Midrand businesswoman expands local employment plans
“Midrand believed in me first.” Meet the Midrand woman who built a beauty empire from her garage and now wants to create jobs for locals.
From garage start-up to continental beauty empire, Midrand entrepreneur Bathabile Moreki is now turning her focus back home — creating jobs for the community that first believed in her.
Born in eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga, and raised in QwaQwa, Moreki studied tourism and hospitality before choosing Midrand as the place to build her future.
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In 2021, during Covid-19, she founded her business from her garage with no investors, just R2?000 and a vision: to create products people would love and to open income opportunities for women.
Today, as founder of The Perfume Co. Africa, she is steering her next growth phase toward employing local talent at her Midrand headquarters.
“Midrand is where it all started for me. This community believed in me first,” she said. “As we grow, I want to prioritise employing people from Midrand.”
Her plan includes:
- Direct employment at the Midrand head office — sales consultants, warehouse and logistics staff, admin, marketing assistants and customer service agents.
- Independent sellers — expanding her network of fragrance entrepreneurs in Midrand, under a commission model that has already created income for more than 300 000 women across six countries.
- Youth internships and training — offering paid internships to unemployed youth, alongside free training in sales, customer service and business management.
- Local sourcing — working with Midrand-based suppliers, printers and delivery drivers to keep money circulating in the community.
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“There was a moment when I felt like this is bigger than me,” she said. “But the story of one early seller in Midrand kept me going.
“I want to put Midrand on the map because Midrand put me on the map. When I started in my garage, it was Midrand women who bought my first bottles.
It was Midrand neighbours who told their sisters and friends. This place did not just give me an address; it gave me my first customers, my first office and my belief that this could work.”
Moreki also shared advice for young women who want to start businesses but lack confidence.
“They must keep believing in themselves no matter what. Don’t wait until you feel confident. Confidence comes after you start, not before. Take what you have — even if it feels small — and take it seriously.
Your first customer is more important than your logo. Your promise to that customer is more important than a perfect plan,” she said.
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