12 Jan 2015

The ill health that saw Ms Minah Mabutho fail to complete her Junior Certificate (JC) in 1994 also deprived her of a golden opportunity to go to senior school and tertiary like her age mates.

She therefore found herself trotting from one company to another looking for work with a qualification that was not competitive in the labour market.

Ms Mabutho said the quest for greater things in life and the urge to turn the status quo around led her to enrol at Selibe Phikwe Technical College (SPTC) in 2010 and as they say, the rest is history.

However, Ms Mabutho’s journey was not as swift as it might sound, because since her ill health, she had to nurse herself and she tried in vain to attend private schools to pursue her studies, only to fall sick again.

The latter strained her financially, a thing that saw her either staying home or trotting from one firm to another looking for manual work in order to put food on the table.

She said as a hard worker and a believer in God, she made use of her talent in knitting although she just did it at leisure time.

It was until 2002 that she was funded through the Financial Assistance Policy (FAP) that she purchased two knitting machines and started taking her talent to another level.

The business however did not flourish since she was not competitive and her products were substandard. This made her to close down the business and continue her journey of seeking employment.

After trotting the country looking for employment, she finally enrolled at SPTC in 2010 and upon completion of her Trade Test C in dress making in 2012, she never looked back.

Ms Mabutho, who currently designs exquisite German prints, wedding gowns and traditional attire at her parents place in Monarch location, stated that she loves fashion and enjoys dressing people.

“Whenever I see a person wearing something, I always have the urge to alter or redesign it to make it look more fashionable,” said Ms Mabutho.

In addition, she praised the technical college for enhancing her talent, stressing that not everyone can work in the office, therefore it is imperative for youth to enrol with technical colleges so that they can perfect handy work and become self-employed.

Ms Mabutho, who has an assistant, Ms Tinaye Khata stated that although business is growing, they are drawbacks such as sudden electric outages, customers who buy on credit and take long to pay and those who put orders and fail to collect them, outlining that the latter wastes her material that could have been used productively.

Although life seems to have changed for the better for Ms Mabutho, she has however decried her faulty machinery, stressing that they are old and have depreciated and that slows down her production.

She also stated that she approached Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) to collect business proposal forms but failed to fill them due to the English used.

However, she urged unemployed youth to enroll with technical colleges and use government initiatives such as YDF, CEDA, LEA and LIMID in order to be self-employed and employ others. ENDS