South Africa in Retrospect
After returning to my job in Baltimore this week, I’ve had countless friends, family, and co-workers ask me about my time in South Africa. My consistent answer has been that I’ve never been to a place that felt more familiar and foreign at the same time. If you ignored the cars driving on the opposite side of the street, it would be easy to confuse Cape Town for San Diego. It’s easy to get caught up in the restaurants of the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, the beaches of Camps Bay, or the views from Table Mountain. Cape Town is truly beautiful, and has all the creature comforts of any major city. However, it’s equally important to acknowledge the poverty that exists less than 5 miles from this booming tourist destination. Some of the biggest highlights of our time in South Africa centered around organizations working to bridge the income inequality gap that is so pervasive across the country.
During our program, we met with about a dozen companies and organizations based in both Johannesburg and Cape Town. We spoke with executives that work in the shipping, mining, banking, investment, and media industries. South Africa now has a system of laws called Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE for short) that grade companies on their diversity and inclusion initiatives. All companies comply with these laws, and were very open about the grades that they had received, but the two companies that stuck out to the group were focused on actually creating jobs for under-employed South African youth.
Harambee is a youth employment accelerator based in Johannesburg. The organization accepts applications from high school and college educated youth between the ages of 18 and 35, and provides “minimal intervention” to help place them into careers. When we met with some of the job candidates, I was struck by just how similar we were. I graduated from college in 2009, at the height of the financial crisis, and had to move back home while getting started in my career. The young women we spoke to had just graduated with degrees in marketing, and were ready to join the workforce. With some help from Harambee, they were hoping to interview for positions at an insurance company in Johannesburg.
Just outside of Cape Town, we met with the team at RLabs. RLabs is a Silicon Valley-style incubator that facilitates entrepreneurship amongst the lower income population. The staff there mixes their non-profit work for the community with their own for-profit ventures. One company that grew out of RLabs was Zlto. Zlto recognized that many of South Africa’s young people are under-employed, and are frustrated that they don’t have any opportunities to gain the experience necessary to apply for entry level positions. The company encourages young people to volunteer wherever they can, and awards points depending on the length and type of volunteer work. Zlto partners with major businesses to donate goods and services, and users can cash in their points towards things they desperately need.
My time in South Africa opened my eyes to some of the socio economic challenges faced by my peers on a day to day basis. I was truly inspired by the resilience and optimism of the people we met during our company visits, and hope to stay in contact with them. Some of my classmates have even expressed an interest in donating their time or expertise to help mentor the people we met at Harambee. South Africa is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and the people are no different than us. With the help of organizations like Harambee and RLabs, the next generation of South Africans has the opportunity to make the country even better than it already is.
