1 Scientific Roets: Who are we?
Scientific
Roets (PTY) LTD are social entrepreneurs who source, develop and
scale innovative technologies and approaches that strengthen
economic and environmental resilience and increase opportunities
for income generation in rural areas. We achieve this vision
through:
Agricultural
and Rural Enterprise Project conception, business planning,
implementation and project management ,
Training,
assessment, moderation and development of learning material
(Fully Accredited Training Service Provider and Institute of
Sectoral and Occupational Excellence of AgriSETA, with the NQF 4
New Venture Creation programme registered with ServicesSETA) in
both the development and scientific space,
Agricultural
research (contract and ad hoc research regarding indigenous
resources, nutrition and agricultural economics) and
Development
and incubation of innovative new products and services with
agribio-tech entrepreneurs at our new AgriSPACE campus.
The company
turned 13 years old in September 2015 and has been based in
Kokstad (KZN) since 2003.
2. Scientific Roets: What do we believe in?
Our Vision:
Scientific Roets are social entrepreneurs who source, develop
and scale innovative technologies and approaches that strengthen
economic and environmental resilience and increase opportunities
for income generation in rural areas.
The Mission
of Scientific Roets (PTY) Ltd is "Working towards the
Sustainable Development Goals, Scientific Roets assists local,
district, provincial and national authorities and other
development agencies to achieve their rural community and
enterprise development goals by improving entrepreneurial and
agricultural human talents, innovating through new agricultural,
tourism and agri-biotech product development and actively
seeking access to new and alternative markets, thus promoting
livelihood diversification whilst ensuring improved financial
inclusion and community engagement."
We are
passionate about South Africa.
All our work
in rural development is based on our belief in the
complementarity of the four "Prime Movers of Rural
Development":
o
Agriculture
(it is the key to unlocking the potential of rural communities),
o
Infrastructure and equipment (it must be technologically viable
and appropriate to its environment),
o
Institutional Innovation (enterprises must engender empowerment
and improve livelihoods) and
o
Capacity
building (Should be associated with job-creation, encourage
entrepreneurship and "Life-long" learning).
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd has developed a methodology which combines
participatory business planning, intricate market knowledge and
the creation of viable market linkages, appropriate skills
development, and the development of the relevant infrastructure
and equipment requirements. A mentorship phase is built into all
rural enterprise developments.
BEE Score:
Scientific Roets (PTY) Ltd has achieved a score of 98.52, making
us a Level Two Contributor! This exceptionally high score has
been achieved because:
o
The
employees of Scientific Roets own 51% of the company.
o
Our team
members are highly technically qualified, confident in their
abilities and competent in their decision-making. We have a flat
organizational structure, and high employment equity.
o
We
contribute between 3 and 16% of our salary roll per year to
learning new skills (the target of the BEE Scorecard is 2 %!)
o
We
contribute all our time, energy and passion to social and
enterprise development.
This
demonstrates that our company "talks" and "walks" empowerment
and growth.
Clients can
multiply their spend on our services by 125% when calculating
their own BEE Scores.
We are a
qualifying Enterprise Development beneficiary (Category A) -
Contributions made to our company can be considered for
Enterprise Development points on the BBBEE scorecard.
A copy of
our BEE verification certificate is available on this website.
We believe
in our government's legislation and policies and contribute
enthusiastically to our country's growth and maintenance. A
valid Tax Clearance Certificate is available on request.
3. Scientific Roets: What is our Expertise?
The staff
members of Scientific Roets are highly experienced in working
with development and LED projects (SMME's, Co-operatives,
Agriculture, Poultry Projects, Plant Production, Goat, Beef,
Tourism and Infrastructure projects).
Dr Merida
Roets (Pr. Sci. Nat) has extensive experience in agriculture and
rural development. She has 20 years of experience in
agricultural research and rural development with emphasis on the
use of indigenous and local resources and capacities, designing
and developing rural development projects and enterprises and
mentorship of young professionals.
Mr Zama
Madikizela (B.Tech. Animal Production), the Operations Manager,
oversees and contributes to the work of five Agricultural
Liaison Officers: Mr Mpho Mazubane (B.Tech. Animal Production),
Mr Brian Mvuyana (N.Dip. Agriculture), Mr Mandla Rangana (N.Dip.
Agriculture), Ms Nonkanyiso Ntshangase (B.Tech.Agric.Ext.) and
Ms Nonsindiso Mbili (B.Tech.Agric. Ext.).
New product
and service innovation are managed by Dr Merida Roets at
AgriSPACE (AgriSPACE - Agricultural Science and Practical
Assessment Centre of Excellence), our new Research and
Development campus. This campus sees the development of new
business opportunities - Contract research, agricultural
assessment, agribiotech entrepreneurial incubation looking at
agricultural SMME value-chain creation of products of use to the
agricultural, health and food industries, and science tourism
with the implementation of Research Management training for CPD
points. Siqhamo Vutela, an analytical chemistry graduate, has
been contracted as our first BioTech Entrepreneur.
