Nhlanhla Zimu An Entrepreneur On The Limelight.

Nhlanhla Zimu is 21 years old. He is from Daveyton, a township in Ekurhuleni municipality in Gauteng. He is a currently a student at the University of Johannesburg, enrolled for Bridging Certificate in Theory of Accounting, a course towards being a CA(SA).

He is also the co-founder & executive director of Intrigetain, an events management company. They are independent sales agents in the hiring of sound equipment, tents, chairs, tables, catering, décor,stage, and lighting. They have identified that if one has limited information and is presented with a variety of choices, it is very likely that one makes an uninformed decision, which leads to overpriced service fees. In an attempt to solve such a problem, Intriguetain provides you with the best quotes based on, among others, budget, quality and quantity specifications, location, date, and duration of the event.

A client then chooses the best supplier and Intriguetain will conclude the deal on your behalf. They do all the organizing, so clients can save time. “Time is money,” so saving time is saving money. It’s free to use this service. They cater to all kinds of events, from funerals and African ceremonies to birthday parties, social markets, concerts, bashes, etc. If you are having any kind of event then they are the people for you.

The company also provides Event coordination. They add value through consultations for the event you are planning and thereafter management of the actual event in order to ensure its success. Pricing for this service is according to the hours from consulting to the actual execution of the event as well as the complexity and extent of the event.

Intriguetain was established in August 2016 alongside co-founders: Mishack Khoza, Siyabonga Zwane and Ben Diphoko, with an idea of a talent show later hosted in September that year, called “Residentialia: Embrace your talent” (2016 event – https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1251700314902083&type=3 ) , which is an event currently based in the University of Johannesburg in partnership with the on-campus residences, in particular, Cornerstone men’s residence, being their first partner as of 2016 to date. Its focus is on promoting talented students in the categories: Music, poetry, and dance, with the intent of exposing talented individuals to industry experts and talent scouts. Also, amongst its aims is to create an awareness of various risky student behaviours. And, to that endeavour, Intriguetain also partnered with the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation; the Institutional Office for HIV & AIDS (IOHA – UJ), to name a few, to create awareness about the dangers of sex & rape and its correlation with alcohol and drug abuse, through a series of presentations, also in 2016. In future, through Residentialia, Intriguetain hopes to involve more student residences and institutions such as the South African Depression and Anxiety group, and The Can/SA.

In 2017 Residentialia saw the rise in mental illnesses affecting various students, leading to some incidences of students committing suicide because of pressures at universities, and covered the factors of anxiety and depression leading to the aforementioned risky behaviours to raise awareness that Mental Illness shouldn’t be taken for granted. Nhlanhla Zimu shares his personal account, that when he was in grade 9, in 2011, his mother died in April of that year by committing suicide at a river flowing across Lakeside mall, Benoni. This led him to blame himself for the longest time, as his mother had previously shown signs of suicidal intent.

However, he was still young and naive to join the dots. After the incident, he committed himself to learn about the related symptoms of suicidal people. Amongst others, he narrowed it down to, anxiety and depression, being the main symptoms of suicidal people. Then after, he organized a team to orchestrate the move to raise risky student behaviour awareness through a talent show (Residentialia, mentioned above). He aims at spreading such awareness across the country inspired by the saying: Prevention is better than cure.

He holds numerous accolades: Ekurhuleni North district top Accounting matriculant in 2014; First year top achievers at UJ in 2015. Inaugurated as part of the Golden Key International Honour Society as of 2016. When he was in grade 6, he was nominated to partake in the People to People Ambassador Program in Washington DC, USA. He couldn’t go as at home they didn’t have money for registration and airfare. He was also nominated to partake on the International Scholar Laureate Program 2018 summit in either China or Australia, which is happening in May/June 2018.Find out more about the ISLP here http://www.scholarlaureate.org/delegations/. He was also honoured to be invited to the Africa Youth Networks Summit 2018 held on 20-21 July 2018 by Graca Machel Trust , a privilege to be among 200+ delegates of African youth leaders (as anticipated by Graca Machel on her interview on Cape Talk FM on 19 July 2018). The summit aims to strengthen youth leadership networks across Africa. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend due to unforeseen circumstances.