THENJIWE Kaba’s business has grown, literally, from a small patch in the back of her house to a commercial vegetable garden.
Kaba, 68, from Khayelitsha, left school in Grade 4 (standard 2) and grew up on a farm in Kokstad. She says although her upbringing deprived her of some opportunities, her family instilled in her a love and understanding of the soil.
Her business is such a success that last year she won the Female Entrepreneur award from the national Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the subsistence agriculture category.
She was lauded for her efforts and contribution to job creation, economic growth and poverty alleviation.
Her business started in 1984 when she moved to Cape Town in search of greener pastures, but her lack of education meant she struggled to get a job. That did not deter her and she started a vegetable garden in her yard to feed her family.
Kaba said from the late 1990s she had been trying to secure the land for gardening.
“That was not for myself, but it was where I wanted to teach the community how to work the soil to your own benefit. I might not have a school degree but I am the CEO and professor of the soil,” she said.
She realised she could use her green thumb to create a business and set about acquiring a piece of land from the City. In 2014 she was given a lease on a 1 hectare piece of land close to Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha and next to Masimanyane Peace Park.
With no cash on hand, Kaba asked people for donations to buy seeds, compost and implements. To top up her kitty, she took on domestic worker jobs.
As money came in she set about tilling and planting onions, spinach, carrots, beetroot, turnips and cabbage.
She proudly says her garden, Moya Wekhaya, is organic. “After that, I called other unemployed women and taught them how to sustain themselves through the garden while making money.” Today she employs 10 people. The vegetables are sold at the Philippi Business Market.
Tourists, on their way to the Lookout Hill, often stop to buy vegetables from the garden. Kaba said she was negotiating with the City to acquire a vacant hectare next door to make Khayelitsha an agri-tourism area.
Meanwhile, employee Sicelo Kani, 23, who earns R1 500 a month, said he lost hope of ever finding a job when he failed Grade 12. “Three months ago I decided to come here. I don’t go to bed on an empty stomach now. I am able to put food on the table for my siblings now. I am no longer taking soil for granted.”