The 2024 South African Future Trust Summit has wrapped up in Sandton with over 1 000 delegates in attendance. Over the two days, the platform brought together entrepreneurs from across SA to experience the value of being connected to a hyper-local ecosystem.
Attendees had the opportunity to network with other business owners and, in so doing, were able to find new suppliers, new clients and new contacts to grow their business. They also had the opportunity to get free advice from professionals within accounting, tax, legal, marketing and other disciplines. Over 170 exhibitors spanning different industries showcased their various products and solutions, with many of them concluding deals and securing business leads
A series of ‘Pitch Perfect’ live sessions saw entrepreneurs who came through from preliminary rounds, pitching for investments to a panel of investors on Day One. The top 4 finalists earned the opportunity to pitch in a final round to the three judges on Day Two. SA Future Trust Chair Jonathan Oppenheimer; former JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King and Sango Capital’s Richard Okello chose the overall winner, who could potentially be the recipient of an investment of up to R20 million, pending the completion of the due diligence process.
After a stirring call to action from Jonathan Oppenheimer about how entrepreneurs can help our country and impact the world, African Leadership Academy founder Fred Swaniker shared his inspirational journey and vision for the African continent. Denmark-based Rehumanize Institute Founder Laila Pawlak provided insights into global entrepreneurship trends, while digital fluency expert MJ Petroni spoke on how to embrace technology to make the challenging start-up experience simpler.
Local-but-international Tasha’s Group CEO & Founder Natasha Sideris shared her wisdom on franchising models; Fibretime founder Allan Knott-Craig spoke candidly on how to ‘Fail Forward’ ; Manjaro’s Heidi Patmore gave a ‘Marketing for Dummies’ presentation; a panel moderated by 702’s Ray White and featuring RLabs’ Marlon Parker and WeThink Code’s Nyari Samushonga spoke to ‘profit with a purpose’ and financial journalist, speaker and author Bruce Whitfield shared, with his trademark style, thoughts about the impact of small ideas on the bigger picture for South Africa.
“What we had at the Summit over the course of the two days is a microcosm of what we as South African’s need to do. We all have to work together in this hyper-local ecosystem. We need the private sector, public sector, philanthropy and the entrepreneurial community to join forces to build a better South Africa.” said SA Future Trust Chair Jonathan Oppenheimer. “If we can create this kind of energy 365 days a year, South Africa has a great future – and our ambition is to create an environment where that can happen.”
Pearl Khumalo, Executive Administrator at literary brand visibility and sales generation company SA Books Online said of her time at the Summit: “It was extremely fun to meet other businesses that are in the digital and innovation space and see how many SA businesses are coming up and doing such impactful work. It’s been insightful to learn from the greats, to hear some insights that can assist us as young businesses to look at things from a different perspective”.
Eagle Eye Defence provides multi-factor authentication for everything from vehicles and mining equipment to other high-value assets, CEO and Co-Founder Iviwe Mosana said that the Summit had helped his business close a few gaps they had within their systems. “We’ve found some key partners, secured new clients and holistically gained insights from key industry players,” he said.
Tintswalo Hlongwane, Head of Design at Small Enterprise Development & Financing Agency (SEDFA) declared her experience at the Summit as a success. “It’s been amazing meeting so many different people in different industries, hearing about businesses in different growth stages,” she said. “At my exhibition stand, I’ve met a lot of people looking for development opportunities – from finance to access to markets and product testing – and it’s good to see that there are people out there doing things that will change the landscape when it comes to small business development in South Africa”.
The 2025 SAFT Awards were announced at the conclusion of the Summit, with a total of R3 million in prize money across six categories. The six Award categories are Youth Entrepreneur, Social Entrepreneur, Tech Entrepreneur, Most Innovative Award, Women in Business Award and the OOM Impact Award. Entries are open until the end of May 2025, with the winners being announced at the end of July 2025. The “OOM (Optimised Operating Model) Impact” Award is reserved for one SAFT Summit delegate, who can demonstrate how they’ve applied the Summit takeaways to enhance their business performance.
“We want to thank our sponsors and partners for assisting us in putting together an amazing platform over the two days. A special acknowledgement to our sponsors Standard Bank who sponsored the Advisory Zone, African Bank and Radio 702 with live crossings from the Summit by Ray White,” said Oppenheimer. “We also thank all the other banks, insurance companies, corporates and small businesses who participated as partners.”
