Article and image by: Nduduzo Nxumalo

A group of unemployed, young people from Diepsloot turned a barren piece of land, a dumpsite into a productive vegetable garden to help them generate an income so that they can support their families.

One of the founding members of the company responsible for this initiative, Njabulo Nkonyane, said that they managed to harvest and sell the first lettuce and spinach crops to local businesses.

“With the help of non-profit organisation Diepsloot Youth Programme, we managed to source seeds and started planting. We were able to grow and harvest more than 800 units of lettuce and spinach that we sold to local restaurants. We realised that our work had potential and decided to go and seek help to register a cooperative and named it Mashaka Cooperative,” he said.

He also urged government authorities to support local youth farming initiatives in order to fight crime and unemployment in townships. Nkonyane said he believed if young people in Diepsloot were given a chance and adequate support in the farming sector, crime and unemployment would go down drastically.

“The majority of young people in Diepsloot and other townships across South Africa are unemployed. Some end up resorting to doing drugs and get involved in criminal activities. Our government should consider introducing farming skills to unemployed youth in order to fight crime and unemployment.”

He concluded, “We have big plans for this project, but we cannot achieve them without support. We urge government or any other organisations to help us.”