Wandisile Nqeketo:Interview Questions

Wandisile Nqeketho

Background and career

1. 1. Your accolades are known to many of us, but for those who do not have yet had the pleasure to know, please tell us about yourself, where you come from?
2. 2. Please tell us about 18 Gangster Museum, what it seeks to achieve and what it does?
3. 3. You have ventured in your journey towards entrepreneurship, from recycling, holding events, school in between but above all else you chose 18 Gangster, you could have been many things but you chose this, why?
4. 4. I am aware that you have been a beneficiary of RAA, the Dice program, Obama Foundation, how has immersing yourself in these spaces helped your entrepreneurial journey?
5. 5. Do you attribute any of your success to mentorship? If so how has it helped you?

Business Model

1. 1. 18 Gangster Museum is a social enterprise inherently as I understand, you have shared with many people what the goal of the Museum seeks to do, aside from the tours that you have now added, what kind of activities happen at the museum?
2. 2. In the last year or so you have managed to host 9000 international tourists, and part of your goals was to bring it back home, have you tapped into that journey?
3. 2.1 What would this look like in comparison to the other international tours?

-What it is?

- Who initiates it?

- How does it impact your business?

Operations

1. 1. Please tell us about your team and how you guys are delegated?
2. 2. You and your partner Siya, have worked closely together, what makes your partnership work and what do you think entrepreneurs should look at when forming a partnership and long term collaboration?
3. 3. Over the past year, I know you managed to recruit a couple of interns, what was the motive for this and how did they fit in to your business model?

Overarching questions

1. 1. You have done a great deal of pitching for the business, how did you find yourself in this space, and how has it groomed you as an entrepreneur?
2. 2. What are some of your biggest success factors as an entrepreneur?
3. 3. Your business model primarily rests in the tourism sector, which experienced a global recession.

-I know I am asking an obvious question, but did you manage to keep afloat at all?

-Did you find other ways to raise funds?

-As a representative of this sector, how do you think businesses can arm themselves better in times of crisis?

4. Let’s speak about some of the hurdles you have faced as a business, I know in the past you

have shared matters around funding and cash flow, what are your most pressing matters now?

Wrapping up

1. 1. What message of advice would you give to other young people who find themselves wanting to be a pillar in their communities but do not know how they can do this and more so it seems like all odds are against them.

1. 2. And finally, what is your secret ingredient to success?

Other unrelated questions I promise to not ask

(Based on the gruesome attacks that have occurred to social entrepreneurs in the townships in the last month)

1. The current trajectory for Khayelitsha for social entrepreneurs is one that cannot be hidden from our eyes and ears. Covid-19 has accelerated the pre-existing crimes i.e. break in’s in spaces like Kasi RC, have any of these development impacted your business in any way?

-In the spirit of being solution oriented creatives, what do you think could be some of the solutions to curb, or even navigate this issue?

2. 18 Gangster museum is mirrors the current socio-economic dynamics, what interventions can we expect in the near future?

3. I want to tap into the business model of 18 Gangster museum particularly, the workforce that is utilised, i.e. the ex-offenders who are hired/ volunteer for you guys. What new mechanisms are emerging from you as a team to assist with these matters?

4. Adversity and resilience are values that come out strongly in your entrepreneurial journey, in light of recent event a burning question lately amongst entrepreneurs in the township, is do we leave or do we stay and keep trying?

• - Why have people been asking this question?
• - What benefits or loses lie on the each side of the poles?

5. One of your core focus, is teaching people about the implications of joining gangs, what happens in these times of global economic recession, where our governance is down in the doldrums with corruption and the people feel neglected, is it not inevitable that people where turn to their only known source of sustenance? And that is crime, how then to we intervene as a community?