Farming: The Breeding Ground For SA's Next Millionaires

Agriculture offers many opportunities for wealth creation, and young South Africans who are passionate about the sector should use their skills to establish new businesses, say Soyama Mthongana and Athenkosi Denga, the owners of Lizwe Meat.

- Siyanda Sishuba

Business partners Soyama Mthongana and Athenkosi Denga, both 26, started farming in Peddie in the Eastern Cape in 2011, but only formalised their business, Lizwe Meat, in 2015.

Growing up in Port Elizabeth, the pair learnt about farming from their fathers and grandfathers, who ran livestock. From the outset, Mthongana and Denga’s goal was to build on the knowledge they had gained from their families, and find innovative ways to farm better at a commercial level. When starting out on their own, they decided to run farms independently from their families.

SETTING AN EXAMPLE

Denga says that one of the purposes of their business operation is to demonstrate that black South African youth can produce quality beef cattle. “We can’t leave unchallenged the stigma that farming is for the older generation.”

He adds that a successful livestock business requires substantial financial investment in land, labour and infrastructure, as well investing time and resources to upskill oneself. This is why he and Mthongana took up studies specifically to help them in their business operation.

Between them, they hold degrees in marketing, accounting and business administration. Denga is in the process of completing a master’s degree that researches ways of improving beef sales in South Africa.

The partners’ farming operation is run on leased land.

“We’re in year four of a 10-year lease of a 600ha farm. About 400ha is suitable for grazing,” Denga says.

They have a commercial beef cattle herd consisting of 88 Bonsmara, Brangus and Hereford-type animals.

“The genetic traits of these breeds, such as good feed conversion, are well suited to the environment we farm in. The weaners produced by the herd perform well in the feedlot.