Fifteen young entrepreneurs from South Africa have been given the opportunity to place their products on the shelves of Woolworths stores in Johannesburg and Cape Town as part of the Youth Makers 2026 program. This initiative transforms small side jobs into full-fledged retail opportunities.
Visitors can purchase products from this new wave of entrepreneurs during the Woolworths Youth Makers demonstration. In Johannesburg, the showcase will take place at Mall of Africa from July 22 to August 2, with a meeting with the founders scheduled for August 1 and 2. In Cape Town, the event will be held at Cavendish Square from August 26 to September 6, with a meeting with the founders set for September 5 and 6.
The demonstration is the final stage of the annual Woolworths Youth Makers program, which helps young businesspeople transform growing enterprises into retail-ready brands. The program is open to South African citizens aged 18 to 35 who own businesses in the food, beauty, fashion, home goods, and related sectors.
This year, the competition attracted hundreds of applications, after which 24 finalists were selected to present their projects to the Woolworths judging panel. Founders were evaluated based on criteria such as creativity, authenticity, product quality, business viability, and growth potential. Ultimately, fifteen entrepreneurs were chosen, representing sectors such as fashion, beauty, wellness, agriculture, publishing, design, and home goods.
Each winner received support from Woolworths retail experts, consultations from business advisors, marketing assistance, a grant of over R130,000, and the right to sell their products directly to Woolworths customers in flagship stores across the country.
The winning companies cover a wide range of fields—from fashion and ceramics to agriculture and children's book publishing. Among them are: Patrick Ferguson Designs, offering fashion inspired by African craftsmanship; UBaliwe, creating handmade ceramics; Patns by Buhle, developing African patterns; KwaDube Essentials, specializing in luxury home fragrances; Hide and Suede, producing leather goods; Marapyane Farms, growing fresh vegetables; Walk Fresh, a sneaker care brand; E_mania, a sustainable fashion production studio; VICTORI, offering African streetwear; WELL N WELL, producing plant-based almond yogurts; Girl Boss Africa, manufacturing natural cosmetics; Glolooks Kiddies, creating hair care products for children; Maru Maphiri Group, publishing educational books; and Noac, producing slow fashion women's wear.
Although the grant helped the founders invest in their businesses, many participants believe that the mentorship support provided the greatest benefit. Working alongside Woolworths experts and business consultants, the founders refined all aspects—from pricing and production to quality control and retail readiness. The program focused on helping entrepreneurs build scalable and sustainable businesses, rather than just creating popular products.
The first Youth Makers demonstration took place at Woolworths Gateway in Durban in late June and early July. According to Woolworths, customers purchased over 300 products, generating revenue exceeding R200,000 for the participating companies. Many founders also noted an increase in online sales following the event. Zindi Mqododela, Woolworths Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, stated that 'the huge success of the Durban showcase confirms that the Youth Makers model works. Access to mentorship, funding, and the Woolworths customer base can make a significant contribution to small businesses.'
Although the issue of youth unemployment in South Africa cannot be solved by one retail program, Youth Makers is one of the few initiatives that goes beyond simply providing mentorship and funding, giving young entrepreneurs access to customers—something small businesses often lack. For shoppers, it is a chance to discover local brands before they become famous, and for founders, it is an opportunity to test their business in one of the country's largest retail environments and transition from a side hustle to a sustainable venture.
As part of Mandela Month, South African youth are demonstrating their activity by addressing issues that have long been discussed by adults. The national school curriculum allows teenagers to actively participate in solving social problems.
Mandela Day is observed on Saturday and is dedicated to the birthday of former President Nelson Mandela. This day calls upon South Africans to spend 67 minutes on charity—one minute for each year he dedicated to public service. This year's theme is 'The fight against poverty and inequality remains in our hands.'
The Future Leaders Challenge program is conducted by AECI in collaboration with Primestars and YouthStart Foundation. Last year, it reached 8,216 students across five provinces. Participants presented 386 projects covering topics such as poverty, lack of hygiene facilities, gender-based violence, drugs, banditry, and elderly care.
