Young farmers boosted with livestock from City of Mbombela
The CoM's mayor encouraged the residents of Shiyalongubo Village to venture into more farming activities and seek skills development thereof from the municipality.
A group of young small-scale farmers from the community of Shiyalongubo, about 8km outside Lows Creek, received 15 piglets from the City of Mbombela (CoM) on October 7.
The CoM’s executive mayor, Sibongile Makushe-Mazibuko, handed over the piglets and encouraged the youth to engage with the CoM for help in establishing businesses and skills development programmes.
“I hope this donation of pigs will elevate the lives of the community members and will encourage more to venture into other kinds of businesses, especially farming, as the area permits agricultural activities. They can look into chicken and cow farming as well so that there are a variety of products available in the community,” she said.
The community members took the opportunity to voice their issues. The main road between Lows Creek and Shiyalongubo Village was the most pressing issue, which, as the community members said, was a hazardous road, especially in the rainy season. Makushe-Mazibuko assured them that she would raise the issue with her municipal council.
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“I encourage the members of the community to continue engaging with their ward councillor in service delivery issues. The members need make sure the road issue is prioritised and discussed as a ward in their meetings so it can be included the integrated development plan.”
This handover formed part of a community upliftment programme initiated by the Shiyalongubo Mountain 2 Mountain Tour (SM2MT) after its first tour at the Shiyalongubo Mountain in May.
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The founder of the SM2MT, Mpumi Lephoko-Lubisi, said, “This was a promise made earlier this year by the CoM’s youth development office, which had a follow-up meeting that aimed to gather more information on what the people of Shiyalongubo really wanted to be assisted with. A number of people, mostly the youth, attended the meeting and were asked to group themselves to create co-operatives to run agricultural businesses. The youth office then made the promise to donate pigs to start with.”
