Fikile Ndaba, who is an accountant, is the founder and owner of Fifi & Son Pies, a business she established in February last year in Kroondal, near Rustenburg. She then expanded to Ga-Rankuwa township because of the success of her first business. Fikile, 33, is responsible for the management of Fifi & Son Pies and oversees its financial growth. She says his biggest achievement is opening a pie business in a township, because these are oversupplied with kota shops. “That was my biggest project because I am stepping into something that looked very unlikely to be a success. For example, who would buy a pie in the township instead of a kota?” she asks. God motivates Fikile and gives her strength to excel in her endeavours, saying that “being in partnership with God helps me a lot”. Her main challenge was finding the funding to start the venture, because, as she says, few institutions will fund start-ups such as hers. She overcame this problem by using the profits from her accounting business to fund the pie business. Then she used the profits from the first pie outlet to start the second one in the township. Fikile also started the Enzo Foundation, named after her son, which provides school shoes for disadvantaged children.
Bcom Accounting, Damelin Menlyn College
Business Accountant, South African Institute for Business Accountants
General Tax Practitioner, South African Institute for Tax Practitioners
I do not see Fifi & Son Pies as a project because I will always develop it. I see a project in a sense that you start something and finish it successfully. However, I want to emphasise that when I started, I did not think I would ever go into the townships because the market is saturated by the kota businesses. But, a few months after opening my first shop in Kroondal I took a leap of faith and opened in the township of Ga-rankuwa. That was my biggest project. Immediately after opening I got so much support that now I am planning to expand to other townships. I am the first owner to operate a pie business project in the township, and I am very proud of that.
TD Jakes, his life as a preacher and a businessman motivates me to strive. His childhood traumas and how he overcame teaches me that my current status is not the end of my life.