What can Israelis teach South Africans?

By Dan Brotman, international presenter at Limmud-Oz 2015

My name is Dan Brotman, and I am the Executive Director of the South Africa-Israel Forum, which was founded by the late Mendel Kaplan in 2008.

YoungTreps in Jerusalem

At 50%, South Africa has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in the world, and a general unemployment rate of 25%. Our stagnant economy is simply not creating enough jobs to absorb the unemployed masses, and both government and the private sector have prioritised intensifying the drive to foster entrepreneurship and job creation, particularly among young people.

Last year, my organisation and Investec launched an exciting programme called YoungTreps, which takes South Africa’s most promising (mostly previously disadvantaged) young entrepreneurs to Israel. Our initiative is one of the only enterprise development progammes in South Africa that challenges local entrepreneurs to start thinking globally by exposing them to top innovators and business people abroad. This year alone, we are taking a total of 100 young South African entrepreneurs to Israel in partnership with various corporates, government agencies and private philanthropists. Through Investec UK, young British entrepreneurs will soon join the South African entrepreneurs on our trips, and our hope is that we will get Australian entrepreneurs to join us in the near future. 

South African entrepreneurs getting inspiration from Israeli businesses and innovators

I am coming to Sydney in June to present at Limmud-Oz with two incredible people: Setlogane Manchidi, Head of Corporate Social Investments at Investec, and Phakiso Tsotetsi, a young entrepreneur and trip alumnus. Setlogane grew up in a dusty village in Limpopo and his mother was a domestic worker for a Jewish family in Johannesburg. That Jewish family mentored Setlogane and pushed him to attend high school and university, which had a profound impact on his life. Today he is a top leader in his field in corporate South Africa.

Phakiso is 31 years-old and is the co-founder of The Hookup Dinner, which is a major South African networking event for entrepreneurs, primarily sponsored by Standard Bank and SAB. During his trip to Israel last September, Phakiso launched the first Hookup Dinner outside of Africa in Tel Aviv, which was attended by over 100 South African and Israeli entrepreneurs. We’re going to launch The Hookup Dinner Australia on 8 June at Investec in Sydney.

Entrepreneurs networking at The Hookup Dinner

The three of us are presenting a session called "The Birth of South Africa’s YoungTreps", which will be about how a crazy idea less than a year ago has turned into an entrepreneurial revolution, which we hope will soon spread to Australia!

Here is a short clip on YoungTreps: 

See you in Limmud-Oz Sydney, 6-8 June 2015.

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