Kholeka Khoza turns film craft into a model for creative enterprise

As South Africa marks Global Entrepreneurship Week, the engines of enterprise are turning in some of its least-expected but most vital terrains, the creative industries. With the country's youth unemployment hovering near 46% and total real formal job creation stalling, entrepreneurship is increasingly less an option and more a necessity.

Against this backdrop, the journey of Kholeka "Koko' Khoza stands out not just as a creative success, but as a blueprint for how narrative‑driven enterprise can forge new paths.

Born in Empangeni in KwaZulu‑Natal, Khoza studied film at City Varsity in Johannesburg before diving into the practical trenches of the industry: working in continuity, second assistant director and production assistant roles, including on the Ndebele‑language series Ikani and the award‑winning film Letters of Hope.

A key turning point came when she joined the MultiChoice Talent Factory (MTF), the 12‑month industry‑readiness programme launched by MultiChoice, which blends internships, masterclasses and production credits to up‑skill emerging filmmakers across Africa.

"I learnt a lot in the academy. Bobby said on our first day, ‘It's 20 years of experience in one year,' and he was right. I learnt so much in that year. In the way I work now, I do my best to empower others coming up behind me. Someone took a shot on me, and I intend to pay it forward.' Kholeka shares.

During and after her tenure, she worked on major productions including The Queen, Legacy S1 & S2, Kings of Joburg S3, the Disney100 Concert, and various commercials and campaigns. Her trajectory mirrors that of a start-up, starting small, acquiring skills, leveraging her network, and evolving into leadership and entrepreneurship. Along the way, she founded her own production company, Handwritten Stories.

"The company is named Handwritten Stories because every story I write is personal. It has a piece of me in it. I like to take my experiences and communicate them to the audience in an artistic way, so that they may find similarities to their lives and possibly help someone.' Says Khoza.

But Khoza's enterprise doesn't stop at productioncdf credits. She is a member of SWIFT, a non-profit industry body dedicated to advancing women in film and television. Through this work she has combined creative enterprise with advocacy, pressing for safer workspaces, equal pay, and inclusion behind the camera. Her message is clear: the business of storytelling is also the business of who gets to tell and who gets to benefit.

In every sense, her story illustrates the broader message of the upcoming ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week' because entrepreneurship isn't only about launching a tech start-up in a garage, it's about identifying value, accessing a network, scaling a venture, and shaping industry.

In her case, the venture is a production outfit (Handwritten Stories), the value is African storytelling, and the network includes programmes like MTF and advocacy platforms like SWIFT. These facts matter. For instance, MTF South Africa's output shows the wide ripple of creative enterprise - 296 filmmakers trained and 42 films produced through the programme. Beyond South Africa, MTF runs in 14 other African countries, supporting creative talent in a variety of ways, including bursaries. This is the ecosystem that supports creative entrepreneurs. Khoza is part of that ecosystem - turning training into production and credentials into enterprise.

Equally, her involvement in gender-equity advocacy points to the entrepreneurial dimension of culture. According to data, South Africa's women early-stage entrepreneurial activity is low and access to formal funding is weak, inclusion remains a critical barrier for the creative sector. Although specific national statistics vary, industry bodies agree that women remain under-represented in production leadership. Khoza's voice and presence offer an example of bridging that gap.

"2025 has been quite the challenging but most fruitful year of my life. I failed, I learned, I won, I grew and I persevered. I'm at a place where I want positive change in my life and that may mean possibly leaving the film and TV industry, but I won't do so without telling five stories that I've been working on.'

As entrepreneurial momentum is being amplified during this month, Khoza's path speaks to a set of take-aways: technical skill is necessary but insufficient; networks and ecosystem matter; enterprise means figuring out business not just craft; and social value (inclusion, representation) can be part of the proposition. For South Africa, where formal entrepreneurial activity remains fragile, creative enterprises like Khoza's highlight an alternate route: story-led, culture-shaped, business-oriented.