Using gardening to alleviate poverty

By Khumeni Wetes

Maluti-a Phofung dominated the annual Re kgaba ka diratswana awards, which saw the municipality scoop eight out of 10 prizes at an event held in Bloemfontein.

The Free State agriculture department’s Re kgaba ka diratswana is a programme seeking to empower communities and encourage them to plant vegetables in their back yard in a bid to alleviate poverty and hunger through food security.

To promote this initiative, the department has introduced an annual competition where winners are rewarded for their efforts. The biggest winners were Mosekedi Mosekedi of Baikopantse Basadi, who scooped the award for best team coordinator and walked away with R15 000, while Ngwenya Lebohang won an award for best household garden and received R400.

Speaking with The Guard in a telephonic interview, one of the winners Pontso Mokoena said her initial aim was to produce enough food for her family and sell whatever surplus there could be, unaware that the her efforts would catch the government’s eye.

“Winning an award was the last thing on my mind; to me this project was more like an obligation to feed my family. We are very lucky to have a caring government which introduce this kind of competition which can only encourage us to do more. I will reinvest the money that I have received to expand my projects.”

Thabo Mofutsanyana district projects manager George Madiba said the competition and the awards are a way of stimulating communities to plant vegetables and eat healthy. The district was represented at the provincial competition by 18 people and projects. This team was selected from a number of projects that won at the local and regional levels.