Thato Mahube wins Orange Bonatla le Botswerere challenge

Thato Mahube of Amazing Services is this year’s winner of the Orange Botswana’s Bonatla le Botswerere Women’s Challenge. Amazing Services, a 100 percent Botswana owned company founded by Thato Mahube was crowned winner last Friday.

The WIBA affiliated company provides communications solutions and wellness events management. The winning product is an A4 sized leather folder which doubles as a card holder and diary, offering complete convenience of holding all the necessary valuables in one folder.

The competition, an initiative of Orange Foundation was launched in July and closed in September 2015. It has been running for the fifth consecutive year. The Bonatla le Botswerere Women in Business Corporate Gift Challenge, targets all women entrepreneurs and SMMEs.

The competition’s primary objective is to provide local women an opportunity to design and produce corporate gifts, which Orange then buys in bulk for its stakeholders. Orange has specifically reserved a budget of P100, 000 to buy the gifts from Amazing Services.

This initiative is one of Orange’s many women empowerment initiatives aimed at boosting women SMMEs, given the challenges that they face as small businesses operating in the country.  In addition to the P100 000 worth of supplies to Orange, Amazing Services will get additional benefits.

“Her company gets to enjoy free opportunities to exhibit her products at different platforms facilitated by Orange Foundation. So this is a great opportunity for women such as Mahube who are trying to grow their businesses and penetrate the market,” says Orange PR and Foundation Manager Boga Chilinde-Masebu. 

Since the beginning of the initiative in 2012, over 100 candidates from all over Botswana have participated, with 52 entries having been received for this year’s competition alone. These are women involved in different areas such as arts and crafts, fashion design, textiles, bakery, body and beauty, food and beverages, upholstery and linen making.

According to Chilinde-Masebu, the 52 submitted proposals went through an internal evaluation process to select the winner. “The main focus points for evaluation criteria covered among others; creativity, innovation, craftsmanship, usefulness of the proposed product and durability. The fundamental selection criterion was based on the applicant ability to demonstrate that they manufacture or make the products themselves,” she says.