CAPITAL: The Voice of Business Issue 1, 2015 | Page 77

ENACTUS

eneurs

Garly Phakathi tends the young potato
plants that Sinwabile Co-op are growing.
Potato-sack farming is believed to be more
efficient and profitable than conventional
farming, particularly for smaller-scale, nonmechanised farmers in drier, less fertile
areas. PHOTO: Barry du Plessis.

C

ontrary to popular belief, the
biggest obstacle facing the
creation and growth of small and
micro enterprises is often not a
lack of funding — it is access to markets.
A business without a customer is not a
business at all, no matter how well funded
it is.
And the further one moves away from
the markets, networks and infrastructure
of the city, the more difficult it becomes to
know and reach your customer: location
still matters very much for those on the
wrong side of the geographical and
technological divide.
Imagine the scenario, then, for Busi
Mntungwa and the members of Sinwabile,
a farming co-op in Mophela on the
outskirts of Hammarsdale. As the sole
breadwinners in their families, Mntungwa
and her colleagues are determined to
climb the “ladder out of poverty” by using
their available resources — time, land and
motivation — to move beyond subsistence
farming and grow potatoes commercially.
“We are trying to farm on a larger scale,”
says Mntungwa, Sinwabile’s chairperson.
“Sinwabile means ‘we are happy and
comfortable’. There are a lot of people in
need here and we are hoping to bring some
relief by creating jobs and opportunities.”
The co-op has found, however, that in
addition to the problems of social and
logistical access to markets, certain other
rungs of that “ladder out of poverty” are
missing: a sound business education,
technical advice and support, capital
investment, and access to the larger
business community.
At the heart of entrepreneurship is
the ability to see opportunity where it
might not be immediately obvious. With
such practical constraints, however, it
is a tall order to sustain such vision, take
initiative and assume risk. But Mntungwa’s
introduction to University of KwaZuluNatal (UKZN) Enactus student Dionne
Makuwaza by a mutual contact was an
important turning point.
Capital | Issue 1 |

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