POLOKWANE – Moses Oula is an educationist and an unlikely farmer. He was born in India to Ugandan parents, has citizenship of Zambia and is a permanent resident of South Africa.
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He is an educationist and accountant by profession and is currently busy with his masters in marketing. The father of four has been in the education sector since 1994 and worked in Zambia until 1998. In 1999, he took the decision to further his studies in Melbourne and in 2000, he went to go work in Zimbabwe.
He eventually moved to South Africa where he occupied various positions within the Department of Education and higher training. In December 2013 he resigned and decided to start a business with his wife.
“I’ve been in the education sector for a long period and felt like I needed to continue within the sector. We decided to convert the tourism company into an academy, hence the birth of Gigimo Tourism Academy,” he explained
His grandfather left him with 300. acres of land when he passed away.
“My parents had cattle so I also started keeping cattle. At the time my son was in Canada so after he completed his studies, I told him that he did not need to look for work and could go run the farm. It worked out because he had been brought up by his grandfather and had a passion for what he was doing,” he said.
A friend advised him to plant trees, which can be used to make paper, as this did not require him to be on the farm the whole time.
“I approached a local prison not far from the farm and asked to have the prisoners work on the farm. I managed to get 1 000 seedlings and the prison gave me 10 000 seedlings they had idling around with no use.
“We currently have 11 000 trees growing, with the hope of it being used to produce paper in the next four years,” he said.
