Meet Kedibone and Kekeletso Tsiloane, inspirational and innovative – Founders of Ramtsilo Manufacturing & Construction – South Africa’s first plastic bricks manufacturing company.
Ramtsilo Manufacturing & Construction also provides general building, sewer connections, civil engineering and electrical engineering services.
Kekeletso has a Civil Engineering background and Kedibone is an Auditor by profession which made them a winning combination for starting a construction business in 2013, which is where they noticed that one of the biggest expenses in their income statement was bricks.
When they could not find any black female-owned brick manufacturers in the Free State, they started manually manufacturing their own cement bricks at home. However, they knew that they wanted to manufacture a brick that is different, innovative and environmentally friendly. They looked for problems to solve and identified one undeniable problem: plastic waste.
Made out of recycled plastic and sand, the PlastiBrick is one of South Africa’s alternative forms of building materials. When their brick was tested, it was found to have lower water-absorption rates and higher compressive strength than normal bricks, making it ideal for insulation and energy efficiency.
The PlasticBrick was invented as a solution to the plastic pandemic that the country faces as well as being a better alternative to conventional cement bricks. This invention has also created employment for a number of young and old individuals in their operations, in the recycling industry and the construction industry.
