Employment Initiatives

Shisa Food Stands

Instructions & Videos

Catering Industry

Employment Initiatives

Shisa Food Stands

Instructions & Videos

Clean, Economical & Safe Energy Products

I worked as a Civil Engineer for nearly 15 years - 8 years in South Africa and 7 years in London - While I was working in the UK , my father started potting around with some ‘primitive’ Gel Fuel Camping Stoves and I immediately realised the need and the potential of these energy products in our local market.

My father started testing and re-designing the stoves and slowly learned to understand the fuel, burn times and many other associated issues & benefits the stoves had to offer. This was the platform I saw my dad create in the early years. In 2006 we had a stand at the Aid Africa Disaster & Relief Management Expo - the interest and response from all attending was overwhelming - Bio-fuel is a clean, alternative energy, and is needed through out Africa and the world.

After that I started working part time on the business idea while still Civil Engineering in the UK. My journey started by learning the issues surrounding ‘dirty’ energy – the negative health, social and environmental impacts, I also researched the work NGO’s do in this field and how they tackle this huge global problem. I was all about the social, health problems and ethanol as a realistic alternative energy - these thought processes were before I had truly started forming my employment initiative ideas.

With this new ‘unformulated’ information and a number of our early samples I made contact with some UK based NGO’s. (Save the Children, Oxfam, UK Red Cross, ITDG, IDEALS and I’ve had various telephonic and email discussions with some senior members of Virgin Unite) These groups were all very interested in these energy products and were welcoming of the products but were a little hesitant on change for a number of reasons - the two main ones were - performance history and fuel / product availability. This became my conundrum - how do I get a wide acceptance and availability of this life changing energy...

Since those early days I have been back in SA to develop the company, products and this recently learned 'conundrum'. I went down many roads trying to understand my industry – from product development, to logistics, to marketing, to sales. I have had my fingers burned more than a few dozen times in order for me to get to where Shisa Afrika is today. The lessons learned by trying to market our products and getting them out into the market was the most valuable and it was these lessons, which has brought me back to the 'conundrum' I had all those years ago and the solution was always - to create employment opportunities for everyone to benefit down the supply chain of this new energy.

I have invested so much into attaining this dream - playing out scenarios, building relationships, working and researching till sunrise and meeting with the people who will ultimately benefit, it has all been quite a privilege and I am truly grateful.

Getting to understand the realities of what poverty really means to billions of under serviced people is both sad and humbling and it is for this reason I am passionate about delivering on this dream.