Vision

Igniting social entrepreneurship using innovative strategies in order to address socio-economic challenges and create a fair and just society.

Mission

To commit to developing and promoting sustainable social entrepreneurship through mentorship and strategic partnerships with Industry, Government, Community and Educational Institutions.

Objectives

1. Developing social entrepreneurship within communities through mentorship and other innovative strategies.
2. Developing social entrepreneurship at the University through student engagement, partnerships with relevant stakeholders and research.
3. Developing a curriculum for social entrepreneurship at the University to promote social entrepreneurship as a means of addressing social challenges and creating a fair and just society.

The Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) was established at Durban University of Technology (DUT) in July 2015 in partnership with the National Department of Small Business Development (DSBD). Seda has been mandated to monitor and evaluate the progress of CSE’

• Centres of Footwear Entrepreneurship (CoFE).
  Developing training and enterprise development within the footwear industry.

• Textile and Clothing Manufacturing
  Support and mentorship for local clothing manufacturing enterprises

• Bhambayi Informal Settlement/ Gandhi Settlement
  IT training for local communities

1. The Social Entrepreneurship Forum

The CSE initiated the first Social Entrepreneurship Forum at the University on 12 February 2016 with 20 members attending the first meeting. The SE Forum serves as a platform for social entrepreneurs within the University and surrounding community to networks and share best practices – and to inform the CSE of needs of social enterprises. This will allow the CSE to develop relevant workshops and interventions to support these social enterprises.

2. CSE Partnerships and Collaboration

The CSE has engaged in a partnership with LifeCo, an internationally recognized organization that focuses on impact and innovative social entrepreneurship. Through the partnership, the CSE and LifeCo have agreed to share best practices, exchange links and work together to promote the growth of the social entrepreneurship sector in KwaZulu-Natal.

The CSE has entered into a partnership with Kohwa Holdings to develop commercial farming in rural areas of KZN. One of the projects involves the public, private partnership of Mthashana TVET College in Ulundi, the local Municipality, Kohwa and the CSE in order to train unemployed youth graduates to become large scale commercial farmers. Kohwa is the technical partner for the CSE and has 12 successful cooperative farming projects in KZN. Mthashana has ceded 150 hectares of land to the CSE of which 20 hectares will be used for incubation of agricultural produce.

1^st Black Rand is another partner with whom the CSE has forged a partnership in order to develop enterprises in the Clothing and Textile Sectr.

The CSE has initiated a collaboration with the eThekwini Local Economic Department and the Dept of Economic Development to develop social enterprises in KZN.

The CSE has also started engaging with other universities both locally and abroad to promote research in social entrepreneurship and further, to develop a curriculum on social entrepreneurship for the University.