Thato Kgatlhane: South Africa’s Social

Profile | By Bimbola Bankole Thato Kgatlhane: South Africa’s Social Entrepreneur who created solar-powered school bags out of waste for poor school kids

At 18, Thato Kgatlhanye had decided to solve multiple problems faced by many underprivileged school kids in South Africa, especially in rural communities.

First, safety: These poor children are forced to leave home early in the morning so they can make it to school on time. They walk Driven by the entrepreneurship spirit she believed was inherited from her father and the empathic mind her mother embodied, Thato embarked as far as more than 30 minutes every day on roads that are not designed for pedestrian usage, exposing them to the danger of being hit by vehicles. on a mission to provide a solution that would encourage these children to safely attend school and learn effectively.

Second, these kids pack their books in shabby undignified plastic bags. Third, due to almost zero access to power supply, kids rely on candlelight to study when they get back from school, which also raises safety concerns and the question of ease of study. In 2011, she and her friend, Rea Ngwane, founded Rethaka, which means “we are fellows”. The company recycles plastic bags and transforms them into solar-powered school bags. The school bags are charged during the day as the kids walk to school and then used as a source of light at night; thereby providing light for children to do their assignments. These bags also feature reflective materials that aid visibility in darkness, which allays the fear of kids being knocked down by cars as they walk to school early in the morning.

“Each bag is fitted with a solar panel that charges as the child is walking to school. When they get back home, they can use it as a light for study”, says Thato. “We are offering dignity, safety and access to light.” Simply put, Thato’s company has created one product that has ultimately solved all the identified problems these disadvantaged school kids have had to face everyday.

To create their product, Thato set up a sustainable manufacturing process. Each school bag is made of 20 plastic shopping bags that are up-cycled into a textile. All offcuts are used to design a signature pattern on the bags. “We’ve tried to create a company that does more with less. The indirect impact we are making is to our communities, teaching them the value in waste,” she says.

Thato sees the potential in everything. To her, there is latent possibility everywhere. Possessing a unique ability to see beyond the surface, she finds the extraordinary in the seemingly simple things. This social entrepreneur and businesswoman has taken something as ordinary as a plastic shopping bag and turned it into an innovative backpack, bringing dignity and hope to children across South Africa and beyond.

She sees her bags the same way she sees society. Not everyone would notice the potential in a plastic bag. Thato thinks we all need to look a bit

A samplae of the Solar-powered School bags

closer. According to her, we all have the potential to make an impact and create change, but it’s having that potential recognised, nurtured, and encouraged that can make all the difference.

She adds, “You can start with nothing and create so much more than you can even imagine. And all it takes is the willingness to show up. If you don’t show up, it will never happen.” Thato Kgatlhanye studied art in high school and obtained a brand management degree at Vega School of Brand Leadership in Johannesburg. After school, she was offered an internship in New York with marketing guru Seth Godin.

“This changed my life. It gave me a perspective of what was possible. I think being in a city like New York, you start thinking of yourself as capable of doing anything. All you have to do is make a decision on what it is you’d like to do, and kill it,” she tells Forbes. In 2016, at 22, her company had won about $40,000 from start-up competitions. With the fund, factory space was established, along with a small team of women to help manufacture the product.

“The start-up capital came from a business grant of $23,433 that I won in the first competition. I entered the business into the South African Breweries Foundation Innovation Awards and we came second…,” she says.

What sparked the recycled school bag idea?

Thato grew up in Mogwase, one of the townships near the mining town of Rustenburg, in South Africa’s North West province. Her father was a taxi owner and her mother a nurse. The idea for her school bag concept came in the second year of college when her class was tasked to find ways of doing more with nothing.

She decided to make a bag out of recycled plastic bags. The solarpowered light idea only came after a conversation she had with her mother, where she was told to channel her creativity towards helping others.

“My mother told me about how she grew up and used candles to study. If she had one candle for the week and it burned out on Wednesday, she wouldn’t be able to study on Thursday and Friday. That inspired the idea,” says Thato.

How impactful is the invention?

Thato’s recycled School Bags serve as affordable energy in economically disadvantaged communities living without reliable access to electricity in Africa. The dynamic use of the invention is also timely, in the face of energy shortages in South Africa.

The school bags produced can support the education of many children living in homes without electricity, by providing them the opportunity to study after the sunsets. The rechargeable light source is a free and safe alternative to the common use of flammable and expensive kerosene lamps by those who don’t have electricity.

Since the company’s opening, the bags have been distributed in over 10 South African provinces and exported to other African countries like Namibia, Niger, and Nigeria.

Besides, the School Bags have an economic impact on the local community, by creating employment opportunities for low-skilled people, in particular women. The company plans to extend production to include children’s rain jackets made out of 100% recycled material.

There is also a huge impact on the environment – made from recycled plastics and PVC billboard banners, the repurposed School bags reduced waste, by recycling more than 400,000 plastic bags in the process.