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Johannesburg - Titus Khoza is ready to make a difference in young girls’ lives and not just because International Women’s Day was celebrated on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old from Mgobodzi in Mpumalanga walked away with R100 000 at Design Indaba held at Artscape in Cape Town recently.
“I’m going to buy a machine worth R250 000 that mass produces . I know that is going to change many young girls’ lives,” he said, adding that it has always been his dream to make a positive impact on women’s welfare.
This year, Nedbank, as the sponsor of Design Indaba for three years, used the platform to drive the point home by identifying, sponsoring and challenging 40 emerging creatives (dynamic young industrial designers working together to design and manufacture proudly South African).
The bank is hoping the project will encourage them to use their ingenuity to solve prevalent socioeconomic problems.
The first runner-up was Carien Momsen and the second Keya Murphy.
Khoza said he pitched his idea to the judging panel, confident that he was going to win because the statistics of young girls who miss school because they can’t afford to buy sanitary towels “are shocking”.
“I realised that I needed to do something about it.”
He said he planned to donate the sanitary towels to disadvantaged schools and try to sell them to retail stores at a reasonable price.
Since 1995, the Design Indaba has been the highlight of South Africa’s innovation, contributing vastly to uplifting the design sector.
“This is not just a marketing initiative but a reflection of the continuing business evolution at Nedbank.
"We live in a volatile and unprecedented socioeconomic environment. This is the time for us to intensify our commitment and improve the tangible that is built on our expertise of enabling clients to navigate challenges and meet their goals,” said Nedbank head of group marketing Thulani Sibeko.
