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Gugulethu Zondi, the Agricultural Research Council’s 2016 National Emerging Beef Farmer of the Year, says that farming should be treated like any other business, and that beef farmers should choose their breeds based on performance rather than preference.

- Siyanda Sishuba

Gugulethu (Gugu) Zondi was born and raised in the rural areas of Emathulini and Ozwathini in upper Tongaat in KwaZuluNatal. She spent her childhood herding her father’s cattle.

This delayed the beginning of her school career, and she only started Grade 1 when she was nine years old. Nevertheless, she successfully completed matric in 1986.

INTEREST IN FARMING

Since completing school, Gugu has been involved in a couple of professions. A teacher by training, she also worked as a bank teller. In 1998, while pregnant with her twin girls, she quit formal employment and started working with communities in rural areas throughout KZN.

It was during this time that she also began farming, and produced amadumbe and potatoes on 3ha of communal land.

She sold her produce to the local community, especially at pension-collection points. She also supplied informal traders and the morning fresh produce markets in Tongaat and Verulam.

“I was using a 20â„“ empty tin, which we call igogogo, to weigh produce. I didn’t calculate the produce in tons,” she says.

Fast Facts

Gugulethu Zondi is the 2016 agricultural Research council’s National Emerging Beef Farmer of the Year.

Her Brakspruit farm is used to place undergraduates from agri colleges for in-service training.

The farm uses a rotational grazing system.

“The important thing when you’re a small producer is to have good-quality produce to offer your customers, and to make a profit that will enable you to cover production costs so that your business is sustainable.”

Gugu later diversified into poultry and Nguni cattle, but soon realised that the potential for growth of her livestock concern was limited on communal land because of a lack of sufficient grazing.

Water was also a limiting factor, because streams dried up in winter.