DINKIE MTHEMBU

Dinkie Mthembu relied heavily on social media to learn her farming skills. After she was retrenched as a security officer in 2018 she used her unemployment cheque to start a poultry farm at her home in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal.

With no experience, her chickens died and she was left with only one chicken to prepare for Christmas lunch. She joined a farmers’ group on Facebook and used her second unemployment cheque to buy 100 chickens.

“Waking up at 4am every day before the rooster crows, leaving home when it is still pitch black and coming back when you can’t even see your children … this is why I cannot look back,” says the mother of two.

Today she has a thriving farm where 500 chickens hatch every six weeks.