Armed with grit and R2,200, Khanyisile Stemela built a business with a simple idea
Peter Luhanga
- Khanyisile Stemela has turned R2,200 in savings into a thriving bin-washing business in Cape Town.
- The 35-year-old father of two started Cargo Cleaning Services in September last year after spotting a gap in housing complexes near Dunoon.
- Stemela now employs four casual workers to help clean municipal bins after weekly rubbish collections.
A Cape Town man from Dunoon has followed his nose to becoming an entrepreneur.
The 35-year-old father of two, Khanyisile Stemela, whose children are aged ten and 13, noticed a simple but overlooked problem: municipal bins in Parklands North, a new housing development in Rivergate, and at Pioneer Valley, remained dirty and smelling after being emptied on a weekly basis by garbage collectors.
Residents, many working in banks, public services, and law enforcement, had neither the time nor inclination to scrub them clean.
Stemela, who had spent years picking up occasional work to support his family, saw an opportunity where others only saw waste.
With just R2,200 to his name, he launched a bin-cleaning service last September, signing up 12 households on his first day after spotting rows of reeking bins lining the streets.
Word spread quickly, and he added more clients, eventually growing his base to 100.
By March of this year, Stemela had formalised his venture, registering his cleaning company, Cargo Cleaning Services, with the CIPC.
His business success has allowed him to employ four casual workers, each earning R800 per month, to help wash bins across Parklands North, Rivergate, and Pioneer Valley, scrubbing away not just grime, but the financial uncertainty that cast a long shadow on his life.
“It has been hard to survive. Sometimes you end up in the wrong place with the wrong people because you are unemployed. You cannot even afford to buy cigarettes. Sometimes you meet the wrong guys who give you bad ideas, short cuts to make quick bucks. It is very hard to be unemployed, but I survived,” says Stemela.
Before starting his business, he did all sorts of jobs. One of them was pumping petrol, where he managed to save R2,200. Later, while helping a plumber in Rivergate, he noticed how filthy the bins were after the rubbish trucks had been through.
Using his savings, he bought chemicals and disinfectants, rolled up his sleeves and got scrubbing to kick off his bin-washing hustle.
“I thought, this is it, I can make a living. It was a Thursday when the municipal trucks emptied the bins, but left them filthy. I signed up 12 clients straight away. No one else was offering that service in the area,” he says.
Yet, challenges persist.
He says he lacks a bakkie, which limits his mobility, and he is in the process of planning to buy one.
The chemicals and disinfectants he needs are also expensive, as there are no local suppliers in Cape Town, forcing him to source them from Johannesburg.
Bulelwa Mkubalo, a single mother and home-owner in the new Rivergate development behind the factories, is one of Stemela’s clients. Mkubalo says Stemela’s service is “impressive.”
“We grew up in families where our parents weren’t business-oriented. So, it’s actually impressive to see a young black man starting a business with such business etiquette. In a time when there are so few jobs, he’s not only putting food on his own table but also providing for others by employing them. He’s not waiting for the government’s indigent grant, which isn’t even enough. He’s demonstrating ‘vuk’ unzenzele’ – waking up and doing it yourself,” says Mkubalo.
She also said Stemela had built trust with his clients, allowing them to leave their security gates open.
“While I’m at work and the bins are emptied, he comes, takes the bin, cleans it, and brings it back into the yard. I get home to find my house safe and secure, with no concerns about burglary. To establish that level of customer trust is invaluable in business,” she said.
Another happy customer, Thobela Booysen, says he knows exactly where Stemela’s coming from as he also grew up the same way in the township.
Upon moving into his new home, Booysen said, he found Stemela offering a service that spared him the trouble of scrubbing out his own bin after municipal collection.
“He collects the bin, cleans it, and returns it smelling fresh,” said Booysen.
And Stemela’s got big plans.
“I want to create more jobs as the business grows, and take it to other provinces too. I turned hustling into a business,” he said.