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The advent of the loadshedding in the country continues to hit hard on citizens’ livelihoods and plunges businesses deeper into economic turmoil.
As most joint the band wagon of pointing fingers in wonderment, others such as Ronnie Dibakoane in one of Sekhukhune district’s townships, Praktiseer outside Burgersfort within the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality are coming up with ways to keep the country out of the dark.
Dibakoane has invented Ikhandlela, a high quality reliable LED lighting system primarily for domestic, industrial and the commercial sector, for people not to be left in the dark when the nightmarish loadshedding kicks in.
His rechargeable light bulbs work as normal household bulbs during normal circumstances and they automatically switch on in the event of power interruptions, failure or loadshedding.
The entrepreneur established his business, Ikhandlela, in July 2021 which manufactures any kind of LED Lighting from emergency bulbs to solar outside lights.
Asked why he started the business, he responded: “I was trying to solve my own problem because when there is loadshedding, my daily activities stopped and through this innovation, not only me but many people will be helped.”
Dibakoane says he still does all the work on his own and involves two brand ambassadors for promotion of the products.
He indicated that as he started the business from his nine-to-five job salary he was struggling to pay for marketing and advertising and that he also needed capital for more production because people showed interest in buying and reselling the products.
Dibakoane said that his short term goal was to have three branches in Burgersfort, Jane Furse in Sekhukhune district and Polokwane in order to create more entry jobs for entry level students.
The entrepreneur worried that government was not doing enough to support start-up businesses: “because all the funds are granted to people who already got them before. Our government should believe in us, the youth, since we are the foundation of our economy.”
Dibakoane can be followed on Facebook as Ronnie Ikhandlela or contact 076 303 2152