You will have seen Ndileka Biyo if you have watched the video “Ulibali – This is Our Story” (available for viewing on the Maiscorp web site HERE). Ndileka’s fashion design business is features as one of our longest standing business entrepreneurship projects. Earlier this year we took some promotional pictures of the clothing she has produced for her Baby Shweshwe range, which we are delighted to showcase here.

Ndileka inherited her sewing skills from her mother and was forced to use them to support her family when her husband became unemployed in 1988. She found her lack of a formal education was holding back her business and took herself back to high school, where she passed Matric in 1995. She later studied fashion design at the Cape University of Technology, graduating with a Diploma in Fashion Design in 2003.

Ndileka moved to Masiphumelele in 2006 where she made clothes for the local community and volunteered at the library, which was where she met Masicorp. With financial and mentoring help she founded her own business “Shweshwe” in 2008. Shweshwe is a printed dyed cotton fabric that is widely used in traditional South African clothing.

The small workshop that established with support from Masicorp is a popular destination on local township tours, where tourists often buy her produce. She also has sold her products from a stall in Tokai Forest Market and is looking at the possibility of space at the new Watershed development at the V&A Waterfront.

We hope you like her Baby Shweshwe range and please feel free to contact her using the details below.

Ndileka Biyo, Baby Shweshwe
1574 Skina Road, Masiphumelele
Tel: 082 731 5560
e-mail: nbiyo@yahoo.com