By Keletso Mkhwanazi.
Irvin Sydney Mashele, often known as “chairman,” is a street vendor who makes a living by selling atchar. He works at the busiest junction in Block T in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, while dressed in a suit. He began selling atchar in 2016 and is now raking it in thanks to his R20 per container pricing. “I started selling atchar at Mahikeng, door to door, then later I came back to Soshanguve where I found a spot at the busy corner road and whenever cars and people passing by bought, I somehow touched their lives with the encouraging words I shared,” said Mashele.
People started taking videos of him with his daily inspirational quotes while they supported his business. Despite his entrepreneurial abilities, he has also become a motivational speaker, influencer, and MC at many community development and empowerment initiatives in and around Tshwane thanks to his sense of style and confidence. The 44-year-old Mabopane-born businessman said his biggest achievement was breaking into the professional business market. “Being acknowledge by the City of Tshwane with the Tshwane Legend Awards and being the first atchar stall to make it to Jubilee Mall in Hamanskraal were my biggest milestones,” he told Vutivi News.
Starting a women empowerment programme to identify and boost women to launch their own businesses was another accomplishment, he said. Together with his partner, Khomotso Mokwena, he successfully led a community service effort for Mandela Day that focused on women empowerment. “We provided five 10 litre buckets of atchar to unemployed, underprivileged women so they could launch their own businesses with help from Team R5, without the aid of sponsors, we self-funded the drive by our profit,” he said. Mashele said he was involved in a number of illicit acts when he was young, and frequently found himself on the wrong side of the law. He ended up behind bars. “My life has been restored again. I was qualified to be a chef when I got out of prison and I worked in a few places, but I had to fulfill my ambition of starting my own business,” he added.
Mashele urged young people to start their own businesses, saying that they did not have to start big. “Even with the R350 unemployment grant that the government is providing, start something small like a packet of sweets or sack of vegetables. It should be a daily consumables,” he advised, emphasising the need to get out of bed each day with a plan. Mashele said that one of his short-term objectives was to begin selling his atchar at Tshwane’s malls. “My long-term objectives are expanding the brand, selling in larger quantities, supplying neighborhood shops, appearing on billboards, and supplying atchar to big supermarkets.”
