Former taxi driver learnt to love furniture making

When Sipho Twala, 31, was first introduced to the idea of furniture making as part of his three-month woodworking learnership he really was not impressed. 

Mainly because furniture making was not a popular job in townships and there were no success stories from this profession around. But due to his matric results and the technical subjects that he had done, learning the art of woodworking machines became the chosen career path for him. 

When he was introduced to David Krynauw of David Krynauw Designs, his interest was sparked and that led to him owning his own furniture business, Khwebula Arts, that has four employees. 

But before the furniture designing, Twala walked a long and difficult road to try and escape poverty. 

“After high school, I vowed to myself that I would become independent and that meant taking any and every job that came,” he said. 

His first job, at  22 years old, was that of a security guard before moving on to become a gardener at the Katlehong Civic Centre, earning R600 per month. 

“While doing that, my brother asked that I take over driving his taxi, so I chose to drive during rush hour traffic [5pm to 9pm], so that meant I could do the garden work during the day,” he said. 

It was during that time, aged 23, that he bagged an opportunity to be placed in a learnership programme with Furntech where he would learn about woodworking machines. 

“I was disappointed,” he said laughing. “I wanted nursing because coming from the township and from poverty, that was the easiest way of making money, I thought. But I went in with a plan of looking for something else,” he said. Post the three-month programme, they formed a co-operative that failed within a year and that saw him jobless again. 

“I met a guy named Maele at Homemakers Expo, who just clicked with me and he would help me out as a brother. He was the one that introduced me to David Krynauw when he was looking for a CNC programmer,” he said. 

Twala worked for Krynauw for three months, with no pay to prove himself, and it was during that time that he taught himself more skills and took an interest in furniture making. 

“It was the first time with David that I saw this industry as lucrative. That you can make an actual living of it. So, I got hungrier and taught myself things that I didn’t know off YouTube. David also offered me opportunities to grow more and more,” he said. 

In 2019, he left David Krynauw Designs to pursue Khwebula Arts to kick off this dream that has been slowly growing on him over the years. 

"This industry is white dominated, so I want to get more black people interested and that is why I hired people with potential. I am teaching my guys the skills I have and I hope to hire more in the future," he said.

In 2020, unfortunately he lost everything partly due to the harsh Covid-19 reality coupled with the woes of entrepreneurship. 

But while things crumbled on the one end, he was selected as one of Design Indaba’s emerging creatives of 2020 and as Nando’s Hot Young Designer in that same year. Last month, he exhibited his work in Italy under the Michelangelo Foundation at the Homofibre Artists Exhibition. 

“The journey is still hard. I have zero funding while I’m facing so many daily entrepreneurship blows. But I’m always encouraged that besides having nothing to lose, I have to do better for the coming generations. Create businesses that will create employment and stop complaining about what the government is not doing.

“I always view myself as someone who has officially joined the soldiers of entrepreneurship. I believe we are the answers to many of our country’s woes. I just wish more support would be given to us, so we can make a tangible difference,” he said. 

What’s next for him is taking his furniture to the next level by incorporating technology within it. “I mean that’s the future, right?”