MiPower, a Limpopo-based company, is hoping to steer public transport in SA into the electric era, said its CEO Masala Ramabulana.

The company launched an electric-powered bus at the Chartered Institute of Government Finance Audit and Risk Officers' (Cigfaro) conference at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC) on October 7.

Soon after the launch, Ramabulana reached out to government.

He told TimesLIVE that financial backing from government would help the company create jobs in rural Limpopo.

“What we were trying to achieve by contacting them was to raise awareness about our bus and concepts of building a factory in rural Limpopo so that we are able to provide hi-tech paying jobs in villages, but, most importantly, give hope.”

Ramabulana has yet to receive a response from government. 

“The state can also help by giving small firms like us access to committees, such as investment committees and 18-member panels the president just launched.”

He said small, rural-based and township-based business were not represented on these committees.