July 11, 2005 was a memorable day which totally changed the lives for the eight members of the Musina Youth Project. That was when the then MEC for Agriculture, Dikeledi Magadzi, launched their project.

Project members were in jovial mood as they received a building and R42 000 worth of vouchers to kickstart their initiative.

Project leader Stanford Khuele said there were 25 members when they started. “Some of our members left, but the eight of us persevered because we knew what we were doing. We are happy today because we have created jobs for ourselves and we can put some food on the table.”

Khuele says they plant different vegetables depending on the time of the year. “We have presently planted baby marrows, patty pans, baby gems, green beans, okra and chillies. We are operating on five acres of land and it is becoming too small. We are working on preparations to acquire an additional land of 20 acres.”

He said things were moving and there was light at the end of the tunnel. “We couldn’t realize that we were sitting on a bag of money until we took the initiative to stand up and fight for our future. Being unemployed and hungry taught us to come up with a plan to support our families. We were seriously determined to defeat the scourge of unemployment and poverty that terrorized us on a daily basis. Today, we are our own bosses and we are happy about our achievements.”

Khuele added that one of the challenges was a lack of machinery, but they didn’t let it hinder their progress. “We are still doing much of the work with our own hands, and we believe machinery like tractors will make our job easier. We appeal to those who can assist us with machinery to do so.”

He says their products are sent to markets locally and in Gauteng.