New Fairlady Women of the Future

Fairlady Women of the Future winners.

Tiffini Wissing Hein, owner of Old School Cool, won the Fairlady Woman of the Future 2017 title. Old School Cool provides safe and reliable transport with its flagship service Cool (kids) Cabs for children of swamped, over-scheduled parents. The company’s main focus is the safety of the children they transport. The vehicles are fully kitted-out with a huge number of safety features and a team of supervisors monitors them 24/7 via on-board cameras. Old School Cool employs and empowers 40 women and Hein believes her company is a testament to girl power. Her dedication and perseverance – as well as her ability to spot the gap created by unreliable public transport – has been the secret to her success. In true entrepreneurial spirit, she plans to plough her prize money of R50,000 straight back into the business.

The Fairlady Rising Star 2017 Award winner is Anele Mkuzo-Magape, founder of the African Entrepreneurship Initiative, a consulting service that allows the youth of our country to access financial literacy and entrepreneurship education. Through several customised training programmes, tailored personal development, business coaching and mentorships, struggling entrepreneurs are able to get the support they need to succeed. Anele believes that entrepreneurs are ‘born and made’ and that gaining knowledge from your peers is vital to the entrepreneurial journey. She leads by example, and will use her prize money of R20,000 for a research project focusing on some of the entrepreneurs as case studies. For Anele, winning the award has been an honour and she feels it shows young entrepreneurs that there are initiatives geared to supporting them.

“Entrepreneurship is crucial to jump-starting South Africa’s flagging economy,” says editor Suzy Brokensha. “We need smart, resourceful South Africans with big, brilliant ideas more than ever. The fact that South African women have the intelligence and resourcefulness that successful business launches require is brought home to me every year. I am always amazed by both the number and the calibre of entrants to our Women of the Future Awards. With women like this in our country, I know we can succeed.”