ABED TAU, the author of Searching Through Dustbins, is a Chartered Accountant by profession, a wannabe chef by night and serial entrepreneur by day. His passions lie in community development, education and entrepreneurship. He believes that empowering youngsters with entrepreneurial skills will equip them with core skills to create their own jobs and the many needed in South Africa.
Abed was named one of the Top 35 Under 35 CAs(SA) at SAICA’s 35 Under 35 Awards ceremonies in 2015 and 2017. This award seeks to find young CAs in the country who are exceptional and who are shaping South Africa’s future be it in commerce, business, academia or the public sector. Abed is currently a judge for these prestigious awards making him the youngest person on the panel. He was named one of Destiny Man’s Power of 40 candidates in 2016, a list that profiles South Africa’s most dynamic movers and shakers and he was also named as one of the Top 100 most influential people by Superbalist in 2016.
Abed is the co-founder of three companies – Thamani Financial Services, Tuta-Me and Silicon Maboneng. Thamani Financial Services founded in 2013, which consists of Thamani Consulting that focuses on assisting SMME’s with accounting and compliance services. Thamani Consulting focuses of helping SMME’s realise their potential and helps them scale. Thamani Advisory focuses of specialised financial services such as internal audit, talent and resource management as well as corporate finance. Thamani Assurance focuses on external audit. Thamani has been responsible for over 100 jobs created to date, since its inception a mere five years ago.
Abed co-founded Tuta-Me, a digital EdTech company dubbed the ‘Uber for tutoring’, in 2015. Tuta-Me has since won second place in Hack-Jozi, a competition seeking digital solutions to improve the lives of South Africans. The competition was run by the City of Johannesburg, Wits University and the Joburg Centre of Software Engineering. Tuta-Me went on to win break-through developer at the MTN App of the Year Awards and shortly after that, went on to raising a Series A round of funding from a listed South African company. To date the start-up has assisted over 10 000 learners with tutoring and education support.
Abed also co-founded Silicon Maboneng Jozi in 2015. Silicon Maboneng focuses on developing technology solutions for medium to large enterprises from app development to full enterprise solutions. It is quickly becoming a leader in innovation and digital disruption.
When he isn’t being influential or starting new businesses, he spends time with his beautiful wife, Tebogo Sehume, who also happens to be his co-founder in many of the businesses.