CHAPTER 5: PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS
5.2.1 Zandie
At the time of the interview, Zandie was a 30-year-old woman, from Mkhulamini, who had gone through a lot of hardship while growing up. She lived with her grandparents after she was abandoned by her biological parents. Her grandfather was a farmer and her grandmother worked as a matron in a high school in Manzini and came home on weekends. She narrated how she had to do many domestic chores when she was in Std 1 (Grade 3) until she
completed Form 5 (Grade 12). These chores include helping in the farm, fetching water and
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herding cattle which is considered boy’s work. She was somewhat relieved when she went to stay with her grandmother at her work place. At the time of the interview, Zandie was single with no child and had Form 5 education. Her dream was to study business administration at the University but this was shattered when she did not pass Form 5. Due to the low grades, she could not live this dream. However, because of the love her grandmother had for Zandie, she offered to take her back to school to restart her education in Form 4 (Grade 11) so that she could obtain good grades in Form 5. Zandie declined this offer as she knew what hardship her grandparents had been through to raise her. Instead she opted for a resit examination of the subjects in which she did not do well and this showed determination to improve her grades. She paid for her transport and tuition fees from the money she got from her maize bread business which she was selling before she went to class to upgrade her subjects. She has learnt this business from watching and helping her grandmother bake maize bread. Zandie did not do well in her subjects even after upgrading. She was then told to look for a job but she decided to continue to earn income through baking and selling the maize bread. She would travel long distances in search of maize cobs and she would buy from different farmers depending on availability and this encouraged her to buy in large quantities.
This indicates that Zandie was able to take initiatives to improve her life and also illustrates her resilience. She narrated how she saved money from selling maize bread to start another business after seeing that this business was too demanding without much profit. She
approached her grandfather who had already retired from farming to use the family farm land to cultivate her own maize and vegetables. She learnt the farming skills from assisting her grandfather. Zandie planted cabbages and sold them to community members. She then concentrated on vegetable farming because of the money earned from the sales. She later planted other vegetables requested by her customers including tomatoes, green pepper and butternuts.
A woman who saw how hard she worked recommended her to the Inhlanyelo Fund, which gave her a loan of E2, 000.00, to invest in her vegetable business. She was able to repay the loan despite the fact that the fund doubted her ability to repay because she was young at the time. As a result, she gained the trust of the fund and was able to borrow again. From the income generated from her businesses she supported her grandparents who were pensioners.
During the interview I could tell that Zandie was a passionate, determined, kind and resilient person as she narrated the ups and downs in her life. She later became a very successful business woman, winning the 2014-2015 Woman Farmer of the Year in the Youth Categories
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from the Women Farmer Foundation, Eswatini. This award opened doors for her and she became a well-known person through the media and has been a guest speaker and a motivational speaker. She was also now a respected member of the community. Her
accolades attracted many organizations and stakeholders who assisted her business to grow to an agribusiness and now she farmed different types of vegetables besides the cabbages as shown in Figure 5.1 which is a photograph used in the photovoice interview.
World Vision, an NGO, purchased a fence for her land, which her grandparents used before they retired. Zandie approached the Prime Minister of Eswatini for assistance, and the Prime Minister later liaised with the Ministry of Agriculture and built her a dam to irrigate her produce. The dam was handed over to Zandie in a big ceremony. Her agribusiness expanded and she now supplied the majority of the supermarkets in the Manzini city centre.
The image above depicts Zandie's agribusiness, for which made her first loan. She was able to invest more in vegetables, including cabbages, which yielded a higher profit than the maize bread business. She also grew tomatoes, butternut squash, and green peppers, among other vegetables. Life became easier as a result, and she was able to contribute to the household’s welfare.
In conclusion, despite being the youngest participants, Zadie demonstrated the ability to make strategic choices and decisions on how to improve her current situation. She described how stressful her life was growing up without parents. Furthermore, the traditional leadership was
Figure 5.1: Zandie's Cabbage Garden
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not confident that she would be able to repay the loan due to her young age. She believed this was the reason why she was only given a small amount when she had requested a larger amount for her first loan.
Her social standing rose as a result of her national recognition. She has increased her
knowledge, skills, experience, confidence, and self-esteem while also improving her output.
As a result, of increased income, she supplied large retail shops in the city. She was
economically self-sufficient and could care for herself and her grandparents, who had retired.