If there is such an expression: hard work breeds success, then Khayelitsha entrepreneur Luvuyo Rani is its personification.
The owner of Silulo Ulutho Technologies has clinched the 2014 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World award in the Business/Entrepreneurial category.
Rani capitalised on the education department’s introduction of the Outcomes Based Education (OBE), which meant that teachers, who had never used computers before, suddenly had to learn how to use them.
From one internet café in Khayelitsha today Silulo consists of 32 stores around the country, spread across the Eastern and Western Cape.
Rani believes entrepreneurship courses through his blood. His mother was a tavern owner who fostered and sharpened his entrepreneurial skills from an early age. “Helping my mom with selling in the tavern helped to develop and sharpen my sales and customer service skills,” he says.
Annually, the Junior Chamber International (JCI) programme honours 10 outstanding young people under the age of 40 who provide extraordinary service to their communities and through service, innovation, determination or revolutionary thinking create a positive impact on a local and global level.