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02 January 2024 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Igno van Niekerk
Tafadzwa Maramura
Dr Tafadzwa Maramura participated in a study on couplepreneurs and ways in which they influence their children to become better entrepreneurs.

After years of hard work, the lonely entrepreneur rode off into the sunset. No family. No one to share the lived experience with. The entrepreneurial journey can be a recipe for loneliness. However, it does not have to be, you can enjoy an entrepreneurial family that leaves a legacy.

Dr Tafadzwa C Maramura, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Management at the UFS participated in a study with Drs Eugine Maziriri (University of Johannesburg), Miston Mapuranga (University of Pretoria), Brighton Nyagadza (Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences) on couplepreneurs and ways in which they influence their children to become better entrepreneurs. The interinstitutional study drew on several fields of expertise and was a fresh addition to the research on access to water that Dr Maramura is doing.

Couplepreneurship is a concept that explains businesses owned and operated by married and/or cohabiting couples. According to Dr Maramura: “The development of couplepreneurship in South Africa as an emerging economy has led to increasing interest in the study of how kids are inspired and/or influenced by their parents towards starting their own and to participate in the already existing family enterprises.”

Nurturing entrepreneurial potential

Couplepreneurs are in a great position to raise kidpreneurs. Who better to listen to the heroic stories of how mom and dad started off with a big dream, growth mindsets, and steadfast commitment to building their business than their offspring? Like teaching a person how to fish rather than giving them fish, couplepreneurs do not hand their kids a business, they teach them how to run and grow a business.

Dr Maramura believes that nurturing an entrepreneurial potential is the result of “encouraging resilience, adaptability, and a willingness to embrace failure, even as a learning opportunity”. Combine this with an environment that promotes creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, and you have the recipe for a kidpreneur to become an entrepreneur. Now add more ingredients: parents who offer support, mentorship, and exposure to diverse experiences. Put it in the heated oven called business – and you have created the meal all entrepreneurs crave: Legacy.

News Archive

Kovsie students selected for prestigious study travel programme
2013-05-15

 

Golden Key International Honour Society members, Michael van Niekerk, Siobhan Canavan, Mpoi Makhetha and Cebolenkosi Sokhela, will travel to the USA and China, meeting the best in their career fields.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse
15 May 2013


They are amongst the top 15 percent of academic achievers at the university, and have been afforded the opportunity to travel abroad and meet with leading people in their fields of study.

Kovsie students Michael van Niekerk, Siobhan Canavan, Mpoi Makhetha and Cebolenkosi Sokhela, all members of the Golden Key International Honour Society, will travel to the USA and China. This trip is part of the International Scholar Laureate Program (ISLP) to learn how their career fields are practiced in another part of the world. The students are part of a select group of outstanding university students from across the world who will be given access to people, places and global perspectives in fields such as business, engineering, medicine, nursing, diplomacy and international relations.

Michael, a fourth-year MBChB student and SRC member of our Bloemfontein Campus, and Cebolenkosi, a third-year BSc Microbiology student will visit Washington, Philadelphia and New York in the USA. As part of the medicine delegation of the programme, they will visit clinics and hospitals to see how their study fields are practiced. Michael’s trip includes a visit to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he will meet representatives of the National Institute of Health, the largest source of funding for medical research in the world. He will also visit Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Mpoi, a third-year BSc Human Molecular Biology student, also forms part of the medicine delegation but will travel to China. "We will be exploring the ancient ways of healing versus the modern medical practices, exploring the medical systems of the country and meeting doctors and professors, visiting the rural areas, and of course, touring the best parts of China,” she said.

Siobhan, a third-year Media Studies and Journalism student, is part of the diplomacy and international relations delegation who will visit Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai in China. "To me it's such an honour to be part of this programme,” she said. “It will give me the platform to not only represent who I am, but also my university and the values that the university has instilled in me. It allows me to be a part of something great that will benefit me in the end."

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