Alex Rose-Innes
FEATURED on social media and in various national news publications, Ncumisa Mkabile (27) is doing exactly what she said she would – feeding a nation “one spinach at a time.”
The young entrepreneur from Khayelitsha in South Africa (SA), first made headlines with her successful chicken farm, Mamcube Homegrown Chicken, which she started in March this year. Despite COVID-19 and its detrimental effects on most businesses, Mkabile did not let that deter her and started growing spinach should her chicken enterprise be adversely affected by the pandemic. She employed a few jobless people to ensure, not only enough food to go around, but a sustainable agri-income for her team.
Mkabile told IOL that she had “never prayed so much and so hard in her life”, but eventually her harvest even outgrew her dreams and her fresh produce is flying of shelves across the country, creating more employment as the public is queuing for her product. When summer returns to SA, she plans to plant green peppers and there is no doubt that she would be hugely successful in this endeavour as well. She runs all her agri-businesses from one farm in order to manage it all.
With her dream of increasing her farm size on her business agenda, this young woman is also heading the farming sector of the Khayelitsha Business Forum (KBF). This organisation aims to identify and offer farming education to the community on the outskirts of Cape Town and had taken hands with Mkabile, who trains young and old to become self-sufficient. This township is the fastest growing in South Africa and according to Statistics SA already had almost 400 000 residents living on just more than 38 square kilometres of land a decade ago.
The secretary of KBF, Thobela Gubudela, said that with Mkabile on board, the aim is to increase farming endeavours in the township as she inspires many.
