Grace Matoni, 54

Single mother of four: 38, 30, 26 & 16 with four grandchildren

Lives in Parkhurst, Johannesburg

I used to work at a cleaning company, but we were retrenched

so there was a lot of unemployment. I said to the ladies,

‘Let’s do something’, but they were not serious about it so I went on my own. I wanted to employ some people so they can have something on the table because if we don’t stand up, nobody’s going to stand up for us. Don’t look to the government alone, we have to work hard and it pays off. 

It was challenging, I was stressing and I couldn’t sleep anywhere.

I was going all over South Africa finding something to sell. I used to go sleep on the train, wash myself in the toilets with cold water and come back to Johannesburg and go sell. 

Still I didn’t take this business serious, it’s just selling. When I got

to TCB they motivated me, they pumped that fire in me. I’m inspired to go out there and find new things to get motivated by, and learn from other people. 

I wish the other ladies could take it seriously. It is not easy,

but if you’ve got a passion to change your life, go out there and

work hard until you achieve.