From beats to business: Meet One Dream Africa
One Dream Africa started as a record company (Siyabonga and Mxolisi are both Hip Hop artists) but the lack of traction in the local music industry drove them to waste, which they have made their passion and livelihood. Their registered company covers waste management and cleaning. They have agreements with many of the fast-food joints at the local Chuma Mall to collect their waste, but they are unable to get a storage space at the mall, unlike larger waste collection companies, so have recently signed an agreement elsewhere, following the WasteAid programme as part of the 2023 Huhtamaki cohort. At this new site, they can store larger volumes and aggregate waste, which they typically sell outside of Diepsloot to a company in Strydom Park.
Through 26,277 ZA R (£1,137) seed funding, they were able to fence the new site, set up an office space, purchase a scale and smartphone and use some of the cash to buy from other reclaimers. Through word of mouth, more reclaimers are coming to their site for trade.
Their business model, which includes an allocation of funds for buying waste locally and weekly transportation to three buy-back centres further away with better prices has been working well. They are registered with these buy-back centres, which send daily notifications of price changes. This allows them to both benefit from and offer fairer prices to reclaimers bringing waste to their site, as they can flex in response to the demand.
Mxolisi explains that the most significant change in his life since before joining the programme is: “Waking up to a purpose. It’s not going to get done – I need to do it. Having direction in life.”, whilst Siyabonga explains that there have been: “Lots of changes since last year when we were collecting less products. Since [we] started buying from collectors we have moved up the value chain. When we were collecting ourselves, we were making 500 kg, but since buying now make 2,000 kg per month.”
They attribute these changes to having been able to access information in the classes that opened their eyes to business, having better knowledge on the valorisation chain of recyclables and being able to work out a better position for themselves within this, and having the capacity to hire and buy from other people which also keeps them motivated to keep going.
Together they are changing perceptions of working in waste. Mxolisi said, “One year ago my dad was saying, ‘What are you doing?’, but he has seen the growth and is now proud.”
“I have learned a lot under the WasteAid programme and what I really enjoyed is learning the business side of things, like how to manage my money through bookkeeping and recording everything so you can account for every cent. When I started this programme, I didn’t know about different waste streams, so it opened my eyes in many ways like not to take it as a hustle but as a business.”
Mxolisi Ncukana, co-owner of One Dream Africa and Wastepreneur graduate of the Huhtamaki 2023 cohort
