http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/innovation/2015/09/08/allys-tricycles-pick-joburgs-alleys-clean Ally’s tricycles pick Joburg’s alleys clean by Sue Grant-Marshall, September 08 2015
[image http://www.bdlive.co.za/incoming/2015/09/07/gezajozi-september-2015/ALTERNATES/crop_400x250/GezaJozi+September+2015 Joburg’s waste pickers are getting a leg-up with young entrepreneur Gabriel Ally’s GezaJozi startup, which uses electric trikes to double their loads. Picture: SEAN MCLEOD ] GEZAJOZI, a recycling project helping waste-pickers to join the formal economy and earn a decent wage, is the initiative of Gabriel Ally, a former Johannesburg junior mayor. While researching the feasibility of the project, he met a recycler whose body was doubled over in a big municipal bin as he scrabbled determinedly, emerging triumphant with a newspaper he carefully scrutinised. Ally, 23, questioned the man in his fluent Zulu. It emerged that he was looking for the employment section of a newspaper — he had his matric certificate tucked into his pocket. He lived in an abandoned cemetery, had dependants and needed a job. This man is one of the many reasons why Ally, 2010 head boy of St David’s Marist Inanda, launched his recycling initiative last year. Today he has a fleet of [Electric] tricycles powered by pedalling and batteries, each of which has a storage bin that carries up to 120kg of waste. He rents a recycling depot in Johannesburg’s CBD and has sponsors, backers and advertisers keen to support him. Ally’s desire to help the army of people picking through other people’s waste to feed their families began after he wrote his second-year exams for his BComm in politics, philosophy and economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and came home to Johannesburg, the city he loves. "I was stunned to see the increase in trolley recyclers," he says. "Everywhere I looked they were hauling their back-breaking loads along crowded streets, enduring curses and hoots as they tried to earn a living in our woefully underemployed society." Ally’s entrepreneurial spirit — he comes from a family deeply imbued with it — leapt to the fore. He had struggled to repress it but everything he had learned yelled "business opportunity" at him. When he started his studies he realised his university residence needed a cleaning service — so he started one. He took the ID photographs required of first-year students and organised an airport shuttle service for fellow residents. Ally wasn’t driven by financial need, he had an Allan Gray bursary following a tough selection process in his matric year. "I reasoned that I could always go back to studying by using online courses from great universities such as Harvard and Columbia," he says. "I wanted to learn about business first hand from life." HE BEGAN rising at 3am, joining waste pickers on the streets as the sun rose and chatting to them as he helped them with their messy work. "My goals are to help trolley recyclers make more money by doubling their loads," he says. "I want to bring them into the formal economy and I’m really keen to save our environment." In 2010 the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research estimated that only 3% of SA’s urban population recycles its waste. The import of that finding hits home when Ally points out: "If Joburg continues to use landfill for 90% of its waste it will probably run out of space by 2030." He is not a designer or engineer but he created a prototype tricycle in his garage to help the recyclers transport their loads. Finally, he decided that a 500W electrically assisted e-Trike was the way to go. "It’s safer, better balanced than a bicycle and can carry a load of 120kg over 40km," he says. During his research he discovered that some waste-pickers manage to drag 50kg through the streets on their unstable wooden platforms. Ally and his sponsors procured trikes with disc brakes, lights, indicators and hooters. Friends and relatives were advising him on his prototype when a businessman saw a drawing of his home-made trike, "and rang me immediately. Within five minutes of meeting, we were jotting down figures and I had financial backing." GezaJozi — Geza comes from the isiZulu ukugeza, to clean — which operates mainly in Rosebank and Craighall, began by collecting household waste. Now it has moved to office parks, to a printing outlet that discards a great deal of paper and to Ally’s old school. "Several office parks are now showing an interest in us. It makes economic sense for them to do so as we’re a small, predominantly black-owned business," Ally says. "We’re contributing to the economy by creating jobs. Any assistance they give us allocates them enterprise development points on their BEE scorecard." GezaJozi won’t deal with household waste for much longer, Ally says. "We’re moving into the formal economy and we don’t want to compete unfairly with the informal pickers." After his local manufacturing capacity is fully developed, he will produce more tricycles. "We’ll operate in fleets of five with six men and women to each fleet." The recyclers have historically been paid in cash, but Ally is now paying them daily, weekly or fortnightly into bank accounts he helped them to open. "In this way, they are learning about saving and budgeting," he says. THEY keep every cent of their waste revenue and do not pay GezaJozi for its services. Ally envisages them being able to create credit histories so they can, for instance, rent accommodation. The City of Johannesburg and Pikitup are working with GezaJozi. "We have the same aims, to reduce waste in a cost-efficient, clean, green manner as well as providing employment," Ally says. The waste storage tricycle bins are attracting the interest of advertising companies and Pam Golding Properties has signed up. The demand for recycled materials exceeds supply. "SA is exporting recycled waste and we’re told this will be the case for at least another decade," Ally says. With the recycling business up and running, the young man is thinking of diversification. He plans to make his trikes "more upmarket" to service other industries. "Keeping it green, we’re busy fashioning a recycled plastic loading box, covered with photovoltaic film," he says. This converts solar radiation into electricity, which will help charge the trike batteries. He sees the e-Trike being used by spaza shops, and to deliver medicines and other small parcels. It will be a small business that helps other small businesses, he predicts. Ally will learn any day now if GezaJozi has won R1m in The Green City Startup Challenge run by the City of Johannesburg to promote sustainability. There has never been a better time than now to be an entrepreneur because of governmental, societal and business support. "We cycle a rocky road but I wouldn’t have it any other way." 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