My first agriculture training was at school. Boys did farming and the girls did cleaning. Our teacher was called Mr Malunga, and he was very strict. He would get angry if a child made a mistake. Especially if one of us forgot to turn off the water. Looking back, I do see that he was trying to teach us to focus. Farming is all about focus. You can never stop concentrating and observing. Plants are living things. If you make mistakes or don’t give them attention they die. You must never take eyes off the plants. I even have my dog Stompie to watch my plants. That means if my back is turned, and I hear her bark, I know that there are birds or rabbits trying to eat my profits!

When I left school, I went and worked in Pretoria. I was a chef there for many years. First at Greentrees on Harmony Street in Sunnyside and later at Prime Grill in Centurion. I started in the scullery washing dishes and gradually moved up through the ranks. You name it, I can cook it. Calamari, salads, burgers. I can even do cocktails and Irish coffees. I came home about five years ago and since then I have been trying ways to make a living.

When I first came back home to Bokenhouthoek, I made a braai stand and I ran a shisa nyama here at the house. I thought I could use those the same skills that I had developed in Pretoria, but people get drunk and behave badly and it is not a nice atmosphere, so I stopped doing that. I decided that growing spinach was a better business. Spinach doesn’t get drunk and fight. Spinach just quietly grows. At the moment, I do spinach in the summer and cabbage in the winter, but I want to expand my product range. I think that I will start with green peppers and see how that goes. I have pigs too. I started with 2 pigs and now I have 10. 

In March of this year, I met Mr Kwena. He just arrived. It was as if he was a gift from God. I think he saw my garden from the road and just decided to come and talk to me. He asked me to help him connect with people interested in farming in this area.

He conducted training and I learnt many things. Farming God’s Way, mulching, soil preparation, deep trenching. After the training I implemented immediately. At first it is a lot of work doing all that digging and collecting of tins and grass and bones. Even though it is hard work, almost everyone who came to the training did the work. I think one of the reasons for the low drop out rate is because Mr Kwena comes back to support us so regularly. If there are any problems, he is only a phone call or WhatsApp message away. There have been other agriculture programmes in this area, but those people just came, trained and left again. With SocioTech the support is ongoing.

It has always been hot and dry here, but the climate is definitely changing. The sun is getting hotter, and the rains are getting less and less. And we have big problems here with the water supply. We cannot rely on the municipality. A lot of the time you turn on the tap and nothing comes out – they call it water throttling. So, all that makes it a very difficult place to grow vegetables.

It is difficult but not impossible. I have discussed all this with Jabu. He tells me that in other African countries the man of the house works 6 to 6 in his fields. They make their own destiny, and we should too. Complaining about the problems we have here doesn’t help. Cry as much as you want, but it won’t change reality. We need to make our own solutions. For instance, at my house the pressure is often not enough for water to flow out of the tap, so I have made a plan. If you fold your arms and wait for government, you will die with your arms folded.

I am trying to save up for a borehole, but they are very expensive and there are so many things that I need to spend money on – my daughter is in matric this year and she is going to study teaching in Cape Town next year. It all costs money. One of the things I learnt from Jabu is that there are always ways to save, budget and find opportunities for business. I am always on the lookout for new ways to make money. I met a lady who said that pomegranates for export are a good business so maybe I will try that. I am also thinking about doing dried morogo and then selling it in the centre of Pretoria or maybe Mamelodi. Those city people miss the old traditional African foods that our grandparents made, and they are prepared to pay high prices. Especially if it is our old school African vegetables. Go to Shoprite and all you see is those vegetables that come from Europe, but our own edible plants are delicious. Also, they cope better with the heat and the lack of water. Just look at that leroto growing so happily! Dried and mixed with thepe it is delicious. And it is very high in vitamins and minerals. 

We also need to adapt our farming techniques to meet these new conditions. SocioTech came at the right time because here in Maubane we were crying out for new methods because the old ways weren’t working anymore. They have given me new ideas and techniques that help me to grow vegetables even in these new, harsh conditions. They taught me how to create very rich soil and that combined with mulching allows me to retain water. Even before SocioTech came I had a sense of their deep trench method because I had seen it on Facebook, but this was my first time actually putting it into practice. Now that I have done it for myself and seen the fruits of that labour, I am very impressed.

Digging the trenches was hard work but I enjoyed it. Farming is hard work. This is not something a lazy person can do. Right from day one you have to have farming in your heart, or you won’t be successful. A lot of the people who started the SocioTech training with me fell away because they didn’t have this passion in their heart.

