SA’s best women in business
THE country’s top female entrepreneurs were honoured by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries at a prestigious ceremony in the Eastern Cape at the weekend.
The department’s Female Entrepreneur Awards, now in their 19th year, pays tribute to the efforts and contributions of women, including those with disabilities, for the roles they play towards ensuring food security, poverty alleviation, job creation and economic growth in the agricultural sector.
During his keynote address Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana said the programme would be increasingly oriented towards capacity building, mentorships and hand-holding exercises for women enterprises.
“This is more important in the context of the current land reform review process which will result in expropriation of land without compensation for which women must be major beneficiaries,” Zokwana said
Some of the awards includes Best Female Worker, which went to Bhekisephi Xulu; Best Subsistence Producer, which went to Esther Nell; and Top Entrepreneur: Smallholder, which went to Leandre Mitchley.
Zokwana’s special award for Young Female Entrepreneur went to Nosiphiwo Makhapela, and the award for Female Entrepreneur with Disability went to Selinah Mphedziseni Mulovhedzi.
Mitchley, from the Western Cape, established LS Pig Farming on municipal land from which she was evicted in 2015.
She was able to lease land from a commercial farmer for nine years and 11 months.
Her project received grant support from the department’s CASP funding in the 2015/16 financial year for a pig production unit, pigs, feed and infrastructure.
A pigsty for a 22 sow unit was set up, but due to high maintenance costs, it was changed into a pig grower unit with a 200 pig capacity.
Mitchley buys six-week-old piglets from breeder farmers and grows them out for 19 weeks to slaughter-ready porkers at Roelcor Abbattoir in Malsmesbury.
Her project receives ongoing extension and advisory support from the department.
Overall winner Matshidiso Mngomezulu is a qualified IT engineer who established and legally registered Sibahle Skin Solution in 2011, trading as PortiaM as an international brand.
She said she was motivated to start marula skin care products after she had her first child and developed stretch marks by her mother in-law who advised her to try marula oil and later saw stretch marks fading away.
She then started selling marula oil to her friends and relatives, targeting pregnant women.
Her products are dermatologically tested in Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University through SABS.
She currently supplies 1 200 major retail stores across five countries including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.