The Soweto Muslim Shura Council is helping young people build a pathway out of poverty by providing free technical training in smartphone, laptop and electronics repair, equipping students with practical skills that can lead directly to employment or self-employment.
The initiative, known as the Soweto Muslim Shura Technical Training Centre, offers an intensive three-week vocational programme aimed at improving employability and fostering entrepreneurship among young people from disadvantaged communities.
To ensure students can focus fully on their studies, the centre also provides free breakfast and lunch throughout the course.
The initiative comes at a time when youth unemployment remains one of South Africa’s most pressing socio-economic challenges.
According to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2026, the official unemployment rate among young people aged 15 to 34 stands at 45.8%, with 4.7 million youth unemployed.
Among those aged 15 to 24, the unemployment rate is even higher at 60.9%, underscoring the urgent need for practical skills programmes that can help young people secure employment or establish their own businesses.
Sheikh Thabo Imran Maphatsoe said the programme formed part of the council’s broader commitment to community development through education, skills training and social support.
“The Soweto Muslim Shura Council is a community-based organisation. By virtue of being a community-based organisation, we are constantly looking at what we can do to develop our community,” he told One Nation Media (ONM).
Maphatsoe said the organisation deliberately chose technology repair as a practical intervention because it gives young people an opportunity to generate an income soon after completing the course.
“One of the things we thought could develop our community more quickly was something that would immediately alleviate poverty,” he said.
“Skills such as cellphone repair can make someone employable very quickly or allow them to start their own business.”
Although established by a Muslim organisation, the programme is open to people of all faiths.
Maphatsoe said welcoming non-Muslims also formed part of the council’s approach to Islamic outreach.
“We are not limited to Muslim brothers and sisters. We extend it to non-Muslims as a form of dawah,” he said.
“Sometimes it is easier to convey dawah through action than by simply talking.”
The training centre accommodates 15 students per intake to ensure each participant receives individual attention.
The first cohort graduated during Ramadan, while the second group recently completed the programme and is expected to graduate next week.
“This is our second cohort. During Ramadan, we had our first cohort of 15 graduates,” Maphatsoe said.
The curriculum combines classroom instruction with extensive practical training.
Students spend the first week learning Android smartphone repairs, the second week focusing on iPhone repairs and the final week specialising in laptop servicing.
According to the centre, participants receive hands-on instruction in smartphone diagnostics and repairs, laptop hardware servicing, motherboard troubleshooting, software installation, operating-system configuration, data recovery and electronics maintenance.
Maphatsoe said limiting class sizes was essential to maintaining high training standards.
“We want to deliver quality training. We want manageable classes so that we can ensure everyone who comes through the programme leaves qualified to do what needs to be done,” he said.
Recognising that many students come from financially vulnerable households, the centre ensures they receive nutritious meals every day.
Maphatsoe said addressing hunger was essential if students were to succeed.
“If you are giving skills training to someone who has nothing, but you expect them to concentrate while they are hungry and come from a destitute background, you are likely to fail before you even succeed in developing them,” he said.
“Providing breakfast and lunch is therefore paramount to achieving our goal.”
The initiative is funded through donations from companies, organisations and individuals who support the council’s community development programmes.
“We have funders to whom we send proposals, as well as different companies and individuals who fund us based on the programmes we run,” Maphatsoe said.
Following a recent visit to the training centre, Abdurahman Abdulghany, founder and director of ICRA, praised the initiative as “a remarkable model of sustainable community development” that was “transforming lives through education, empowerment and service”.
