Opportunity centre in Roodepoort offers a new beginning
Roodepoort learner chose the centre’s name
The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), councillor Herman Mashaba, recently launched the City’s second opportunity centre (OC) at the Roodepoort Civic Centre.
This followed the successful launch of the first-ever OC by the City in Marshall Street in March this year, and forms part of the Department of Economic Development’s plan to open 14 of these centres by the end of 2020/ 2021.
The Department of Economic Development gave students within Region C the opportunity to participate in the naming of the OC. The main aim was to get young people involved by coming up with a name that encompassed the people and environment in that region.
The official name of the Roodepoort OC was revealed at the launch. The winning name was chosen by Brian Dlamini, a Grade 12 learner from Hoërskool Roodepoort. He also received a monetary prize from the University of the Witwatersrand.
“The name Isiqalo (meaning the beginning or a beginning), represents a new beginning, as young people will begin benefiting from this centre. My mother helped me to come up with the name,” Brian explained.
The Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Economic Development, councillor Leah Knott said that the City believes that the development and support of small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME) and entrepreneurs play a huge role in achieving the five per cent economic growth target by 2021, with sustainable SMMEs contributing to a reduction in unemployment.
“We discovered that what the City had offered through SMME Centres before was not what the business needed. We took the initiative of engaging entrepreneurs at the entrepreneurship symposium last year and developed a new model from there,” she said.
To ensure the City remains consistent with its new model relating to the OCs, each centre will carry its own identity and be customised in order to cater for the specific services required in the areas of operation.
A variety of services will be offered at the Roodepoort OC, and will be provided at no cost to the SMMEs registered with the City.
Services that will be offered at the Roodepoort OC, include the following:
• General business information and advice
• Business assessments, gap analysis and development plans
• Business management training seminars, including financial literacy, marketing sales and operations management
• Tax and accounting advisory services, including company registration, tax compliance, financial advisory and auditing
• Managed workshops, meeting rooms, internet and Wi-Fi services offered on a subsidised monthly fee and/ or pay-per-use basis
• Funding facilitation, including funding products awareness and application support
• Enterprise development services delivery points
• Partner services on site
• Assistance with City supplier data base and compliance issues
“The centres are key to economic growth. Multiple artisan training skills programmes are presented by our corporate partners at these centres, free of charge,” Mayor Mashaba concluded.
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