A Zimbabwean mother, daughter duo based in Cape Town have been trending for their veggie farm in Mfuleni in Cape Town which they started after they lost their business due to COVID-19, GroundUp.Org reports.
Jane Hozheri, 46 and Ennetty Chikukwa, 21 her daughter are selling some vegetables popular in Zimbabwe like rape, Covo and other varieties of Kale.
Prior to their venture which they said is very profitable right now, the pair used to make and sell duvet covers, curtains and order online items from China, sell brooms door-to-door in Mfuleni.
Hozheri who is a mother of 2 narrated how she started the business of farming and selling vegetables and said after the first lockdown last year she walked around and stumbled on a farm that was vacant as part of it was being used by someone else.
She then decided to start farming with very little experience leading to the birth of Signature Queen Farm. Narrating her story Hozheri said:
We pay R1,000 monthly for rent. I sold my two sewing machines to buy planks for fencing and seedlings from Pretoria. We then dug a well and used buckets for watering the plants until we saved enough to buy pipes and a sprinkler
We sell a bundle for R10 and bulk orders for resale. Our customers are from Wynberg, Khayelitsha, Eerste River and here in Mfuleni. We are making more money now because there are few people doing these gardens in the township
She said she works in the farm 7 days a week from 8 AM to 5 PM and her time is spent watering the crop, pruning, tilling the soil, adding manure and spraying pesticide. South Africa is home to over 1 million Zimbabweans who left Zimbabwe for a number of reasons, chief among them, Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
More: GroundUp