Aquaponics project to boost jobs for youth

In a first of its kind for the Eastern Cape, a multimillionrand aquaponics project will soon boost youth development and start feeding people in Duncan Village, one of Buffalo City Metro’s poorest townships.

Ebenezer Majombozi High School will become home to the fish farming and chicken and vegetable production project.

It is being funded by the Office of the Premier, with a R5.6m cash injection.

Initially, the pilot project was planned for two sites – one in Duncan Village and another at Zwelitsha’s Nozizwe Primary School.

However, the Zwelitsha project was abandoned last year.

Eastern Cape government spokesperson Sonwabo Mbananga said the education department had earmarked the site for the construction of a teachers centre.

“BCM will have to look for another site in Zwelitsha,” he added.

The Duncan Village site was confirmed last week and the pilot project is set to commence before the end of March.

Setting it up will cost R2.5m. This includes construction, delivery and installation of the equipment, basic training, startup inputs such as seedlings, and stipends for the first 12 months for participating youths.

At least 13 youths will work in the Duncan Village project as beneficiaries.

They will be paid R3,400 per month for a year, in the hope that after that they will generate an income from the project.

When the Dispatch visited Ebenezer Majombozi High on Wednesday, two land-clearing graders were in operation.

BCM local economic development portfolio head Mawethu Marata said: “The contractor is already on site cleaning it. We chose this school because it is an agricultural school and we want the pupils to learn from the project.”

Mbananga said the selection of beneficiaries was the responsibility of BCM and youth stakeholders.

“The criteria included unemployment, economic need or deprivation, passion for agriculture, and the beneficiaries should be within the youth age range,” he said, adding that it was the first agricultural project in an urban area.

The plan is to extend the model into other townships and municipalities, starting with O R Tambo’s Ngangelizwe and Nelson Mandela Bay’s Northern Areas.

Mbananga said these expansions depended on the lessons learnt from the BCM pilot.