Kgomotso Pooe was always destined to build his own enterprise. He was born into a business family with an entrepreneurship legacy that stretched as far back as his great-grandfather.
Growing up, his holidays were filled with stocktaking and packing shelves in the family shops or shifts at petrol station forecourts in Soweto. And around the family dinner table, where business was endlessly discussed, it was just assumed that Kgomotso and his siblings would all one day run their own businesses.
No surprise, therefore, that Kgomotso had his own business by his late twenties. What is remarkable, though, is the way in which he brought together his love for international travel with his passion for business rooted in his community and his family.
Today, Kgomotso’s SoWeToo Tours has not only become one of the leading township-tour operators in South Africa, but a respected force within the broader tourism industry.
So keen was Kgomotso on travelling that he signed up as a flight attendant straight after school and then started training as a pilot. When a car accident derailed his plans to become an aviator, he turned to the corporate travel industry in Johannesburg, where he honed his expertise in business operations and marketing.
With his first business he shifted back to SoWeToo where he started a recycling business. He experienced it as freedom, but at the same time as a steep learning curve as he got to know the informal economy. He learned to constantly look for hidden value and opportunities in recyclable materials.
Shortly afterwards, in 2010, the Soccer World Cup opened his eyes to the huge potential of tourism, and Kgomotso quickly pivoted. Unconstrained by conventional ideas of what township tourism should be about, Kgomotso and his brother started adventure tours with 10 quad bikes, and soon added paintball, boat rides and guided tours.
Bit by bit, Kgomotso grew the business to include tour buses. At the same time, a network of residents and families formed around the business to give visitors an authentic taste of township life.
Covid-19 hit SoWeToo tours particularly hard. Business came to a grinding halt at exactly the wrong time. Kgomotso had just acquired a fleet of brand new vehicles and had to forfeit many of them back to the banks. But with entrepreneurial resilience that runs in his family, Kgomotso has been able to rebuild SoWeToo Tours with a fleet of smaller, better suited vehicles and this time much less reliant on bank financing. It’s been a difficult journey, but Kgomotso has always loved travelling.