Social entrepreneur and co-founder and executive chairman of Mentorship Foundation Africa, our very own BTech Marketing Management student Masonwabe Fuma. Emmanuel Masonwabe Fuma originates from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, a small town that is underdeveloped but has the heart of a big family. He was born on Wednesday 16 October 1993 and he was told that it was a very rainy day. In his culture, if it rains on the day that you are born, it means that your life will be blessed in abundance. He attended Stepping Stone Junior School and Queens College Boys School thereafter, where he was bullied a lot because he is a small individual, but there was always someone who stood up for him. He studies marketing because he says that he is a born seller and has a great passion for branding. He chose to study at the University of Johannesburg because his older sister is already studying at UJ and that fact provided some familiarity away from home.

Because of the underdevelopment of his home town, Masonwabe started a mentorship foundation that encourages development of rural areas and townships. This foundation motivates young residence members of these areas to do something positive for the community, instead of spending their time in all the wrong places. The most inspiring person for Masonwabe is Sibusiso Leope, a township youth icon who is the founder of the educational foundation. Sibusiso turned challenges into opportunities and is contributing back to the community. Sibusiso also believes that entrepreneurship is a state of mind for people who want to alter their future. That is why Masonwabe started the Mentorship Foundation South Africa, which teaches community members to conduct a needs analysis in their community and start a business to fill that particular need within that community.

Masonwabe says that people helped him to where he is today and he just wants to repay the favour. Among other inspiring initiatives, Masonwabe is also the Deputy President of ENACTUS at the University of Johannesburg across all four campuses. ENACTUS, which stands for Entrepreneurial Action Us, is a global non-profit organisation of students that is aimed at curbing socioeconomic disparities faced by poor and underprivileged communities. ENACTUS is composed of 38 countries globally, of which 25 institutions are within South Africa. These groups competed at the Sandton Convention Centre and the judges looked at what every ENACTUS group had done throughout the year on a global and national scale. The criteria for small businesses to benefit from ENACTUS are that the small business needs to sustain the environment, socially improve lives and empower people economically. Masonwabe is truly an inspiration with the initiatives he sets out to improve the lives of fellow South Africans. His favourite quotation is by Will Smith and it is the philosophy that he lives by, “If you are not living your life to make other people’s lives better, than you are wasting your time”. See what he is up to

i-Dentity 4 – Episode 12 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk3PKmLGsPw, http:// bit.ly/1MeA8Yo, and http://www. pressreader.com/south-africa/the-rep/20151009/281870117268305/