By Mzukona Mantshontsho
Leboang Mdlalana is helping young people in Cosmo City to stay away from trouble, addictions, and teenage ills in the area.
The Cosmo City Development is the first public private partnership worth R3.5billion between the City of Johannesburg, Basil Read, Codevco as well as the community in South Africa.
Cosmo City emerged out of an urgent need to provide accommodation for the informal settlers of Zeverfontein and Riverbend who had been illegally occupying privately owned land 25 kilometres North West of the Johannesburg Central Business District.
Cosmo City continues to grow as a place of choice and as a community. That number has increased substantially over the years with backrooms being built, mostly in the RDP houses, now with the semi-financed houses and bonded ones. The recent developments and job opportunities in Cosmo City have created an influx into the area, which cannot be avoided.
Tell us about your early life to your role today
The drive of the whole organization is to bring all our youngsters together shaping their future and building long healthy relationships and also supporting them through their talents.
This is where our moto “We are One ” comes from and we incorporate it into our dance, choir drama, poetry group and fitness team all performances we have in our organization. We do all these things to ensure that our youngsters not only explore their talents but we build their confidence and help them stay away from all the bad influences they can encounter on their spare time.
What does your role mean to you?
When I was young there were no such organizations boredom took over, I founded myself as one of drug addicts because I wanted to be on the cool side but in that way, I was destroying my future. Not only my future, but the trust of my family and the community around me that’s why I decided to start this initiative so that those one who are younger than me shouldn’t do the same mistake or take the same path I did.
What are the most critical resources for your successful leadership?
Being a leader means I am able to be a good influence to the generation, reducing the number of addicts, corruption, teenage pregnancies school dropouts we have and curbing or reducing poverty.
What can we expect from you going forward?
I will start by the sensitive topic which are funds, by that I mean sponsorships, these will help us build our centre and ensure that our youngsters have all the resources they need. We also need more volunteers to help bring about new skills and mentorship, so these are the critical resources we need for now.
What are your words of advice for young people, particularly women to start small businesses?
The passion I have is very great, so I can assure you that they are many great things still to come amongst them, producing of young great artists and future leaders.
Coming from someone who is still new in this sector I would advise them to start something or business they are passionate about so that can drive them to have patience and be determine while having an understanding that good things take time
What are your thoughts on Covid-19 in terms of small businesses?
I believe that Covid-19 was a huge set back special for small business as they didn’t have the resources to translate from doing businesses physically to online and were never prepared for.
What is the legacy that you would want to leave when you retire?
I’d love to leave a great legacy of future leaders who are able to explore their talents and help each other succeed while having a positive impact in our community they need to know that your background doesn’t determine your future or who you are.
How does your business contribute to the community?
Our organization contributes to our community in a sense that we reduce the number of young people doing drugs, involved in crime activities and allows teenagers to be themselves and have safe space to talk about issues they are facing. We give hope and tell them the importance of school and this reduces the number of schools dropouts and corruption in our community
What have been your highs and lows of your working career?
As an organisation founder there has been many lows, these include having limited resources, staffing challenges and compliance requirements. Limited resources include people not trusting me because I’m a former drug addict, they think I might misuse funds, we have less staff this hinders us to achieve our full potential
There have also been a number of highs and these include personal fulfilment, community involvement, by this I mean it allows me to have a positive impact on the youngsters who are part of the organization helping them to reach their potential, the involvement of the community has also been high as they engage with us.
When you not at work, what do you get up to, and where can people follow you or your business online?
I try to keep myself healthy by going to the gym, this also helps stimulate my mind. I enjoy gardening, this helps me with focus and teaches me patience.
You can find us Facebook, TikTok and Instagram our handles are simunyeglobalorganisation throughout the platform.
