By Staff R eporter
KLEIN AUB – Pastor Koos Johannes Kharuxab started his business K.J. Bricks from very humble beginnings. Born and raised in Klein Aub, a settlement in the Hardap Region, Kharuxub always had a business mindset.
“I have always been passionate about starting my own business so after working for someone for over seven years, I tried many business ideas such as selling meat but I soon realized that I could come up with a more viable project that could benefit many people,” he said.
Kharuxab said that in 2006 he started making bricks at his mother’s house and selling them to the community. “I only had N$400 as start-up capital and I managed to buy cement to get me started,” he said. K.J Kharuxab Bricks was eventually registered as a close corporation on March 9 2007.
In early 2014, K.J Kharuxab Bricks received a sponsorship from the Rehoboth Rural Constituency office with one wheelbarrow, four spades and 107 bags of cement worth N$ 15 000 as part of the micro-project’s financial support.
Kharuxab currently employs five permanent employees of whom two are female and although he often hires casual workers, Kharuxab does not rely much on them as they usually do not last for more than a month.
“The local people do not want to work, they complain that the work is tough yet they still want to be paid,” he said. According to Kharuxab, he is in the process of registering his employees with the Social Security Commission.
Although business is progressing well, Kharuxab says that he is need of a truck to enable him to transport the bricks to different places. He sells the bricks in bulk or per single slab which costs N$2.00.
According to Kharuxab, he is a very happy man as people all over the surrounding areas of Klein Aub, Rietoog as well as Rehoboth all seek to purchase his bricks.“ My bricks are quality assured and I always make sure they are of the best standard,” he says proudly.
Kharuxab recently received a tender from the Klein Aub constituency office to construct 13 toilets using his bricks. In 2012, K.J Kharuxab Bricks also supplied bricks to construct business stalls in Klein Aub.
He is grateful for the assistance he received from the constituency office, but is appealing for bigger space to expand his business.
“I am also looking for assistance to expand my business to Rietoog and in the process employ more people as the more employees I have the faster the bricks will be laid,” he said.
According to Kharuxab, it takes three days for the bricks to dry before they are sold. He says that as he is the only bricklayer in Klein Aub, he and his employees work seven days a week as many of his customers need assistance even over weekends.
Kharuxab says he taught his employees how to make bricks on site in order to make sure that only the best bricks are made. He is however requesting assistance from the government to send his employees on a bricklaying training course.
As a businessman, Kharuxab says he tries to give back to his community by involving them in his bricklaying project with simple tasks like uploading the bricks but adds that is faced with challenges because many people want to be paid immediately even before the work is done.
Kharuxab urges all the youth of Klein Aub to develop business mindsets and seek assistance from government. “People must get up and try to do something that will generate an income – one can only know whether something will be successful once you start. People should make use of government assistance which is available to enhance their lives. I am a great example, I started off with N$400 and now I employ five men,” Kharuxab said.