08/09/09 - CCDI/ISANDI/NORAD Programmes

Background

The Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI) was set up in 2001 to promote and grow craft as an economic sector in the Western Cape. A Section 21 not-for-profit company, it is a joint initiative of the Provincial Government and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The CCDI has a Norwegian-based wholesale and retail partner, Isandi, with footprints all over Scandinavia. This partnership has translated into export opportunities for Western Cape craft producers, and lately, mentorship opportunities.

Export

Scandinavian craft purchases in 2008 from South Africa showed an increase of almost 40% from 2007, amounting to approximately R2 million, of which R850 000 were products made by Cape craft producers. 

Trade shows in Scandinavia have also yielded excellent sales and media coverage for Isandi and its suppliers. The participation at the Gave & Interior trade show in August 2008 generated R500 000 worth of purchasing orders. This demonstrates that there is a real demand for high quality handmade South African craft products in the Scandinavian market. 

The largest volume Cape suppliers are TinTown, JoJo Wire Metals and Streetwires, while Haldane Martin, Carol Boyes and JoJo are the largest value suppliers. 



Mentorship

The CCDI is working to develop a pool of mentors and a methodology that will be rolled out more widely in the future. It is being developed through the Isandi/Norad pilot project. The CCDI Isandi Pilot Project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for
Development Co-operation (Norad) and facilitated in the Western Cape by the CCDI. It provides support services to five producers, three of whom are from the Western Cape: Zambane Textiles (hand potato-printed fabrics); Iliwa (shwe shwe fabric clothing, beaded animals); and Jo-Jo Wires (rusted wire art works and décor.)

In order to develop a best practice approach and mentorship methodology, the CCDI, in partnership with Isandi, hosted a mentor development workshop in June this year at Goedgedacht olive farm near Malmesbury.

Sarah Polonsky, in charge of Enterprise Development at the CCDI, with facilitator Eckard Shleburger from SA Ideas, invited mentors to share their learnings and to help develop a programme that could be implemented more widely in the sector. They drew on lessons from each participant to inform best practice methodology. The workshop encouraged the participants to reflect on diverse aspects of what it takes to mentor successfully. Delegates commented on acknowledging a mentor’s success, and the importance of not trying to fix aspects of the business that are already working well.

Cast study: Iliwa

Eunice Mlotywa, founder of the Iliwa Laphakade Women’s Project, has inspired hundreds of township women while building up a craft business that is now supplying one of the country’s largest retailers. A former domestic worker, and the wife of a church minister, she decided to pass on skills learnt from her dressmaker mother and beadworking grandmother. She later dedicated herself fulltime to training and has trained about 550 women since 1996 in sewing and beadworking.

The project is also now supplying handmade cards to large retailer Mr Price Home. With the support of a mentor, appointed by the CCDI through the programme funded by Norad, the organisation has successfully negotiated the challenges of registering as a supplier to a large-scale retailer, establishing an efficient production line, implementing their quality controls systems and meeting their delivery deadlines.

Issued by: Judy Bryant Communications 0832867168 / judybryant@telkomsa.net

On behalf of: Cape Craft and Design Institute
Contact: CCDI 021-461 1488
Communications Manager Marjorie Naidoo 021-461 1488