News24 | Transport, jobs and Checkers Sixty60: The 13 winners from Western Cape innovation awards

Thirteen trailblazers in innovation were honoured at the second Western Cape Economy Innovation Awards in Cape Town on Monday.

Held at the City Hall and attended by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Premier Alan Winde, the 13 winners won across six categories, including core businesses, workforce, research, infrastructure, governance and finance.

From a door-to-door workforce transport solution called Bluebird to Checkers Sixty60’s takeover of the speedy delivery market, the awards hailed innovations which are building the regional economic ecosystem.

Big name winners include the Shoprite Group’s Sixty60 e-commerce delivery service, which has created over 18 000 jobs since its launch seven years ago, and the V&A Waterfront’s new R230-million superyacht marina development.

Master of ceremonies Michael Lawrence, who is executive director of the NCRF of South Africa, said the scope of this year’s innovation champions showed “an ecosystem at work”.

“Tonight, we have not simply celebrated individual achievements. We have seen excellence across an entire economic ecosystem,” he added.

“No organisation builds an economy alone. Progress emerges when many actors work together with a shared purpose.”

Both Hill-Lewis and Winde praised the province’s role in driving tech solutions, with Hill-Lewis citing the Cape Town-Stellenbosch corridor’s new achievement of holding more tech startups than any other African city.

To secure an award, nominees were evaluated against results-based criteria: the measurable scale of beneficial impact on the provincial economy, the practical novelty of the solution, and the volume of local businesses and employees directly benefiting from the innovation.

Here are the 13 winners of the event, hosted by the Cape Chamber of Commerce:

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