In line with President Thabo Mbeki’s call, Vuku Zenzele (wake up and do it for yourself), the unemployed youth of the Campbell residential area in Musina are fighting poverty through farming.

It all started when the Youth Council of Musina thought of doing something that can help in fighting unemployment and poverty. After many months of brainstorming and researching, the Musina Youth Cash Project (MYCP) came as an answer when a 15 hectares of land were identified and made available for the 25 youths who committed themselves to do crop farming there.

“The project started on February 11, last year, when the provincial office of the Department of Agriculture gave us R40 000 that we used for drips, seedlings, fertilizers and snap sacks. We also used the money to buy equipment like hand-hoes, spades and wheelbarrows. The local municipality, Musina, also gave us R2 000 cash during the mayoral awards and we used the money for fencing,” said Catherine Mbedzi, 30, the project leader.

Mbedzi said last year they only used five hectares of the given land where they planted tomatoes. They made R42 000 from the tomatoes they sold to Tiger Brands, the local market whom they rely on to sell their products. Mbedzi said: “We are very proud of our achievement as we only started late in September when it was very hot, but our production was fair. The other thing was that we were only five, as the other eight members of the group were on a training course at Madzivhandila College of Education by then.”

The MEC for Agriculture, Mrs Dikeledi Magadzi, also pledged to help the project with provision of an ablution block, shower and store room. “We want to make this one of the biggest farming projects in the area and we want to inspire other youths to be involved in farming as this can contribute a lot in our community and economy,” Mbedzi said.