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The five co-operative members, known collectively as Siyaziphuhlisa meaning “We are developing ourselves”, are growing and are ready to sell vegetable seedlings from premises at the park”s offices to surrounding communities, local food gardens and businesses at affordable prices.

The five members are Vuyisile Booysen (52), Cynthia Magcuntsu (63), Cynthia Tsewu (52), Nosiphiwo Tiervlei (29) and Ntombizanele Classen (27) all reside in the Umasizakhe township in Graaff-Reinet. While Vuyisile and the two Cynthia”s have limited previous working experience, Nosiphiwo and Ntombizanele don”t, although they had passed matric. Two other co-op members are not currently active in the project as they are out of town, but will take up their places at the nursery when they return.

Less than a month after planting their first seeds on 27 October, the group is now ready to sell and make a living wage from their initial stock of onion, cabbage and spinach seedlings. While they”re more than ready to carry on growing their seedlings, they”re still looking for a bigger market to sell to and welcome anyone wanting to buy their goods, to visit them at the park”s office.

Vuyisile says the idea to establish a nursery of this kind came from the members about three years ago and they motivated each other to get it off the ground. “We realised that there was no other business of this kind in town, and were also very aware that there was a big market for it. Our biggest obstacle was finding a piece of land to operate from, and we approached a number of possible donors, and are grateful that SANParks came to our aid. Our vision is to start small, and later to develop the project into something which will provide for the needs of our communities. Further, we will recruit and employ more members from town to join us as the need to do so arises.”

SANParks” Corporate Social Investment (CSI) department, through funding received from TOTAL South Africa, decided to assist the group as part of its CSI programme as it fitted into its mandates of job creation, sustainability, constituency building and legacy. Through the partnership, the co-op members will also be taught entrepreneurial skills such as business, marketing and financial management skills, as well as practical skills in soil and crop production. They”ve already received invaluable training from a nursery in the nearby town of Willowmore.

Vuyisile says they”re not content to only stick to growing vegetable seedlings. They will also grow and sell indigenous trees to the park for vegetation rehabilitation as well as to tourists visiting the area to take home with them as a reminder of their trip to Camdeboo. He further envisages them expanding into growing flower seedlings and eventually producing and selling vegetables and fruit grown in the nursery.

SANParks Acting Senior General Manager – CSI, Ishmael Makwaeba, has high hopes for the project: “We see this group forming partnerships with organisations with similar objectives, such as the Department of Agriculture, for further assistance, that its members will develop a marketing plan to ensure sales of their products are enhanced, and eventually bringing more staff on board to assist, at the same time further easing unemployment in the area.”

The team from the Siyaziphuhlisa Nursery Co-op are ready to sell their first seedlings from the Camdeboo National Park office: Nosiphiwo Tiervlei, Cynthia Magcuntsu, Cynthia Tsewu, Vuyisile Booysen and Ntombizanele Classen

Issued By

South African National Parks (SANParks) Frontier Region Communications

Enquiries

Fayroush Ludick
Regional Manager: Communications, SANParks
Tel: (012) 426 5371: Cell: 082 888 0201
Email: [email protected]