with the tools and guidance to sustain a business, and contribute to job creation.
With the official unemployment rate pegged at 32.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Memorandum of Understanding between Dunlop Tyres SA, manufactured by Sumitomo Rubber South Africa (SRSA), and the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Office, led by Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube, boosts employment opportunities and skills and development training in communities with little to no access to professional tyre fitment outlets.
The first Dunlop Business in a Box was handed over in Mbumbulu, on Thursday April 25.
SRSA CEO Lubin Ozoux said their Dunlop container project was launched in 2012 to drive sustainable township entrepreneurship, thus promoting safety on the road.
“Today, we have a national footprint of over 80 branded container stores with 80 business owners employing around 400 people. In 2024 Dunlop has reached a new milestone in our BIB programme. We have full confidence that as young entrepreneurs, they will take the baton forward and grow as business people, and at the same time, enable access to safety-tested, high quality, and locally produced tyres in the market.”
The containers are stocked with tyre fitment equipment to undertake repairs, wheel balancing and rotation, as well as tyre stock to kickstart operations. Each entrepreneur will employ tyre fitment technicians, and more than 100 new and permanent jobs are expected to be created in this process.
The recipients had been chosen after a lengthy application and reviewing process by both the KZN Premier’s Office, as well as Dunlop.
KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube said the local government was committed to improving the lives of people, especially the youth.
28-year-old Yolanda Mkhize was the first beneficiary of the BIB at her site, Nomakhrestu Trading, in Mbumbulu. With a family background in the taxi industry, she is familiar with the role tyres play in the transportation industry.
“I am so excited at this opportunity to run a tyre fitment centre. It’s going to take hard work, but this is just the start for me.
“I am employing three people at my site as tyre technicians and hope to grow this number as I grow. I named my container after my late grandmother, and I know she is very proud of what I am achieving as a young woman in the tyre industry,” she said.
The balance of the BIB containers are in the process of being rolled out at their beneficiary sites across KZN.
