SAB Foundation is empowering women, youth, people living in rural areas and people living with disabilities to become entrepreneurs who in turn create a better life for those around them.

The SAB Foundation invests in entrepreneurs and social innovators – with an emphasis on services and products that benefit women, youth, people living in rural areas and persons living with disabilities – who show the potential and commitment to grow their businesses and create jobs.

Set up in 2010 as one element of SAB’s broad-based black economic empowerment transaction, SAB Zenzele, the SAB Foundation is an independent trust that annually invests millions of rands towards developing entrepreneurship in South Africa and ensuring that low-income communities are uplifted.

The SAB Foundation holds 8.4 million SAB Ltd shares through SAB Zenzele and applies the dividend and special dividend income received from these shares for the benefit of the wider South African community.

The objective of the SAB Foundation is as follows: The provision of funding and support for small, medium and micro-sized enterprises, to contribute to the economic and social empowerment of historically disadvantaged persons, primarily (but not necessarily exclusively) by means of entrepreneurship development and with a priority focus on providing opportunities within small, medium and micro-sized enterprises for women, youth, people living in rural areas, as well as persons living with disabilities.

The Tholoana Enterprise Programme

• Tholoana invests in entrepreneurs who show the potential and commitment to grow their business and create jobs. We are especially keen to support women, youth, people living in rural areas and persons with disabilities. 
• The structured, two-year business support programme is designed by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. It assists entrepreneurs with access to markets and the potential for seed-funding. 
• Tholoana is suitable for businesses (both registered and non-registered) from early establishment to those that are ready for growth. Ideally, these businesses have potential to make a difference in their own communities and in the broader economy. 
• Businesses in new and growing sectors such as export, manufacturing, food processing, water, energy and waste management are especially encouraged to apply
• Applications open once a year to recruit 60 businesses.

STEP BY STEP: How the project works

1. Applications are welcome from businesses working in new and growing sectors such as export, manufacturing, food processing, water, energy and waste management
2. Your business must have been in operation for at least six months and less than three years
3. Register online and complete your application

Eligibility Criteria

1. The business is black-owned^* and managed.
2. The business is operational for between 6 months and 5 years.
3. The business should be a going concern, commercially sustainable and viable.
4. The applicant is involved in the business’s daily operations and management on a full-time basis, and is not employed by any other organisation.

* means “Africans, Coloureds and Indians who are citizens of the Republic of South Africa by birth or descent or who became citizens of the Republic of South Africa by naturalisation – a) Before 27 April 1994; or b) On or after 27 April 1994 and who would have been entitled to acquire citizenship by naturalisation prior to that date but were precluded from doing so by Apartheid policies”. (Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Bill, 2011).

Source: www.sabentrepreneurship.co.za