Entrepreneur lifts others up

SELF-MADE BUSINESSWOMAN: SEBOTHOMA TRAINS AND EMPLOYS VULNERABLE WOMEN

- Hein Kaiser

She has built a small empire by looking for opportunities.

Refilwe Sebothoma believes in paying it forward. When she is not running the handful of companies she has created during her career, Sebothoma channels her resources into people who, like her, have had a tough start in life.

Born and raised in the mining village of Marikana, a backdrop that she said helped shape her aspirations, Sebothoma learned the value of hard work and perseverance from a young age.

Raised by her mother and grandmother, both of whom she called impact leaders, she witnessed first hand the power of entrepreneurship to lift people out of poverty.

“I was raised by a leader who knew how to lift people out of poverty,” she said.

Her mother worked night and day to support her children. Sebothoma is one of a set of triplets.

Despite childhood challenges like her parents’ divorce and financial hardships, she said that she was ambitious from an early age and learnt from her mother.

Growing up without electricity, she often helped her mother in her small business making and selling fat cakes to miners.

“We would sometimes have to wake up at 3am to make the fire and prepare the cakes,” she shared. “By 6am, when miners arrived for their shifts, my mom would be there selling to them.” This business put her and her siblings through school.