I am 33 years old now, but I have been around food gardening all my life. When I was a little girl, I would sell for my grandmother. She would load up a bucket full of the vegetables she had grown and send me around the neighbourhood. I didn’t like it (because I am naturally an introvert and I think that selling suits extrovert personalities better) but I understood that it was necessary to support the household and over time I came to enjoy it. I think it was good for me to be pushed outside of my comfort zone. I didn’t know it then, but this was the first of many life lessons that I have learnt from farming. I still find that sales aspect of my job a bit difficult, but I know that selling is the final success at the end of the growth journey. All the hard work is recognised and rewarded in that moment.

I have tertiary level finance qualifications but there are no jobs out there. Covid, and the poor state of the economy in general means that there are very few formal employment opportunities. If you want a job, you need to make it for yourself. So, I have decided that farming is my business. I work for myself. I have been trying to farm for about 10 years. Before I met SocioTech, my farming business was going okay but not very well. And then Kwena came into my life. I am so grateful for that.

Working with SocioTech has raised me in strength that I didn’t know I had. I started attending the training in about May of this year (2024) and I started digging my trenches in June. I have worked very hard since then. I have dug 13 trenches. All by myself. No help.  And I still plan to dig more. At the height of my digging, I was digging two trenches a day. Even three some days! It was like I was burning inside. Burning to succeed and achieve. It was like I was a flightless bird, finally given the wings to fly. I had never flown before and now I was flying. BBL gave me wings.

Sometimes when I was digging a trench, someone would walk past and say something foolish like ‘why are you digging a grave?‘ but I didn’t pay any attention to them. I have the support of my family and that is all I need. Anyway, often those same people are my customers. Everyone eats. All those people with formal jobs - the doctors, nurses, teachers and so forth - they are the very ones who buy from us.

I think the energy to dig so many trenches in such a short period of time came from finally feeling like I had the right information and support. Before, I didn’t know about soil preparation. I wasn’t aware of the damage that Blue Death and ant powders were doing. I was empowered by information from the SocioTech training. Since I started implementing, I have been delighted with the results. Big, big spinach. Huge beetroots. Not just big. Delicious too – I am a good cook, and I love trying new recipes.

When I met Mr Kwena, I had a bit of experience planting mielies and potatoes for a local commercial farmer (Mr Johan) and I had been planting at my house for about a year and 6 months. All that experience builds you as a person, but the methods that I learnt through Mr Kwena are so different from anything I learnt before that I feel like I really became a farmer with SocioTech.

Since I have been applying the SocioTech methods the difference in my output is amazing. Learning how to prepare the soil and dig the trenches and mulching is so important. Learning about what to plant and when to plant is what makes for success. Through Mr Kwena I learnt about growing God’s way – organically, without chemicals. With this approach my garden has gone from strength to strength.

These days my spinach looks lovely – all green and shiny. If it is a super-hot day sometimes it falls a bit, but as soon as the evening cool comes, it goes back up. There is enough moisture in the soil to keep my spinach strong even in the harshest conditions. It tastes delicious too. My mother does most of the cooking in my house and whatever else is on the table, there must always be spinach. If it is chicken, there must be spinach. If it is wors, spinach is there. Even if it is just pap and spinach with a tomato gravy, the taste is wonderful. I think that delicious taste is because I don’t use chemicals. Farming God’s way makes for great taste. And great health. I know my spinach is full of vitamins and minerals. The spinach is stronger, and so am I, because of the SocioTech way.  

It is not just that the quality is better. It is also the quantity. Before, I was just planting to feed my family but now I have so much surplus that I have moved into selling. My neighbours walked past my garden and saw what good crops I had and started to ask to buy from me. Before it was survival. Now it is business. Good business. People in this area, they know me as David the farmer man. They appreciate what I do because I sell a quality product at a good price.

I grew up in Meadowlands and came here to Rietvallei in 2008. Meadowlands is a fast-paced place, whereas here is super quiet and super slow. It takes time to get used to that, but my life is here now, and I like it. It is a close-knit community. People know each other. Knowing each other builds trust and trust is a big thing - especially if you are selling food as I do.

I met the team from SocioTech and did the MyFuture training in 2022. It was then that I became open to the idea of having a side hustle business of my own. I had done commerce at school, so I knew some of the principles of business accounting, but I still found the idea of actually having my own business frightening. I was very hesitant at first, but Charles was very helpful and encouraging. There was also a story in the MyFuture manual that gave me courage and confidence.

I thought about it for a long time. I did my research to see who else might be selling in this area. I could see that no one else is selling in this street and that there could be a wide range of potential customers - children coming home from school, neighbours who have no time to cook, and right next door to me there is a guy who fixes cars, so all the people who come to him could be customers too.

Once I was convinced that there was a market, I started to save so that I could buy stock. I also work as a security guard, so I put aside some of my wages each month. Earlier this year, in April 2024, I thought, it is now or never, I have done all the planning and saving that I can do, let me just go for it. So, I bought R2000 worth of stock using my savings and I started my business; Tete and Son.

