When Trevor Mulaudzi noticed how the lack of decent toilet facilities in black schools was negatively affecting the education of schoolchildren, his entrepre-neurial spirit made him spring into action.
The former mining geologist says he abandoned his professional occupation because "I had to answer my calling of becoming a toilet cleaner".
Mulaudzi, who owns a toilet cleaning company The Clean Shop, was a panellist at the first debate hosted by petroleum multinational Shell and the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), in association with the FM and Summit TV. The debate was the first in a series initiated by Shell SA as part of a campaign to promote social entrepreneurs in SA while providing them a platform to share best practices. The open discussions are aimed at stimulating discussion on challenges that face social entrepreneurs today, exploring the issues of technology, innovation and the energy challenge.
WHAT IT MEANS
 The Clean Shop employs 350 people and has a turnoverof R1,2m/month
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The objective of this first debate was to interrogate the meaning of social entre-preneurship within the context of SA, recognise the value of social entrepreneurs and how to get the best out of them.
Other members of the panel were Taffy Adler, CEO of the Johannesburg Housing Company (JHC); and Cynthia Hugo, co-founder and national director of Read.
With the other two panellists coming from an NGO environment, only Mulaudzi qualified for the tag of social entrepreneur.
Even though The Clean Shop owes its genesis more to its owner's sense of civic duty and responsibility than his desire to make mega profits, it is a fully fledged entrepreneurial undertaking that is not reliant on government or private funding, as is the case with Read and JHC.
"I used to see schoolchildren walking up and down the streets of Carletonville during school hours. Every time I asked why they were not in class, they would tell me they were looking for a toilet as the ones in their schools were filthy.
"But when I asked one of the principals about it, he said there was no money to keep them clean," says Mulaudzi.
After a receiving a week's training in toilet cleaning, from a cleaning chemicals manufacturer, Mulaudzi was ready to face the toilet cleaning task head-on. He donned gloves, mask and overalls and, using specialised equipment, got to work.
"I'd never seen so much shit in one place," he says. "It was great." Mulaudzi also cites sanitary towel disposal as a major headache in many black schools.
Sadly, in spite of his pioneering initiative, neither the education authorities nor the schools themselves have contracted Dr Shit, as Mulaudzi is popularly known among schoolchildren, to clean their toilets. "We don't have many schools on our books because schools still do not appreciate sound sanitary principles," he says. This is a serious indictment of the department of education, he says.
He makes no bones about the fact that the head-in-the-sand approach on the part of the authorities denies that there is a correlation between pupils' performance and the availability of such facilities.
Such is the dedication of the former AngloGold employee to his calling that he has gone as far as developing a school toilet charter. Besides cleaning school toilets, The Clean Shop has been awarded various contracts to clean corporate toilets, change houses, kitchens, hostels and residential flats for mining companies.
The Clean Shop now employs 350 people and turns over about R1,2m/month.
Mulaudzi also has a 51% equity stake in Kemport, which manufactures and distributes cleaning materials.
Asked about his nickname, Mulaudzi says he does not mind - even his business card carries the Dr Shit moniker.
Mulaudzi has since been "recognised as an international teacher of how to use and clean toilets". The night of the debate came on the eve of his trip to Seoul, where he was due to address the South Korean cabinet on his favourite topic. His burning ambition is to clean as many toilets as possible.
"My biggest desire is to be employed by government to clean all the unattended toilets in the land. For practical reasons let's outsource the cleaning of school toilets, and give the contracts to unemployed parents, and we will manage those people."
He points out that through a similar initiative one school in Venda has managed to garner a R1m bank balance.
He also castigates the authorities for a party-orientated approach instead of a meritorious approach when discharging their responsibilities. "I do not want to be judged on my political affiliations, but on capability - as is the case with Malaysia."
Even though there is a distinct differ-ence between a social entrepreneur and an NGO employee, there is a general understanding that for both undertakings to enjoy any degree of success they have to be underpinned by sound business principles.
Speaking after Mulaudzi, Hugo cited the lack of ablution facilities in black rural schools as one of the biggest impediments to the work of her organisation.
She says the situation is so dire that her female colleagues are forced to go to extreme lengths to avoid having to take a comfort break while out working in some rural areas. No mean feat considering the fact that the Read team sometimes spends an entire day conducting field work.
Both Adler and Hugo feel strongly that the spirit of activism that characterised the 1980s was key in the formation and eventual success of their organisations.
"Many of us started working for Read because we wanted to challenge the regime. Our staff members also work for us because they love the work they do as it is very important for the country."
One of the lessons that Hugo had to learn quickly was that she had to adopt a different approach when working in the township. "I had to learn the spirit of working in community instead of working in competition," she says.
Her efforts to get Read off the ground were immeasurably boosted by her position as a librarian in one of Johannesburg's most prestigious private schools.
That placed her in an ideal position because she was able to tap into the list of some of the affluent parents in the school and get them to contribute to her initiative. She also employed her ingenuity to persuade the same people to help with a business plan, establishing financial systems and setting down procedural and strategic guidelines for Read.
But Hugo laments the pedestrian attitude of private business to social causes like hers. "Donors want branding but they don't want to pay equitably. At the same time, those who are operating in the NGO sector need to get into the framework of becoming appealing to business in order to attract sponsorships."
The current legislative framework, such as the financial sector charter, has also enhanced Read's bargaining power.
"The charter has helped us when it comes to negotiating with banks because we are now in a position to take up loans with those institutions, but with the proviso that they are also willing to offer us grants." Hugo says that for assistance she has also tapped into the network of international contacts she has met at various international forums.
Read's challenge is to be an establishment that always remains relevant in the country's landscape.
"We need to adapt our methodologies because the levels of literacy in SA are very low, at the same time the teachers don't know how to teach literacy. If our children cannot read, the consequence is that the economy will stagnate."
Hugo is aware that increasingly corporate sponsors want to know they are getting fair value for their money. "We also have to ensure that our offering is measurable to our corporate sponsors."
Adler's efforts were driven by his spirit of activism and sense of justice, which informed his decision to become involved in the struggle for the provision of decent and affordable rental accommodation in the inner city for low-income earners.
His company, JHC, owns and runs 2 800 homes in 24 buildings. In many instances JHC took over rundown and abandoned buildings and turned them into safe, decent and secure environments that people could live in.
Ironically, the gentrification of the inner city might be one of the unintended consequences of Adler's efforts.
"Those who were driven by profit hastily withdrew from areas like Hillbrow. Now that we have paved the way for others to follow, we are being pushed out because the big players in the market are moving in."
He says it is an anomaly to believe that operating in the NGO space is synonymous with being antiprofit and nonbusiness orientated. "We love profit because it helps us to do our work much better; our organisation is also run on business principles," says Adler.
Shell hosts the next debate on November 14. At that event, some of SA's most innovative social entrepreneurs - Charles Maisel, Winston Rangwani and Rolf Papsdorf - will be sharing their experiences on building innovative social enterprises.
