- Bonga Masoka started a company that manufactures paint in 2017 and now has 14 employees.
- Masoka wanted to build a home for his late mother who stayed in a one-roomed shack, but could not, so he decided to use colour to turn other people's houses into homes.
- He run his business with a group of women.
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Bonga Masoka had a dream to build a home for his mother who lived in a one-roomed shack in Johannesburg.
But she passed away in 2012 before his dream could become a reality.
Her passing became his primary motivation to transform people's houses - by providing them with affordable, good quality paint.
"Even though I never had a (brick) home myself, I understood later in life what it means to have a home," said Masoka.
"I experienced that through the experiences given to my customers. You find people living in houses that are not painted and are falling apart, but after painting for them, you see the transition to how happy you make them feel. My mom never had that feeling," he added.
His manufacturing career had an unlikely start. In 2006, he started his training in graphic design at Central Johannesburg College and later went to the University of Cape Town, where he completed a degree in Public Policy and Politics in 2014.
He moved back to Johannesburg to join a business in mining and agriculture. He ended up doing work with a company that was interested in paint formulation.
In 2017, Masoka decided to acquire a paint formulation himself.
"I think what attracted me to the formulation the most is that it had been researched and developed for over 30 years, with the intention of finding the perfect balance between affordability and quality," he said.
Masoka then launched Splash Coating Africa - inspired by his late mother to turn ordinary houses into homes, warm and alive with colour.
His paints cost between R155 to R1,300 for buckets between five litres and 20 litres
"When you look at the middle to lower income market, they would love to have access to environmentally-friendly and excellent quality products, but because of affordability, they are a bit excluded from those products.
"So we are selling quality that most people could not have access to," he said.
Masoka has 14 employees, mainly comprising young women in their early 20s and 30s. Women also head up the business operations and manufacturing.
Sonto Nkosi, who had no prior experience in the field and comes from an IT background, is head of the company's production.
"We live in a country that has no job opportunities. I saw this as an opportunity to learn and be a woman who manufactures paint. I get to choose the field that I get experience in to gain other skills. You can wear your overalls and get dirty. That works for me," says Nkosi.
Masoka believes that every house has a story, but not every story has the colour it deserves.
"There's a significant number of people living in houses, and just missing colour to turn those houses into homes. People like my mom," says Masoka.
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