When poverty strikes, people turn to gardening
People focus on gardening to change their livelihoods.
Kwa-Thema – The people of Kwa-Thema Ward 74 are opening up to gardening, one illegal dumping site at a time.
In Phomolo, a group of men started a gardening project in December after receiving gardening tools from a ward committee member responsible for the environment, Mzonjani Sithole.
Maxwell Majeke said they are currently not registered as an NPO and therefore don’t have a name.
“We want to have a fully functional garden before we register, so when we knock on doors have something tangible,” he said.
Majeke said what inspired them to start the project was seeing a high number of illegal dumping sites.
“We saw it best to start gardening and hope the CoE will give us this land which is filled by rubbish so that we grow our gardening,” Majeke continued.
He said the project will also help alleviate poverty. Justice Dumisane Masina, who is also part of the programme, said they also wanted the youth to join them and assist them as they are now old, and needed younger blood.
“We benefit from the land as we can plant, harvest and get food. We can’t always expect the government to provide for us,” said Masina.
Majeke said they need fencing as they currently struggle with goats which enter the yard and eat the plants.
“With what we get from our gardening we will assist the community by selling at low prices and giving to underprivileged families,” said Majeke.
The group also said they needed to grow their gardening project by extending it to the nearby area, which is used as an illegal dumping site.
“We call for good Samaritans to assist us with the relevant machinery to grade and prepare the area for gardening,” said Majeke.
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Those willing to assist the group may contact Majeke on 079 192 1288. Also in the ward, there were women at Baduza Street who also benefitted from Sithole and received gardening tools in November, when they started their gardening project.
Again, with the women, goats are a problem as they eat the plants. Nomsa Mngomezulu said their project is looking successful and they are selling to the locals.
“We haven’t started selling to big companies as we are still trying to grow,” she said.
Mngomezulu was inspired to join this programme as she depended on no one, so this will benefit her life.
“I love farming, so I jumped into this opportunity when it came,” she said.
