Community farm’s drive and discipline rewarded at last
Members of the approximately 42-member Gugulethu community in KwaZulu-Natal’s deep-rural Middelrus area are not easily deterred from achieving their collective goals.
After receiving a 345ha farm in 2007 as part of South Africa’s land restitution programme, the community experienced one disappointment after another in its efforts to operate a profitable commercial farming business. But its members never gave up and, today, with the help of the non-profit, private sector Upper Midlands Agricultural Transformation Initiative (UMATI), this vision is on the way to being realised.
A FARM, BUT NO SUPPORT
The Gugulethu Community Trust (GCT) owns Gugulethu Farm on behalf of the community’s members. GCT chairperson Bheki Nene, together with fellow committee members Nathi Nene, Zakhele Shezi and Sebenzile Dladla, manage
