The Mandela University Africa Hub was established in 2024 to drive youth entrepreneurship and social innovation, starting with our Entrepreneurship and Incubation in Action students and young township entrepreneurs in Gqeberha and expanding this to the Eastern Cape, South Africa and ultimately to other countries in Africa. In the past year, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (CfERI) at Nelson Mandela University has incubated 42 small businesses over the past year, creating 96 jobs.
For this dedicated township baker, entrepreneurship is not only about earning a living — it is also about building a relationship with his customers, so that they keep coming back for more of his warm-from-the-oven muffins.
He gets up at 3.30am to bake his chocolate, bran and carrot muffins, heads off to the taxi rank in New Brighton and does not leave until he has sold them all.
Judging by comments from his early-morning customers, Damana is onto a winning recipe: “they are nice, yoh”, “I buy because I like him” and “they are fresh” are just a few of the answers to why they support him.
Damana started his business, Ryder’s Deli in Kwazakhele, in 2022, to provide for his young son, but had the idea for it the year before, in 2021.
“At that time, I was working at a primary school as a literacy coach, earning about R1 500 a month,” Damana says. “After I realised that I have a son to take care of, I knew the money wouldn’t be enough, so I needed to do something to earn extra income.”
Damana has five siblings, and one of his sisters taught him how to bake.
“She came home with a muffin mix and showed me how to do it. Ever since then, I’ve been the one baking at home and it occurred to me that this was what I could use to earn an extra income,” he says.
At first, he sold his home-baked muffins to the teachers and learners at work, but soon encountered competition.
“There was this other girl who came and sold kotas, Russians and those types of foods. She stole my clientele,” Damana says.
Realising he would need to look for another outlet for his wares, he decided to try the taxi rank on the way to work.
“I started selling at the taxi rank in April 2022, and I’m still selling there today. I continued selling at the school, but I start at the rank, then go to school.
“I attended the Nexus programme, and they were able to help me with the network,” Damana says. This Nelson Mandela University programme opened the door to meeting others who could help him on his entrepreneurial journey, such as representatives of SEDFA who in turn helped him to enrol at the Al Fidaa School of Baking.
The four-week programme teaches the art and science of baking, from basic techniques to advanced decorating, as well as business aspects such as costing, marketing and selling.
“That is where I learned how to bake cakes, cupcakes, confectioneries – almost everything. I also needed equipment to run my business, and that’s where the Mandela University Africa Hub programme came in. They gave us the money, and I bought my equipment and was able to put into practice what I was taught at the school of baking.”
Through the Nexus programme, Damana also entered a pitching competition and scooped third place: “I got R1 000 and used some of the money for stock.”
Rising despite the challenges
There have been challenges, of course.
“First of all, safety. It’s not safe in the township. These boys, they do not play games,” Damana says. “I carry money every day when I leave here in the morning. I’ve been lucky and no one has touched me yet, but I was robbed before, although not with my stock.
“Another challenge is that there are others also selling food at the taxi rank, and one lady is selling the very same thing that I’m selling. That is also one of the challenges because they’re taking some of the customers from me.”
To combat this, Damana focuses on relationships over rivalry.
Where the other muffin vendor waits for customers to come to her, Damana takes his wares to the customer – even if that means dodging rush-hour traffic to hand over muffins to commuters queueing for a ride or climbing into a taxi.
He has a ready smile for each potential buyer and even knows their favourite flavour.
“When I get to the taxi rank, I make sure that I’m doing more than just selling,” he says. “I greet them, I make them smile, I crack a joke, I do whatever – just to make sure that they relate to me so that if I’m not there, they wait for me.
“It’s more than just buy, sell and leave – it is about creating the relationship. I also offer freebies every once in a while, and if I have cakes left over, I just give it to them.”
Read more in the latest BizYouth magazine, showcasing the pioneering work being done in advancing Nelson Mandela University as an entrepreneurial institution.