GETTING to Phindile Nkosi’s farm from Mpumalanga International Airport cannot be described as easy. It’s a two-hour drive along roads littered with king-sized potholes.
When you are just about to give up, you finally reach the 13ha Elukwatini Farm. In this remote part of the province, 13 emerging farmers are growing tomatoes destined for Woolworths’ fresh-produce aisles.
The backing of South Africa’s leading retailer helps these farmers to access lucrative markets, which would otherwise be out of reach, given the remoteness of Elukwatini, about 30km from the Swazi border.
The association with an up-market brand also gives their supplier status a much-needed boost. The Woolworths brand is synonymous with high-quality fresh produce.
Ms Nkosi, a single mother of four, is benefiting from Woolworths’ "out of poverty" enterprise development programme.
The programme helped her sell her tomatoes at a sufficient profit to build herself a home and put her eldest child through university. Diane Peterson, public relations manager at Woolworths, works closely with the farmers. She says the company acted as the agent to bring the farmers to a viable and sustainable market. The distance from markets had destroyed their individual attempts to make a profit.
"This is where Woolworths and Technoserve entered the picture. Technoserve is a nonprofit organisation that develops business solutions to poverty. They provided the programme with hands-on agricultural and business help.
"Our main tomato supplier is Qutom, and we have an agreement with them. They have a plant not too far from Elukwatini. Their trucks come three times a week to pick up the produce from the farmers," Ms Peterson says.
While some have applauded Woolworths for its enterprise development efforts — the group was recently awarded the Oliver empowerment award for supplier development — others question the group’s commitment to small business development in South Africa.
Last year the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa ordered Woolworths to withdraw soft drink packaging carrying the phrase "good old fashioned". Attorneys for Frankie’s Olde Soft Drink Company complained to the authority after Woolworths packaged a range of vintage-style cold drinks labelled "good old fashioned".
The case caused an outcry — with a vocal public supporting Frankie’s — which describes itself as a "micro" soft drink business on its website.
Woolworths also franchised 74 of its stores, but has, since 2010, bought back 59 of them as part of the group’s strategy.
The remaining franchises will be bought back when the franchise deals expire.
The group’s "out of poverty" development initiative has produced tangible benefits for participants. Each farmer is allocated a hectare to grow produce under the programme. Ms Nkosi has 3ha, and farms cabbage and green maize in rotation. Depending their success, farmers can lose or gain additional land.
Ms Nkosi now employs five full-time workers.
"There have been no jobs in the area since the mines closed down 15 years ago. But Wool-worths has helped us to help ourselves and the community. When my neighbours saw how poor I was, living in a mud house to what I am now, they too want to start farming.
"For my children as well it’s been good. I told them they must not go to Gauteng … and end up doing the toyi-toyi. There are jobs in the rural areas as well. These tomatoes are more than my babies because I use them to take care of my babies."
Her sentiments about jobs in the rural areas are echoed by the national government, the South African Institute of Race Relations as well as the African Research Institute.
Piotr Cieplak of the African Research Institute says successive administrations in Pretoria have equated food security with large-scale commercial farming — a sector dominated by white South Africans. The state has prioritised grafting redistributed land onto existing commercial farming units.
"Acute poverty is rife in rural areas. The potential of millions of black smallholders to increase production and create much needed employment has been overlooked.
"Large farms can no longer be relied on as generators for increasing rural employment," Dr Cieplak says.
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