CHAPTER 5: PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS
5.2.5 Sonto
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family, as well as using her salary to pay back the loan, made life difficult for her. Margaret was a cultural victim as a result of her arranged marriage.
She borrowed money from the fund. It may appear strange for the fund to lend to employed people but loans were accessible to everyone, whether employed or not, as long as they owned an enterprise that required funding. This makes it difficult for me to compare her with other participants who relied relying solely on their businesses. Despite the fact that Margaret was working, she was treated as female head of household because she provided 80% of the households needs. Margaret mentioned that she ran her business part-time and paid people to assist her seasonally due to the limited time she had for the maize farming. She fitted into the profile of the types of beneficiaries the fund targeted.
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didn't have any money. Sonto borrowed E600 from her aunt as a start-up capital and purchased grass from rural women in the Highveld to make baskets, grass mats, and grass- coloured flowers that she sold door to door in Daveyton, South Africa. For the first few months it was difficult for her to sell in a foreign country, but her aunt advised her to be patient, and she did not give up and gained customers who wanted to buy her handicraft. She fell pregnant again from a South African man she met while selling in South Africa. As a patriarchal society, women’s reproductive decision making and fertility are shaped and influenced by male dominance. As a result, it is difficult for women to use openly use contraception.
When Sonto became pregnant, she stopped selling and stayed at home until the baby was born. The father looked after his child but he did not visit Sonto in Eswatini, making it difficult to learn more about her situation on the ground. The money he gave was insufficient to meet her and the child's needs. What made matters worse was that she had another child from a previous relationship, which added to her responsibilities. She went to Inhlanyelo Fund to borrow money to increase her sales, and her life became easier because she could provide for her family and children. She did not tell her boyfriend about her loan because he did not care about Sonto's background and she only saw him when she went to sell her wares.
When her customers dwindled she decided to discontinue her handicraft business in South Africa. She did not see her boyfriend again and did not get money for the child's upkeep, which left her caring for two children from different fathers. She expanded her business by purchasing second-hand clothes and pots in Maputo to sell in Eswatini. The company did well until she became tired of traveling and decided to start dairy farming.
Sonto ventured into the milk production business when she bought a cow and a calf with the money obtained from her handicraft business. She sold milk and sour milk to community members which enabled her to buy another cow and she borrowed a bull. A calf was born and she had more milk. The owner of the bull took it back and she remained with two cows and calves. Her first calf was bitten by a snake and later died. She approached the fund to borrow money to buy a cow and she used the remaining calf as surety but it fell in the ditch and died.
Now she had three cattle without calves and two of the three cattle died and she was afraid to borrow again after paying back the loan because the calf she used as a surety had died. It died in mysterious circumstances as she found it dead with dogs were feeding on the carcass.
Sonto now had no dairy cows and this led to a set-back in her life and business. Life became difficult for her again and she ventured into vegetable farming which did not give her much
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income since it was small. She only planted spinach and tomatoes which she sold at the local market. The income was not enough to cater for all her family responsibilities including assisting her mother who was now old.
In Figure 5.5, Sonto’s dairy farm is empty because she lost all her cows and calves that were supposed to produce milk for her to sell. She used all her money to pay back the second loan.
She was looking for other ways of getting financial help, such as joining a co-operative and a stokvel.
Figure 5.5: Sonto's Dairy House
Figure 5.6: Sonto's Vegetable Farm
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After the dairy business failed, Sonto, embarked on vegetable farming as seen in Figure 5.6 above. Sonto was in trouble because all her businesses were failing, but she still bragged about her success and the status she obtained while working in milk production. She said that other women were jealous of her and would not share ideas with her, while also claiming she had no money. She jumped from one business to the next too quickly. She claimed to be selling handicrafts before moving on to importing and selling second-hand clothing and three-legged pots. She did this despite the fund's goal of lending to existing businesses in order to expand the enterprises would increase profits.