Diversified miner Glencore has named the two winners of a programme to identify youth-owned initiatives focused on making a positive impact in their respective communities in South Africa.

Youth social entrepreneur Thami Gazide owns a community gardening project in Mpumalanga and is planning to impact even more people through the support received from Glencore.

Gazide of Middleburg started the Philanathi Golden Stars, a nonprofit organisation, in 2016, with the aim of helping those in his local community dismantle poverty through food security.

Inspired by the belief that a candle loses nothing by lighting another, he began organising food parcels for indigent families. With support from corporates including Glencore, which contributed food parcels to the initiative, Gazide developed an initiative to turn illegal dump sites into community food gardens in 2018.

Philanathi, which received a R20 000 cash prize from Glencore, now oversees four community food gardens supporting 36 families in the community. The aim of the gardens is to help communities and families become self-sustainable.

“Whatever they produce in the gardens is theirs to sell, to start businesses and empower themselves,” explains Gazide.

Glencore's support for the project is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to support small, medium-sized and microenterprises in communities near its operations so they can contribute to local economies.

Glencore also awarded a R20 000 cash prize to Bongani Maphanga of Tukakgomo, in Limpopo.

Maphanga, 27, runs The Operation with Denice Shoe Repairs, an enterprise which involves the repair and supply of shoes to learners in his community of Steelpoort.

“I am very dedicated. I am doing wonders with this small initiative and looking forward to grow so I can create jobs for others,” says Maphanga.

His project involves repairing shoes, polishing them and even sourcing new pairs of shoes for disadvantaged children from his community. He offers his service free of charge to the learners around the community.

“Since I started this initiative, learners are excelling in school with shoes that are in good condition. Bad shoes can lead to a lack of concentration in class or even bullying. That's what inspires me. I don't want to see learners going to school with shoes that are in a bad condition when I am available to fix them for free,” he acclaims.

He plans to use his cash prize to buy more material, as well as new tools, and also hopes to save some of it so he can invest it in another worthy initiative in future.