Kickstart KZN finalists announced

These entrepreneurs now talk of exporting overseas, taking on the big guns in their industries and becoming major players in the South African economy.

The entrepreneur contest is part of the annual Kickstart project started by SAB in 1995 to inculcate a culture of entrepreneurship among people between the ages of 18 and 35. The idea is to promote business awareness through training, the provision of grants as start-up capital, as well as mentorship and assistance during the setting-up phase of the businesses.

Selected from scores of KZN applicants, the regional finalists are:

• Lungile Sokhulu, owner of a weaving business, back2life, in Gamalakhe near Port Shepstone, who won the top SAB Kickstart KwaZulu-Natal award of R100 000. back2life makes a variety of fashion products using newspapers as the main material.

• Sooveir Rajkumar of Meatlicious near Verulam, who won second prize in the competition and R80 000. Meatlicious produces burger patties and is soon to introduce chicken sausages and fish patties to its Boastful Butcher range

• Third-placed Sindi Mbambo of Owethu Products and Projects in Pietermaritzburg, who won R60 000. Mbambo's company peels vegetables, packs them and supplies supermarkets and a variety of other organisations.

The three winners are in line for honours, and prizes, in the national Kickstart awards which will be announced in Johannesburg in October 2009.