The desire for growth and constantly learning new things has always been a source of inspiration for Mondli Mande, a third-year Civil Engineering student at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Indumiso Campus.

The innovative entrepreneur has been creating face masks and selling them in his local community, Esikhawini, a town in the King Cetshwayo District Municipality. Mande is also one of the students in business who are incubated and receive numerous theoretical and practical entrepreneurial support from the DUT Midlands Entrepreneurship Centre and Student Desk.

The inventive Mande (25) uses basic cloths to design his brand of face masks called ‘NINOMASKS’. The call for people to wear masks as a means of protection against COVID-19 inspired Mande. “The idea of designing masks transpired from observing the situation worsening in other countries. This was then a call for me as a budding entrepreneur to be innovative. I was watching the news on television about the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, and I saw everyone wearing masks in China and that is how the idea behind the NINOMASKS was born,” he said.

“Also, according to the South African government, it is going to be mandatory to use a cloth mask during all lockdown levels and beyond. Designing and sewing clothes has always been my hobby from an early age,” he added. He learnt how to make masks by watching a YouTube video, and he immediately started making 11 masks a day.

“It is now or never. This is the right time to re-evaluate our businesses and find new ways of doing business that will be relevant to the current societal needs. Also adapt and adjust to technology, as youth entrepreneurs, to ensure that we establish sustainable and thriving businesses,” said Mande.

Pictured: Mondli Mande

Sindisiwe Ndlovu