Very few young people consider farming and construction as an attractive career option.
But for 29-year-old Colbert Mabasa from Mulamulele in Limpopo, it’s all he ever wanted to do. Nthambeleni Gabara finds out why.
When I visited Mabasa at his village outside Mulamulele this week, I bumped into a few people on the street and asked them if they knew the emerging entrepreneur at their village, they all said: “mi vula luya wa murhimi na ku endla switina na ku aka naa” loosely translated as “you mean the farmer, who is a farmer and a constructor?
Mabasa is a busy man and hardly gets time to do interviews. But when he finally agrees to meet me, we immediately drive to his two-hectare garden at his household.
Mabasa lost his father when he was still very young and at primary school.
As we drive to his house, his cellphone rings and it’s one of his customers on the line placing an order for bricks to build RDP houses.
On the side of the road, Mabasa points to a small sugarcane plantation which he proudly says belongs to him.
“I’m also a sugarcane grower; cultivating sugarcane is easy, but it is a bit tricky when it comes to increasing land use efficiency”.
Unlike other farmers who grow the plant commercially to extract the sugar, Mabasa is selling it to the locals.
Adjacent to his small sugarcane plantation are bright, vibrant-looking spinach leaves that are not only appealing to the eye but more nourishing as well.
Hailing Narysec
As we begin the interview, the graduate of the National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec), attributes his success to the programme.
“As a result of Narysec, I’m now a bricklayer; I can plaster and make roofing. You see this house (pointing at a modern three-roomed house) I’m the one who built it, even this two-roomed house as well and the paving”.
Before he started with the Narysec programme in 2010, Mabasa was unemployed and unskilled. His life has changed because of the construction and agricultural skills that he acquired through the programme.
“I’m making a huge difference in the lives of residents in this community, since I registered my construction company; I’ve employed five local people who work with me when I’m building houses at the village”.
He has also created five more jobs to local people who are working at his two-hectare garden where they are planting vegetables such as spinach, cabbage and onions.
Narysec was launched in 2011 with an initial 7 900 participants, of which 4 500 have completed training in various disciplines, mainly in the construction sector.
It is a four-year programme aimed at empowering rural youth from each of the 3 300 rural wards across the country.
The Narysec programme will complement the Rural Development and Land Reform Department’s job creation model, which targets and ensures that at least one person in each household in the rural areas -- gets employed, and that such employment is linked to skills development.
Narysec main goal is to recruit and develop rural youth to be para-professionals, by training them to render the needed community services where they live.
Mabasa sells his produce to local Shoprite and Pick ’n Pay stores and some to local the community.
“The demand for my produce has led me to ask my headman to offer me an extra piece of land and I’m glad because he gave me 20 hectares and further promised that should I used the land productively, he will give me another piece of land,” he says.
Mabasa’s mother, Martha Mjaji-Chauke, 59, recalls how difficult it was to raise children as a single parent.
“As a single parent, I wanted him to focus on his studies, but his growing passion for agriculture and hand work, were my major worries and my stress level went up when his grade 12 results were poor and I did not have money to take him to the college”.
“My son Colbert is a hard worker, I’m proud about what he’s doing for the community if not the nation and I will always give him my support”.
One of the locals working at the garden Matimu Chauke, 21, a grade 10 drop-out said: “I enjoy doing agricultural work and most importantly, I am able to put bread on the table for my family".
His sentiments were echoed by Rose Mabasa, 31 who matriculated in 2002, but could not further her studies due to financial constraints.
“Through agriculture we are feeding both the rich and the poor and residents are no longer traveling long distances to buy vegetables.” - SAnews.gov.za
