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02 January 2020
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Story Valentino Ndaba
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Photo Anja Aucamp
Refilwe Xaba, the founder and CEO of Glolooks.
Refilwe Xaba, Senior Assistant Officer in Entrepreneurship Development at the UFS Centre for Development Support, is the founder and CEO of Glolooks. This Bloemfontein-based company manufactures and supplies an organic, natural hair product range.
When she first developed the products, they were for personal use. Xaba evolved from an intrapreneur to an entrepreneur. She innovated a personal solution into a booming business idea. It was only in May 2016 that she decided to go into business, following growing interest in the way she maintained her hair. “I officially started in-depth research in October 2015, after years of making concoctions for myself.”
Business and books
Xaba reckons that a research background is beneficial for growing a business such as Glolooks that has a huge technical aspect. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Entrepreneurship with a focus on marketing and is planning to use her business as a case study.
Her undergraduate, honours, and master’s studies, which she completed at Kovsies, contributed to equipping Xaba with skills to grow her business. She believes in balancing education and business. “I have always been commerce-orientated. If there is a problem to be fixed, I fix it. However, people are at the centre of my heart.”
Growing Glolooks
In 2019, Glolooks opened a salon in Westdene, where customers can receive a holistic experience above and beyond merely purchasing the product. Xaba says this is one of the ways her business is being innovative when it comes to creating relationships with customers.
Leadership is about people, Tsedu
2009-09-16
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Mr Mathatha Tsedu, Head of the Journalism Academy at Media24
Photo: Dries Myburgh |
Modern-day leaders have neither the inclination nor the will to lead the very people who have entrusted them with that responsibility, said Mr Mathatha Tsedu, Head of the Journalism Academy at Media24.
The former City Press editor delivered the 2nd King Moshoeshoe Memorial Lecture at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein last night.
He said the current state of leadership in South Africa was characterised by patronage and self-enrichment.
“The poorest of the poor and our affection for them extends only to public meetings where we mouth socialist slogans. But in reality we want nothing to do with them and they have to fend for themselves,” he said.
“Leadership has to be more than just the power of a mayor, premier, MEC or minister to dish out tenders to friends for projects that never get completed. Projects whose real legacy is the fact that the friend of the leader now drives a Hummer.”
He said leadership had to be about people but acknowledged the fact that it would not happen unless people themselves insisted on that.
“King Moshoeshoe teaches us that leadership is about taking decisions and taking risks. Not only as leaders but more especially as members of the community,” he said.
“We can address our critical challenges only if citizens’ groups, business, labour and broader civil society actively engage with the state to improve delivery and enforce an accountable government.”
He appealed to leaders to follow the example of King Moshoeshoe and always put people first, and involve them, in the decisions that they take.
“This is about concern for others and for self. It is about compassion in leadership and in society, it is about caring beyond own concerns. It is about being involved and engaged. These are the attributes that I feel King Moshoeshoe left us as a legacy of leadership. Leadership not only of the leaders but of the led,” he said.
Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
10 September 2009
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