Work has
been undertaken on new learning programmes (Early Childhood
Development, Agricultural Research Management, IP rights,
Writing, ABET) and new training methodologies (RPL and
E-learning).
The team are
highly experienced in providing:
o
SAQA aligned
and Unit Standards-based Learnership and Skills Programme
training and assessment (We have trained more than 2000
learners/farmers/ entrepreneurs/co-operative members in
vegetable, livestock and poultry production and enterprise
development (New Venture Creation) since obtaining accreditation
from AgriSETA in 2004),
o
ABET
training (we understand rural illiteracy and have
incorporated ways to mitigate its impact in all our training
programmes),
o
Conducting
feasibility studies for various rural development enterprises
(we understand the constraints that rural beneficiaries face
regarding transaction costs, lack of up- and down-stream
linkages and economies of scale),
o
Community
liaison and social facilitation (we acknowledge that project
failure is usually due to poor communication, lack of
participatory approaches, exclusion, and poor institutional
arrangements),
o
Implementation and management of rural and enterprise
development initiatives (our experience is that mentoring,
business knowledge and day-to-day business management and
communication with beneficiaries is key to rural enterprise
success).
o
The team are
experienced agricultural training facilitators, registered
assessors and/or moderators (our team are all qualified and
experienced agriculturalists having, not only, theoretical
knowledge, but practical work-place and personal farming
experience).
Dr Merida
Roets has contributed regularly as resource person and
facilitator to the capacity building activities of various
developing nations' National Agricultural Research Services
(NARS). These capacity building activities have included:
Agricultural Research Management Training (Ghana, South Africa),
Agricultural Priority Setting with ASARECA and ECAPAPA (Uganda,
Kenya), Agricultural Research Management with Innovation Systems
Perspective (Ethiopia, Results-Oriented Programme Planning,
Learning and Capacity Building (Papua New Guinea) and Engendered
Project Management (International Potato Centre, Kenya).
Dr Merida
Roets brings a wealth of knowledge regarding various Development
Perspectives such as: Agriculture Research for Development,
Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, Institutional Innovation,
Innovation's Perspective for Rural Development, Farming Systems
Research and Extension, Value-Chain analysis and development,
Asset-Based Approaches to Rural Development, Results-Oriented
Programme Planning, Learning and Capacity Building and
Sustainable "Green" business.
Infrastructure development is handled by a sister company
Scientific Roets Engineering Services lead by Adriaan Roets
(Pr.Eng.-ECSA registration number 20030180) who is supported by
Mr Zamindlela Godlimpi (Nat.Dip.Eng.). Previous rural
infrastructure projects include design and site supervision of
rural (gravel) and black-top roads, water reticulation, dams,
reservoirs, pump-stations, pipelines, agricultural
infrastructure, agro-processing facilities, hydroponics tunnels,
retaining walls, tourism complexes, landfill sites, storm-water
drainage, sports fields, RDP housing, airfield resurfacing and
refuse transfer stations. (The development of appropriate
rural infrastructure for both small and large agricultural
enterprises is managed by this team.)
The team is
efficiently supported by Ms. Zukiswa Sonqwenqwe our Office
Administrator, Mr Dumisani Dingindlela our Human Resources
Officer and Ms. Eunice Dlamini our General Assistant.
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd is an accredited Training Service Provider of
AgriSETA and has successfully completed training programmes
(ABET, Skills Programmes and Learnerships) for MAPPP-SETA, MQA,
AgriSETA, SEDA and Services SETA. All training is SAQA aligned
and Unit Standards based.
The team
constantly update their agricultural and other knowledge
relevant to their work. For example, in April and May of 2011,
Dr Roets, Mr Zama Madikizela, Mr Mpho Mazubane and Mr Mnonopheli
Madikizela participated in an intensive International poultry
Production Course conducted at the North Carolina State
University in the USA. This international, cutting-edge course
covered all aspects of poultry production, from breeding,
hatchery management, layer management, broiler management, feed
milling, processing and marketing. Zama Madikizela is currently
completing an MSc. in Commerce Leadership at UKZN. For the last
three years Dr Merida Roets has attended Sustainability Week in
Gauteng. This conference has proved fertile ground for new
contacts, ideas and projects. Merida contributed a paper in 2014
and an article titled "Institutional Arrangements - Relevance to
Tourism Development and Local Economic Growth" to the
Responsible Tourism Handbook of the event in 2015. This
continues the exciting collaboration with the Sustainable
Tourism Partnership Programme forged in 2014. Brian Mvuyana
attended the Bi-annual (Spring-Summer) Growers Symposium at the
Durban Botanical gardens on the 30th July, 2015. This seminar
was hosted by the Intensive Grower's Association and the
knowledge gained will stand us in good stead for the greenhouses
that we plan to operate at AgriSPACE. Nonsindiso Mbili had the
privilege of attending the CEDPA Global Women in Management:
Advancing Women's Economic Opportunities (GWIM 62) workshop from
the 27th July until the 21st of August, 2015 in Cape Town. Nsi
learned much about gender issues and leadership and will be
applying her learning to engendering more of the work of
Scientific Roets.
