South Africans Help Innovative Homeless Man’s Dreams Come True

On Mandela Day yesterday, the social media community in South Africa came together in a wonderful gesture of uBuntu to help improve the life of one homeless man named Mengameli… or Sia for short. And today Sia’s dreams have started to come true!

Early Monday morning, Facebook page ‘I Have a Name’ posted a message about Sia:

“What strikes me is that the articulate voice coming from the young man does not match his appearance. You can tell that he is living on the street, his clothes dirty, and face haggard from cold nights exposed to the elements. He has on two different shoes.

“But when he opens his mouth… it’s as if I’m speaking with a university student. He’s buying 5 cigarettes from the street vendor I’m chatting to just opposite the Hobart Center in Bryanston.

“‘My name is Sia… at least that is what I tell people because it is easier to remember – my real name is Mengameli – it means ‘President’ in Zulu. I’m from Durban, I came to Johannesburg because I have big dreams and business ideas. I’m an analytical thinker. I believe in economic development and poverty alleviation. I came up with three keys to economic development. Point 1 – write this down!’ he instructs me because I’m not writing it down fast enough.

“‘1. The apartment industry 2.The Transport industry 3. EA Sport .’

“He goes on to explain his dream for low cost housing – but not shacks – small rooms in quality high rise apartment buildings sponsored in part by big business like Eskom – for entrepreneurs who are just starting out but struggling to make end meet.

“‘Life is all about competition – as humans we are always competing with each other – it is good for business. Big Business should be encouraging new ideas and young people, and providing housing is great place to start.’

“Mengameli then introduces his ideas for transforming the transport industry – ‘People spend millions of Rands on sports cars like Ferraris. The beauty about driving a Ferrari is the speed and power – but when you live in a big city you can’t use that speed and power because of all the traffic. I have drawn up plans for a ‘Hu-copter’ like a helicopter – but then for humans. It’s a hybrid between a car/helicopter and seats two people. It has two modes – flight and drive.’

“I ask him who is going to build it – ‘I wanted to introduce the concept to Resolution Circle Technology – they are an innovation company’.

“I’ve never heard of them, but I google them later and find out that he is right. Turns out they are a Tech Incubator – The Resolution Circle Incubator is specifically targeted for early stage technology start-ups that need to design, prototype and commercialise any form of technology.

“His last key idea is EA Sport – ‘Electronic Art Sport’. Mengameli goes into a long explanation – parts of which are beyond my comprehension, but I get the gist – virtual reality or augmented reality sports, where an avatar is created for big sports stars . Again this will be sponsored by big business and it will have its own DSTV channel.

“I’m completely baffled by his intelligence, dreams and ideas. I ask him how far he got in school.

“‘Grade 11… My parents both died. I was the eldest, I couldn’t stay in school. I’m 25 now. I didn’t realise it would be this difficult to break into the business world. I would love to work for a tech company like Eskom, or Resolution Circle. At the moment I’m homeless and live on the street.’

“Sia… or Mengameli is not a guy you give a gardening or construction job to… I do not have a phone number for him – but he has a friend with a phone and has promised to send me a sms so that I can contact him. Is anybody in the Tech/innovation business willing to mentor this young man or even meet him and talk to him over coffee? …or is there a Business man out there willing to give him 67 minutes of time for Mandela Day?”

Within hours messages of support and assistance were flooding in and this afternoon the page was “extremely happy” to report that Fred Baumhardt, CEO of Curve Banking and Financial Services, had taken Sian home to a room, food, clothes AND a job where he gets to use his mind!

Baumhardt wrote on his Facebook page a few hours ago: “Meet Sia, the newest member of the Curve Group. Who will be interning with us and has been offered (and accepted) a full time role in the Curve family. Team let’s make him feel a part of us…”

Baumhardt has confirmed that Sia “will be staying with our family until his permanent housing is ready tomorrow. We’ll be getting him a phone and Facebook so you can all follow the adventures of our latest member of the Curve family. Pay it forward, one kindness at a time…”

And, once Sia has settled into his new surroundings, Resolution Circle “are going to sit down with Sian next week” and explore the possibility of helping him finish his matric and further schooling.

SAPeople’s Purely Pip columnist, Pip Davis, said she hopes everyone reads this story.

“There are thousands of Sia’s in South Africa. If we all lifted up that phenomenal potential on the shoulders of giants, nothing, and I mean nothing could stop SA being the greatest economy and greatest innovation centre on the planet. This is equity people. Real love in action.”

Read the original post here.