#MakingIt – One stitch at a time
“In South Africa, it is important to have a skill to avoid going to bed with an empty stomach."
Ms Rebecca Mokau started a sewing co-operative to escape the chains of poverty.
The 58-year-old woman said she learnt the skill of sewing from Stitch Craft in Doornfontein, immediately after she passed her matric.
“But I did not pursue it as a career, or as a means to earn a living. I was shy and afraid of what people would say about a young girl doing sewing on their expensive clothes,” she said.
Ms Mokau decided to be a cleaner instead and thereafter became a petrol attendant for several years.
Ms Mokau’s father, out of anger, sold a sewing machine he had bought her because she didn’t utilise her skill.
She later asked herself why she should continue working for other people when she had a skill.
While working as a petrol attendant, Ms Mokau said she bought her own sewing machine.
When she left formal employment, she organised local women to work with her.
The women were advised by representatives from the Department of Social Development to have the business formally registered.
Today they work hard for the success of Chedisa Co-operative.
The co-operative sews assorted clothing items for different occasions and purposes.
“Being a formally registered business helped the enterprise a great deal because we now get jobs from many clients for things like uniforms,” she said.
The business, which started in her small house in 1997, is now situated in a bigger premises at Rabasotho Hall.
“We depend on word of mouth for marketing our products. Our business is better positioned because the hall is used by different potential clients and they get to see us whenever they are here for their events and meetings,” she said.
The co-operative supplied a consignment for the Bana Pele government project, which supplied needy school children with school uniforms. They also make suits for society clubs and laundry bags for a hospital.
“It is a viable business, hence we are able to put food on the table for our families. I want this business to be a big factory and create more employment,” she said.
“In South Africa, it is important to have a skill to avoid going to bed with an empty stomach. If young people have ideas, co-operatives are the way to go.”
