From purpose to impact: Unilever's Rexona unveils Safe-Hub to empower KwaMashu youth

This is a significant moment for KwaMashu, one that the community has been central to shaping from the very beginning. eThekwini Municipality has been a foundational partner throughout in providing the land, the infrastructure and the civic commitment that made the launch possible. Rexona joins as an investor in this community putting its name and its funding behind Safe-Hub’s proven community model that unites all partners in a shared belief that young people in underserved communities deserve more than short-term interventions.

Safe-Hub creates collaborative spaces where young people can access the care, resources and opportunities they need to thrive. South Africa is where the model was built and proven - working in underserved communities to break cycles of intergenerational poverty, not through short-term programmes, but through long-term ecosystem change. Founded in 2007 and now active across South Africa, Germany, the United States, Côte d’Ivoire and India, it has become an award-winning platform for collective impact - delivering programmes spanning early childhood, youth development, employability and health.

The KwaMashu site is also the beginning of something larger: a vision for community precincts that generate their own economic activity, keeping jobs, enterprise and growth anchored where they are needed most.

For Rexona, this sponsorship allows the brand to bring it’s purpose to life within South Africa. Rexona wants to give everyone the confidence to move more by breaking the limits to movement. The brand’s presence here is grounded in the conviction that movement is transformative, and that the community deserves the best conditions to succeed.

eThekwini Municipality has been a central partner in making the site possible, providing the land and infrastructure backbone the project required. Community engagement has been at the heart of the process from the outset - a deliberate effort to ensure that what gets built here reflects what KwaMashu actually needs, and that the people it serves feel ownership over what it becomes.

“KwaMashu is exactly where Safe-Hub belongs - in communities where young people have the talent, the drive and the ambition, but not always the space or the opportunity. Today that changes. We are grateful to Rexona and eThekwini for making it possible.”

– Florian Zech, Safe-Hub managing director

“Rexona exists to get people moving - and KwaMashu is exactly the kind of place where movement changes lives. We are proud to put our name on this site and even prouder to be part of what happens here over the years.”

– Stefan Cloete, CEO – Unilever Southern Africa

“The City of eThekwini has long believed in KwaMashu. This launch turns that belief into something young people can walk through, learn in and grow from.”

– Cllr Thembubuhle Ntuli, chair economic development and planning committee

KwaMashu is one part of a much bigger story. Safe-Hub is growing across South Africa and beyond with an ambition to reach millions of young people who deserve the same chance to shape their own futures.

Today, it started with excited children running onto a field.