I sell kotas. My most popular item is the R10 Kota. It has polony, atchar, sauce and chips. I make the chips with real potatoes. The first week was wonderful. I did a lot of business, so it came as a big shock when things slowed down. I didn’t know about that period in the month between the 10th and the 15th when no one has money. They call it Mampara Week! Now that I know, I can plan for it but the first time it happened, I was really confused. The other thing that I hadn’t been prepared for, was how many people would try and buy on credit. They come and say to me ‘borrow me the money for a kota and I will pay you on the 25th’. At first, I found those requests for credit really hard. I knew that I had to say no, but I worried that potential customers would be offended by my refusal and that they wouldn’t come back.

I grew up in Naboomspruit. My parents grew mielies, mabele, lephutsi pumpkins, maraka gourds, all the morogos. In those we didn’t waste anything. If you grew it, you ate it. We ate the pumpkins and their leaves and the seeds too. Nothing went in the dustbin. I remember my mother used to cook a delicious dish of maphutsi leaf morogo and peanuts. When you grind them and mix it all together with the leaves, it is so delicious.

I have been thinking a lot about those traditional vegetables in recent months because water is such a problem here. We cannot rely on the municipality to provide water through our taps. When all you have is rainwater (and not very much of that) you must focus on the plants that need the least water.

As a boy I worked with my father in the fields. I would plough with his cattle and weed and scare birds. I also herded his goats. I love goats. They mature quickly, which means that you can sell them fast, which makes for good business. I had a herd of goats here in Maubane, but they were stolen. I would like to try again with goats. If I can get the money together, I will definitely try again.

I have been farming all my life but there are always new things to learn. I learnt a lot from the SocioTech trainings. Before they came, I didn’t know about deep trenching, or which plants grow in which season and now I do. I have three sisters, and I taught them about these methods for my Phinda-Phinda.

The tunnel came in April when I had completed my Phinda-Phinda tasks. It has made a big difference. The sun can be so strong here. My tunnel has beetroot, spinach and onions in it. They are all looking so good. I am selling my vegetables and all my customers come back because of the quality and my reasonable prices. The tunnel keeps bad creatures out. The rats are a problem here and there are so many birds and insects trying to eat vegetables and fruit in Maubane. Vegetables in the tunnel are safe from all those pests.

I think I inherited my love of the soil from my ancestors. When I was a little girl, my grandfather grew almost everything we ate. He had mielies and pumpkins, tomatoes, green beans, spinach, lerotse, maphuzi and maraca too. He ploughed his fields using a donkey. He had goats, pigs and cows.

We always had fresh milk (cow and goat) and we also made amasi in a calabash. These days people only know cow’s milk and they are afraid of goat’s milk – my kids refuse to even try it – which is sad because it tastes wonderful, and it is very nutritious.

We ground all our own maize meal. The taste of that freshly ground maize meal is so delicious. It is hard work to grind it, but when you have done so, the flavour is wonderful. It wasn’t just food that he produced. Almost everything we needed, my grandfather could make. He even wove baskets and made leather from the cow hides. When my grandfather got too old, my mother continued his work. She loved farming.

Even though I had a childhood background in farming, I hadn’t done any serious growing for many years. I had a smallanyana garden but nothing significant. It was only in 2022, when I met the people from SocioTech, that I began to get back in touch with those earlier days. SocioTech facilitators have taught me so many things. They have taught me how to prepare my soil and create deep trenches. I learnt how to plant seasonally and to make my own organic fertiliser (with banana peels and cow manure). I don’t have a big problem with insects, because Jabu taught me how to make a mixture of chilies and marigolds that keeps them away.

Thanks to the SocioTech tunnel, some of my plants have shade when they need it and protection from rats. Sadly, the tunnel only covers a portion of my garden and where there is no tunnel the rats are a menace. They love to eat my lettuce, parsley and the young spinach plants. I have made a scarecrow to frighten birds away, but nothing frightens a rat.

When you start with SocioTech it feels like a lot of work. All that digging and bone collecting. All those tins! But having done all that, my soil is now so beautiful. Thanks to mulching it keeps moisture, and I don’t need to water every day.

I grew up in Komatipoort. My mother had a food gardening business. After school each day she would load up a basket with fruit and vegetables and I had to go around the neighbourhood selling.

I liked school but, in those days, we had to pay school fees and there was no money, so I left in Grade 10. That was when, in 1986, I came to what we now call Gauteng. I had friends who were already working here. They came back home for the Christmas holidays and when they were about to leave again, I decided to go with them.

When I arrived in Johannesburg, I got a job almost immediately, but those people didn’t pay me. They were bad people. They didn’t pay their staff, and they harassed the customers. That shop is closed now. They had bad energy. After three months I left. I started to work for myself in April 1986 and since then I have been self-employed. Thanks to God and hard work I have been successful. I am a single parent, but I have put my children through school. One is studying computers. One has a security certificate.

