Meet Tsitso Setai: the entrepreneur taking auctions into South Africa’s townships

Africa Melane speaks to Tsitso Setai, founder of Lokshin Auctions, a business focused on bringing the formal auction model into South Africa’s township economies. 

Listen to the interview in the audio player below. 

For many South Africans, auctions are associated with large warehouses, high-value machinery or repossessed assets sold in major cities. But entrepreneur Tsitso Setai believes the auction model can work just as well in townships, and that it could unlock millions of rands in overlooked economic value.

Setai is the founder of Lokshin Auctions, a company focused on bringing structured, formal auctions into township communities where buying and selling second-hand goods already happens every day.

His idea is simple: if auctions are an efficient way to sell assets in the formal economy, why not apply the same system to township markets?

Historically concentrated in urban commercial centres, the formal auction industry has largely overlooked townships despite the vibrant trade in second-hand goods already taking place there.

Through community-based auctions, the company facilitates the sale of second-hand goods, repossessed assets and surplus equipment, creating a platform where individuals and small businesses can access affordable items and generate income from unused assets.

Speaking to Africa Melane on The Money Show, founder of Lokshin Auctions, Titso Setai says this gap is partly the result of long-standing misconceptions about township markets.

“South Africa has been through a very long history of inactivity, economically that is within the township spaces…Auctions were delivered in bad taste through the works of the sheriff in the old days where people were chucked out of their houses, and it’s been looked at in a bad way.”

- Tsitso Setai, founder - Lokshin Auction

“Fast-forward to today, online scams are on the rampage and many people within the township space now look at auctions as something which they’re not really willing to participate in from a buyers perspective. But for auction houses to really get into the township spaces, I think it’s just a matter of simple avoidance."

- Tsitso Setai, founder - Lokshin Auction

“This is a concept which has never existed in any of the 532 townships in South Africa, and to just necessarily tongue-in-cheek here, go and paste a banana on a wall and sell it for R60 million, while that is our dream, we have to be realistic about it with regards to the market that we currently have within township markets."

- Tsitso Setai, founder - Lokshin Auction

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.