No time to waste at Sun City

Childhood friends Ofentse Melato and Tshego Molefi quit their jobs to become entrepreneurs, registering their first company in hopes of earning a good living for themselves.

Despite submitting profiles to several shopping centres around Sun City, their cleaning services company idea didn’t find traction, until, says Melato, they received a call from a panicky Sun Village. “Their waste management service provider had dropped them and they needed a refuse company to urgently assist,” says Melato.

Moli & Mela was born five years ago as a waste management company after the pair seized this ideal opportunity. The staff complement has grown from two to 57, with turnover increasing by 1 415% over this period, thanks in no small part thanks to a Sun City contract that kicked off in July.

“We started small and were clueless about how to handle waste, so we started attending workshops to learn about the industry and acquire all the relevant accreditations and certificates to be compliant,” Molefi says.

An intentional start

Their start at Sun City came when Melato applied for an internship with the company managing the resort’s waste at the time.

The thirty-something ladies leveraged their experience and business mindset to earn clients with several other sites, including shopping centres, mega grocery stores, industrial areas, and local mines, before bidding at the resort.

“We were intentional about the fact that we wanted to win Sun City, so we went about learning as much as possible about the waste situation,” says Melato. After getting their foot in the door working on landfill reduction, Moli & Mela positioned themselves to bid for the entire deal when it went out to tender.

"In May 2022, as a small local company with two women at the helm, we presented our offering and went up against much larger bidders,” explains Melato.

“The inclusion and prioritisation of women and youth in our Enterprise and Supplier Development is embedded in our Local Socio-Economic Development Strategy. We are intentional about empowering young women, not only within our organisation, but also through enterprise development and when we map Development Programmes.” Tebogo Mokgejane, Sun City’s Supplier and Enterprise Development Manager

At the recent 40^th Nedbank Golf Challenge, the pair proved their mettle. Moli & Mela cleaned up waste left behind by more than 59 400 spectators attending the top-level tournament at the renowned Gary Player Country Club.

To manage 7 805 tons of waste, about one-third of which was recycled, they needed another 80 workers, extra vehicles, uniforms, and other equipment.

“You can imagine the effort involved in managing this amount of waste produced and 127 staff,” says Molefi of the tournament that ran over four days. “Thankfully it went well and Sun City was impressed with our first-time management of the project.”

Through a partnership with Sun City, Coca-Cola donated a trailer to Moli & Mela, which will assist with waste management efficiency.

Growth ambitions

The ambitious pair aim to start a commercially viable manufacturing plant, where they will use recycled plastics to manufacture plastic products such as bins, bottles, and crates, among other items.

The project aims to employ another 300 people since Melato and Molefi see their growth as a way to uplift communities and transfer skills. They also want to lend a new narrative to the waste sector by turning rubbish into something useful.

“You run around like headless chickens when you run a start-up. You have to fill a lot of positions and jump into a truck if the drivers are not there. But we wake up happy every morning because we are living a life of purpose,” says Molefi.

“We’re proud to have empowered these young ladies further to help grow their business so they can contribute to economic growth and job creation,” concludes Mokgejane.