The twenty-sixth round of the program is currently underway, which will conclude with a leaders' summit and the Future Leader Awards ceremony in October. Ten teams made it to the shortlist this year. One team developed the Student Helper application, which connects students with teachers, automatically checks homework, and motivates students. Another team, working on the Desk Revival Project, focuses on repairing damaged desks and chairs in schools instead of replacing them.
A student named Talenta Mbatata independently created a panic button application connected to local police stations. Other teams tackled topics rarely covered in schools. BKS Creative Hub uses art and music to discuss substance abuse and teenage banditry. The Her Rise project combines issues of poverty, gender-based violence, mental health, and the status of girls in STEM. The Hands of Change initiative aims to solve the problem of insufficient sanitation facilities in poor schools.
Award recipients do not stop at achievement. Winners receive mentorship through Seed Academy to turn their school ideas into viable small businesses. Organizers are also considering providing seed grants, creating a network of mentors connecting students with AECI staff, and conducting follow-up checks after six to twelve months to assess the sustainability of these ideas. The organizers stated in their submission that 'this is not the end of the road, it is the beginning of real work.'
During the annual Youth Day, South Africa frequently calls on young people to become entrepreneurs. Although entrepreneurship is a vital avenue for addressing youth unemployment in the country, critics argue that this approach has become overly simplistic and detached from the realities required to build sustainable businesses.
Despite acknowledging the importance of entrepreneurial education, simply completing a course or seminar is insufficient. The ability to run a business differs significantly from the actual capacity to build one. Ambition alone is not enough if founders lack the necessary education, experience, networks, and supportive environment to create long-term companies.
It is crucial to move away from romanticizing those who abandon their studies for a startup, claiming it is a reliable development strategy. A more realistic, albeit slower, path involves completing formal schooling, developing literacy and numeracy, pursuing further education, gaining work experience, understanding customer needs, and learning how organizations function before attempting to build on a solid foundation.
The country requires more builders and specialists capable of solving problems, rather than merely individuals forced into survival mode due to labor market failures. While survival-oriented businesses deserve respect, they differ from enterprises focused on growth. A person selling merely to survive is not in the same position as a founder creating a company capable of hiring hundreds of employees.
According to World Bank data, small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 90% of all businesses and over half of global employment. In South Africa, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) estimates that small businesses provide between 50% and 60% of the workforce and contribute at least 34% to GDP. However, too few small firms transition into medium-sized employers, which the country urgently needs.
Part of the issue is that growing companies are burdened too early with requirements typical of large, mature corporations. Amendments to South Africa's small business definitions classify micro-enterprises (up to 10 employees), small enterprises (11 to 50), and medium enterprises (51 to 250), with varying revenue thresholds depending on the sector. Nevertheless, a company with 60, 100, or even 250 employees is not a giant but often a small, growing business striving for professionalization, market access, cash flow management, and skilled recruitment.
If South Africa wants more young entrepreneurs to become employers, policy must recognize this distinction. Regulation should be different for large, established firms capable of absorbing it, and lighter, simpler, and growth-oriented for truly small and scaling enterprises. Compliance should not become an obstacle for a promising company when hiring its next ten employees.
Similar principles apply to finance, procurement, and networks, as strong entrepreneurial ecosystems are built not only on motivation. As shown by the Startup Genome Global Report on Startup Ecosystems, competitive ecosystems depend on the interplay of funding, talent, market reach, connectivity, and knowledge. This means young founders need practical pathways to market entry, mentors who understand scaling, early customers willing to take risks, as well as access to capital and networks that allow promising companies to grow.
Young entrepreneurs also need higher-quality role models: not just famous founders, tender entrepreneurs, or Silicon Valley myths, but authoritative South African builders who solve real problems, hire people, serve customers honestly, and create useful products or services.
As stated in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the concept of 'social entrepreneurship' may mask a simple truth: much of honest and productive entrepreneurship is already social activity when it creates value, jobs, and improves services upon which the population depends. This is the kind of discussion that should take place on Youth Day, because entrepreneurship will help develop South Africa's future leaders only if we stop viewing it as a slogan and start seeing it as a system that needs to be built.
Young people do not need another call for intensified struggle. They need schools that build competencies, universities that introduce ideas and technologies, workplaces that provide experience, investors willing to support them, worthy examples to emulate, and a government that steps aside, giving small businesses room to grow.
