Located in the Kwaggafontein Small Industrial Park along the main road from Pretoria to Marble Hall (R573), close to a clinic, schools, police station and shopping centre, this thriving business was started in 1993 with 63 original members. Sadly, with the separation of the group into two parts and due to financial and other constraints, this number has dwindled to just six members currently working on the project.
Farming mainly with vegetables and poultry, they are now reduced to poultry only as a result of the continuous drought that has prevented them from growing vegetables. There modus operandi is to buy day old chicks in Marble Hall and to sell them six weeks later, when they have grown to edible size, to the local public in the area. A company in Cape Town, Equal Opportunities, originally funded them and they are now able to buy new stock from the proceeds of the birds that they grow to maturity.
They also received training in finance and marketing by the Department of Agriculture, and the People’s Development Bank in Johannesburg has also contributed to their further training. At present their chicks are being raised in very primitive conditions, and they have a great need to improve their infrastructure so that the birds can be raised at an even temperature. The surviving group, however, are determined to continue and to achieve their main business objectives.
