Rural women bakers aim high
Thandee N'wa Mhangwana
9 March 2004
Thirty rural Mpumalanga women received a boost in their fight against poverty last week when the government gave them a state-of-the-art bakery to expand their modest baking business.
The women have been operating from a container in the Daantjie tribal trust near Nelspruit for the past two years.
They produce 300 loaves of bread a day, and now hope to make 5 000 loaves daily after Provincial and Local Government Deputy Minister Ntombazana Botha, and Mpumalanga local government MEC Mohammed Bhabha, unveiled their new premises.
"The mobile bakery was a success, but it was small", said Manie Ferreira, the assistant director for local economic development at the Mbombela municipality in Nelspruit.
"The new bakery is big and has everything they need, including state-of-the-art equipment."
The women had approached government in 1999 for help. Two years later, the provincial and local government department and the Mbombela
municipality provided them with the mobile container bakery, and they started producing 300 loaves of bread a day.
Later, the department provided R1.2-million to build a bakery, buy equipment and provide start-up capital.
The women will move into their new premises next month.
"We are hoping they will become the biggest supplier of bread to local shops, spazas, and community members", Ferreira said.
The municipality has also provided the women with training on how to run a successful business.
The bakery will be expected to donate a percentage of its profits each year to the Mbombela Development Trust, which will be used to establish the Daantjie Development Fund.
"The money from the fund will be used to finance job creation projects around Daantjie," said Bhabha.
Source: BuaNews
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