The
Scientific Roets Information Centre, managed by Mr Dumisani
Dingindlela, concentrates on the development of new learning
material, collection and collation of agricultural, SMME
enterprise, rural development and engineering information, data
capture of learners, tender information and client rosters and
data bases, designs innovative approaches to rural development,
updates our website information, contributes to various
publications and is involved in continuous agricultural research
projects.
Scientific
Roets managed various aspects of the SEDA-EIC (Small Enterprise
Development Agency - Enterprise Information Centre) in the
Kokstad area in 2006/2007 and has continued with services to
assist SMME's in business training, business mentorship, the
development of Business Plans and Feasibility Studies, assisting
SMME's with tenders and procurement, and the provision of both
business-oriented and technical-oriented information in service
to SMME's. This includes the provision of the NQF 4 New Venture
Creation (SMME's) learnership and identifying business
opportunities for rural entrepreneurs.
Scientific
Roets is highly experienced in conducting feasibility studies
and implementation of various rural development projects,
including several poultry production, goat and beef cattle
enterprises, a co-operative development centre and land reform
projects. Understanding the particular constraints and
opportunities of each project is key to developing and
implementing successful interventions.
CV's of
Project Team members and Reference letters of previous clients
are available on request.
4. Scientific Roets: What are our successes?
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd has been selected as an AgriSETA "Centre of
Excellence" - one of five in South Africa! This attests to
the high level of confidence expressed by AgriSETA in the
quality of our learning, course material, project management,
learning facilitation, record keeping, assessment and moderation
standards and the overall innovative approach used in our
learning methodology. Copies of our
registrations and accreditations are available on request.
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd has achieved the Services SETA 3-Star
accreditation for Customer Service Excellence.
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd has achieved the Services SETA 2-Star
accreditation for its Quality Management System.
Dr Merida
Roets was invited by Former US President Bill Clinton to serve
as a panelist at his 2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting, to
share her expertise on "Entrepreneurial Development of Women in
Developing Countries".
Dr Merida
Roets was a finalist in the 2008 KZN Business Woman of the Year
(Social Entrepreneur category).
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd has created a name for itself as being the
service provider of choice in the design and development of
viable, sustainable and innovative rural agricultural, tourism
and SMME Enterprises. As such they were instrumental in
developing the highly successful AmaBhaca Crafts (Mount Frere,
Eastern Cape) and KwaXolo Chickens (Port Shepstone) which
includes an abattoir and processing plant.
Scientific
Roets obtained funding from the Segal Family Foundation through
the Clinton Global Initiative to undertake an NQF 4 New Venture
Creation Learnership involving 22 Kokstad Entrepreneurs. This
financial support has been continued from 2011 through to 2015
for similar work.
Scientific
Roets has completed or contributed to more than 160 rural
projects since its establishment in 2002.
Scientific
Roets has trained more than 2000 learners/farmers in full
agricultural or rural enterprise-related qualifications since
2004.
Scientific
Roets were chosen as a winner of the British Airways Business
Opportunity Grants in 2010. We applied this prize to
international travel in 2011 to expand our business and acquire
more expertise particularly in the field of poultry production.
A team of four members from Scientific Roets travelled to the
USA, for intensive poultry production and feed milling courses
at North Carolina State University.
Dr Merida
Roets was invited to serve as Key-note speaker at the National
Department of Science and Technology's Women in Science Awards
Ceremony held in Centurion in August 2012 addressing the topic
of "Using Science and Technology to Empower Rural Women and
Alleviate Poverty".
5. Scientific Roets: Where are we based?
The company
is based at their new AgriSPACE campus on Farm 314, Kruispruit,
Karg's Post, Kokstad. Projects as far as North West
Province, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, northern KwaZulu-Natal and
the southern parts of the Eastern Cape are managed.
Scientific
Roets (PTY) Ltd can be reached at P.O. Box 461, Kokstad, 4700.
Tel/fax (039) 727 1515, E-mail:
merida@scientificroets.com or
zama@scientificroets.com, Web:
www.scientificroets.com.
Cell: Merida (083) 630 7787
|