As South Africa 
marks Mandela Month, a group of young women from Bikizana Village in the Eastern Cape are living out Madiba’s legacy—restoring dignity, creating jobs and building hope through farming.
What started in 2022 as a means of survival for five young women has grown into a farming cooperative that now employs 25 people and is transforming lives in one of the province’s rural communities.
Zakhe Youth Development Primary Cooperative, co-founded by Bukeka Buqwana and four other women, supplies major retailers while helping vulnerable households grow food and earn an income. “At first, starting a cooperative was just a means of survival; now we are basically responsible for 25 families,” said Buqwana.
For Buqwana, success is not measured only in hectares or contracts, but in dignity. The cooperative donates produce to Early Childhood Development centres, schools, families living with disabilities and elderly residents who need food parcels.
But she emphasises that real empowerment goes beyond handouts. Working with the Department of Social Development, Zakhe Youth has helped establish 50 backyard gardens for vulnerable households. Families grow crops such as spinach, which the cooperative buys back, enabling them to earn an income.
Through this model, households that once struggled to put food on the table are gaining both food security and financial independence. One backyard gardener has since expanded into pig farming, creating jobs for others in the community.
The cooperative’s journey began with five backyard gardens after the women—all unemployed despite having studied—decided to use the natural resources around them to survive. They later secured 10 hectares of communal land and grew the project into a fully-fledged farming operation.
Today, Zakhe Youth has expanded from 10 to 189 hectares, using boreholes, shade-net infrastructure and other climate-smart methods to protect crops from extreme heat and hail. Partnerships with the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, the National Development Agency (NDA) and commercial farmers have strengthened production and supported long-term food security.
After securing a formal retail contract with Boxer, NDA funding of R444 000 helped the cooperative scale up through production inputs and a one-hectare shade-net tunnel for spinach, accelerating its move into commercial farming.
Access to markets
Access to formal 
markets has been key to this growth. After joining an incubation programme linked to Boxer, Buqwana gained insight into how the retail sector operates, helping the cooperative secure supply opportunities with retailers including Boxer, Spar and Pick n Pay, while continuing to serve local outlets.
The cooperative now shares this knowledge by mentoring small businesses and agricultural graduates. “You do not grow crops and then look for a market,” Buqwana advised. “You look for the market first, and then you grow for that market.”
As a young woman in a male-dominated sector, Buqwana said that determination has helped the cooperative overcome challenges such as access to land and mechanisation. Her leadership style focuses on uplifting others.
“I lead from the back,” she said. “I always go an extra mile creating leaders.”
For the founders, this work reflects the true spirit of Mandela Month—restoring dignity, lending a helping hand and creating opportunities where people live. For Zakhe Youth, the vision goes beyond farming. It is about building “a viable rural economy” where young people do not have to leave their communities to find work, but can create opportunities at home.
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