TSHOLOFELO Mokwele (30) didn’t know that she possessed her grandfather’s agricultural genes.
She said when she completed her matric, she went to study electrical engineering.
But after completing the course, she couldn’t find a job.
Tsholofelo said she eventually got a job at a coal lab in Emalahleni, Mpumalanga.
She said she quit that job a year later. She then remembered that her family had land.
Tsholofelo from Nkangala near Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng, told Daily Sun she decided to revive her grandfather’s farm.
She said she first went to study agriculture at Buhle Farmers Academy in Delmas in 2020 before lockdown.
“When lockdown began in 2020, things became difficult for me. I couldn’t start working on the farm. In August 2020 I bought three pigs from a woman I met at a seminar. I then decided to sell my Mini Cooper and I bought six female and one male goat. I put them at the farm and now they have multiplied to 30.
“I then started poultry at the farm and I sell broilers (chickens that are raised for meat) and meat. Now I have started cultivating vegetables on the same farm. Ever since I ventured into agriculture, my life has changed for the better. I only realised later that I actually loved agriculture instead of electrical engineering. My aim is to do better than my grandfather,” she said.
Tsholofelo told the SunTeam she had hired two permanent staff and five seasonal workers.
She said when things were down she got a lot of support from her husband and mother.
She said she had tried hard and failed to source funding from the government.
Employee Tshego Mosala (39) said helping on the farm had taught her a lot about agriculture.
“I am learning a lot and happy that I can also put food on the table. If it wasn’t for the farm I don’t know how my life would be since I lost my job. Now I have a job,” she said.
