Thousands of innovative exhibitors and visitors descended onto the 2026 Proudly South African Buy Local Summit and Expo at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg this week.
The two-day event, anchored by this year’s theme of localisation, was a vibrant hub of homegrown enterprise and economic opportunities. The annual summit and expo echoes the movement to buy local, driving sustainable job creation, reinforcing supply chains and boosting local manufacturing.
Exhibitors Dorothy Mofomme of PojuPoju and Gugu Xaba of Scented by Nonkosi spoke to Sowetan about their journeys into entrepreneurship.
Dorothy ‘Fatima’ Mofomme of Pojupoju
Electrical engineer and serial entrepreneur Mofomme is the founder of Pojupoju baby food.
“PojuPoju was established in 2024. Before that, in 2018, I co-founded another company, Nalydia, which produced natural food purees in glass jars. In 2023, while attending a wedding in Swaziland, a friend asked me to bring abo-pojupoju (baby food pouches) because I was in the business of making baby food,” she says.
“I stepped down from Nalydia and developed the idea for the baby food, not in glass jars but for pouches. I gave it the name PojuPoju, inspired by my Swaziland trip.”
Mofomme, 47, grew up in Marapong, Limpopo, and is a qualified electrical engineer. In 2014, she ventured into entrepreneurship with an engineering solutions company before venturing into pureed baby food production.
The Centurion-based puree company manufactures and brands the pouches and caps locally and even does recipe development suitable for infants from seven months old. The flavour variants include butternut and sweet potato, carrots and potato, blueberry and guava, pear and banana, apple and banana, plus plain pear and plain apple.
PojuPoju outsources the testing and industry compliance procedures for all its pouches. “What sets us apart is our innovative caps for the pouches. We re-engineered it so that after that, we had to draw it to suit the South African context and patent it.
“The caps are similar to children’s building blocks, which aid in the children’s early development of crucial cognitive and motor neuron skills,” says Mofomme.
Gugu Xaba of Scented by Nonkosi
The perfumer says that since leaving her last job, becoming her own boss has given her the freedom, and she has never looked back. “Whenever I was in the office, I felt as though I was caged; I was suffocating and felt as though I was doing the same thing over again, but on a different day. I was drained and unhappy,” says Xaba.
The effervescent 37-year-old and former internal auditor tapped into her natural people skills and began selling to her work colleagues. “I’m a people person, and I started selling accessories and shoes in the office, and I’d get joy from selling. My last employment in 2022, I decided to jump ship after five years without a plan,” she says.
Xaba’s natural people skills and her love of fragrances blended when an unexpected opportunity from her former lift club mate launched her venture into reselling perfumes.
“The gentleman from the lift club worked for a Swedish perfumery, and I’d drop him off at work every day unbeknownst to me. He noticed empty glass bottles in my back seat. He asked if I was selling perfumes and offered that I should try his. Then we partnered,” Xaba.
“His perfumes smelled amazing, and people kept coming back for more. Unfortunately, we have since gone our separate ways. However, before we parted, he offered to give me the list of companies where to source the materials and taught me how to make perfumes.”
Xaba says that entrepreneurship is part of her family allotment and in her bloodline. “I was raised in eMnambithi, KwaZulu-Natal, by my grandmother. I inherited the spirit of entrepreneurship from my family. I remember growing up, my grandfather owned a tyre business, and my father ran a business too. I thought to myself that entrepreneurship is a calling,” she says.
Three years on, Scented by Nonkosi was founded with unique home and body fragrance blends, including her best seller, Vanilla Rose, which is a warm vanilla scent infused with berries and rose petals.
“This is the first exhibition at the Buy Local Summit and Expo, and the experience has been amazing. The main aim was to get the opportunity to do business with other businesses and for exposure,” Xaba says.
“On the customer end, people have been curious and loving the offering, even complimenting me on the branding of the bottles and presentation. The reviews of the scents have been top-tier. I’m happy with the experience and even made sales on day one.”
