Social entrepreneurship in practice: TCB, Taking Care of Business in Cape Town

Cape Town, 22 September 2025, South Africa faces a double crisis: high unemployment and enormous amounts of waste. Millions of children grow up in low-income families, often with single mothers struggling to provide for them. At the same time, large retail chains discard millions of tonnes of unsold goods every year, returns, seasonal items and surplus stock the stores have no systems to handle.

In the middle of this crisis, TCB, Taking Care of Business found an opportunity. Founded in 2010 by Tracey Chambers and Tracey Gilmore in a garage in Cape Town, and formerly known as The Clothing Bank, TCB began by training unemployed women to repair, sort and sell surplus goods donated by chains such as Woolworths.

Today TCB cooperates with many of South Africa's largest retailers. Goods that would otherwise be thrown away are sent to TCB's branches, sorted, repaired and made available to entrepreneurs at heavily reduced prices. The participants, mostly unemployed women, receive training, mentoring and coaching so they can start small businesses and support themselves. The process runs in six steps: Collect – Sort – Distribute – Repair – Develop – Sustain. The result is a circular economy that reduces waste while building people, with programmes ranging from Resell (clothing) and Repair (household goods) to Remake (sewing and redesign) and GROW Educare Centres, which support early childhood centres in low-income areas.

TCB has created work opportunities for hundreds of people, and the ripple effects reach far beyond the participants themselves. The KBT delegation met "Fred", a formerly unemployed man who had lived on the edge of crime and learned to repair household goods. Today he runs his own shop at TCB and is known in the neighbourhood as "the street's repairman": "I can support my family and put food on the table in an honest way. Quitting is unthinkable."

An unexpected highlight of the visit came when the staff invited KBT's Rector, Karl Johan Johansen, to join a traditional African dance. To drum rhythms filling the room, he was pulled onto the floor to great cheers and laughter from hosts and participants alike. "It was a fantastic experience, the dance expressed joy, community and strength. I will never forget it," Johansen smiled afterwards.

"Here we see how environment, business and human dignity can be combined in one model. This is something our students can learn enormously much from," says International Coordinator Nils-Erik Volden. TCB turns 15 in 2025 and is internationally recognised for its work with entrepreneurship, job creation and the circular economy, where others see waste and hopelessness, TCB sees resources and possibilities.