Holding hands together is what we do – Evelyn Mashinini

By Boitumelo Gwala

SEVEN Tembisa-based women who are members of the Hold Hands Together Cooperative (HHTC) are urging young people to come close to cooperatives so there can be skills transfer and effect change in their communities.

Formed and led by Evelyn Mashinini, HHTC has grown from being a support group to a registered cooperative where they specialise in textile, manufacturing, bearding, and craft. Mashinini believes that more can be done if people hold hands together. “If we hold hands together, we can achieve more because in our community there are more people who are unemployed who just need skills, so that they can put food on the table for their families,” she said.

Inspired by former president Nelson Mandela’s 1996 women’s day speech where he said: “The presence of so many women from so many parts of our land underlines the weight of the pledge for women of South Africa to join with government for unity, peace and development”, the women’s vision is to grow not only elderly people but also young people who believe in community change.

Since its inception in 2012, HHTC has massively grown stronger. They have received numerous nominations and awards from both the government and the private sector. In 2014, they joined the South African Women Entrepreneurs Network (SAWEN), and in 2015 were nominated and won a award. Again, in that year, they managed to be part of a school uniform project ran by the social development department and supplied the South African Security Social Agency with school uniform. In the year 2018, they were nominated in the township entrepreneurs’ awards in the category of best township entrepreneurs.

Getting awards and getting nominated is not their only achievements, the cooperative also received funding from various donors which are the Gauteng provincial government, department of trade and industry and Ekurhuleni grants aid. The cooperative has also managed to become sustainable through exhibitions ran around Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg region.

COVID-19 has forced many companies both locally and internationally to shut their doors, while others have had to retrench their staff for various reasons, HHTC was also not spared. It also had to suspend their operations and its employees forced to work from home and make personal protective gear like masks. Many cooperatives have shut their doors due to lack of funding from the government but what makes this cooperative unique is that they have managed to sustain themselves for many years through projects and keep their doors open.

They also manufacture traditional outfits, political regalia and curtains, in addition to being involved in several other projects. The women have started a programme called “Azibuyele emasisweni” meaning “go back to the roots”. The main goal and focus of this programme is to eradicate unemployment, transform youth skills, cater for children who come from disadvantage families and give school uniform packs to schools.

Despite all these accomplishments, these women are aiming to own a factory in their community as years go by.