South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world needs to integrate the savvy of business with the urgency of social justice and all are turning to social entrepreneurship to find the sweet spot of profit making while furthering a social mission.
This is the impetus behind release of The Disruptors: The extended edition, a follow-on to The Disruptors, which was released on 31 March 2016. That book told the stories of South Africa’s social entrepreneurs, such as Vuyani Dance Theatre’s revolution of township dance and Stacey Brewer and Ryan Harrison’s Spark Schools, which are transforming the landscape of affordable, quality education. The first edition of The Disruptors has already been reprinted in South Africa and the US after exceeding sales.
This extended edition, available as an e-book for Kindle and Kobo, profiles four social entrepreneurs: Trevor Mulaudzi, whose work in sanitation has earned him the nickname Doctor Shit, Tsonga Shoes’ Peter Maree, early childhood development visionary Jane Evans and Guy Stubbs whose naked honey, on sale in Dischem, is transforming the lives of communities in Mpumalanga.
Both editions are published by GIBS and Bookstorm, with support from the National Treasury and the government of Flanders and are authored by Kerryn Krige, head of the GIBS Network for Social Entrepreneurship (GIBS NSE) and award-winning journalist, Gus Silber.
The book is written in an engaging manner that defies the boundaries of traditional business books. Krige and Silber storify the turning point that led to the creation of the social enterprises and balance this with a compelling academic take that positions the entrepreneur on a social enterprise spectrum.
“Social entrepreneurship makes sense,” says Krige. “We know that business cannot focus on generating profit alone if it wants to thrive and our social entrepreneurs show the enormous value of setting up hybrid businesses that generate both social and economic value.”
Founder and chair of the Women’s Development Bank Trust, Zanele Mbeki, says in the book’s foreword, “GIBS, with its academic and executive programmes in social entrepreneurship and its networks, is the potential catalyst that we need in South Africa to bring big business, government and civil society together.”