I sell salt, Simba chips, sweets, peanuts, scarves and all sorts of other things. I sell from my house. I sell from outside the school gates. I sell at church. I am always on the lookout for business opportunities. It is not easy, but it is possible. A lot of people are just lazy. They sit there doing nothing and then they say ‘you are so strong, please give me tea bags and sugar’. I try to teach them the only way to get money is to work. Nothing comes if you just sit or sleep. I do agree that business is hard work, but hard work is the only way. I don’t even have time to clean my house. I wake up at 5am and by 6am I am at the school gates, selling. I put alarms on my phone to remind me where I need to be at what time.

I work alone. I want to know what is happening with my business at all times. I want to know for sure that no mistakes have happened. Because I work with food and children, my business is all about trust.

I was born and grew up in Sterkspruit in the Eastern Cape. When I was a child, my parents farmed. They had mielies and mabele and pumpkins and spinach and amabeche melons. My father didn’t drink, but he grew mabele to sell to others to make beer.

My father would say ‘we are farming people. You have to plant my boy. That is how we get food to eat.’ When he was in the fields he would pray and sing church songs because of this I always think of God being in the fields.

Sometimes my 14-year-old grandson helps me in the garden - I think it is good for children, boys and girls, to learn such skills and it helps them get strong – but I am very clear that his schoolwork must come first. Nothing must disturb his schooling.

My family also had goats and cows for milking. Sterkspruit can be very cold in the winter – especially in the early morning to do the milking. We boys would sometimes stand barefoot in the fresh cow dung to keep our feet warm. That milk tastes different to milk in town. When they pasturise and put it in a carton, something bad happens to the taste. Especially the amasi taste – it is nothing like the taste you get when you have your own cows. We would make amasi in a calabash and then eat that with crumbly pap as umvubo.

As young boys we would go hunting – Sterkspruit is close to the Free State, and we would take our dogs (my dog was called Dep). We caught blesbok, umvundla (rabbits), imbila (badgers). These days there are hardly any animals but in those days, there were many. You had to be careful, because if the farmers caught you hunting, they would shoot at you and those guys know how to shoot. We would skin and portion our catch and take it home. Everyone would get some meat. Even Dep. My mother and sisters would make stews with lots of lovely gravy in cast iron pots over a fire. We would eat it with pap. Later our family were forcibly removed from our Sterkspruit land under apartheid. We are still waiting for compensation.

I came to Johannesburg in 1970. I have done all sorts of jobs – restaurant work, bar work, railway goods loader and finally as a petrol pump attendant. That was my last job. That ended in 1992, and I haven’t worked in the formal sector since then. I have lived all over but I came to Swaneville in 1997.  At first, I was a tenant on someone else’s property so I couldn’t plant there, but I became part of a gardening project that an organisation (I can’t remember the name) set up. They would bring us seeds and feed us. Between 2002 and 2007 I worked there growing morogo, mielies, potatoes. In 2007 they didn’t have money to feed us anymore, so I stopped going.

I was born in Disaneng, a settlement outside Mahikeng. All the boys at my school did agriculture. Our teacher was Mr Sejake. He was strict but fair. He wanted things done nicely and he wouldn’t settle for less. He would help you to get it right, but if it wasn’t right he would make you do it again and again until it was right. I liked his style. I liked agriculture. I liked that it gave us things to eat, but I also liked how it made me feel. There is a nice calm that comes over a person when they are working the soil. It is a peaceful place to be.

I wasn’t with Mr Sejake very long, because I left school in Standard Two. I went to herd cows. It was in the fields with those cows that I learnt about all the edible wild plants and animals that there are in South Africa. We herd boys would catch small birds with catapults. We set traps for bigger, ground dwelling birds such as impangele (guinea fowl). The little birds we would roast over a fire. Guinea fowl were so nice slowly cooked in a pot.

I came to Gauteng in 2000. I got work as a security guard and I still work in that industry. From the beginning I had a food garden, and I worked at it when I was not on shift. In the old days it was just for me and my family to eat, but now that I have surplus, it has become a business. SocioTech training made a big difference to me. They taught me about trenches, mulching, manure and seasonality.  I was very enthusiastic right from the start. I met Charles on the Monday. On Tuesday I went to a training class. I was working Wednesday and Thursday, but on the Friday I was digging my trenches. I did it all by myself. I didn’t have any help. On that Saturday I finished digging at 3pm and I went straight out to collect tins and bones for my trenches.

I could see that this new SocioTech system was working well almost immediately. From the moment that I saw the onion seedlings growing big and strong I knew the method was good. Now I have spinach, tomatoes, onions, chilies, lettuce, cucumber and strawberries. Very quickly, people who were walking past started to notice that the garden was lovely. Like I said, in the old days, my garden was just for my family.