Self-help Groups for 2000 poor women in S. Africa

Zimele Developing Community Self-reliance is a partner of Sinamandla, based in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Zimele has formed 414 SHGs with 5 500 members. There are hundreds of SHG members who are active farmers in Zimele’s Agriculture programme. Zimele provides relevant training and support to the women farmers every month.               

In September 2013, many SHG farmers in Swayimane community purchased quality disease-free seed potatoes which were planted and grew well. Two group members took the initiative to negotiate with a local Spar supermarket for the purchase of their potatoes at the end of January 2014; the Spar supermarket owners readily agreed after viewing a sample of the bagged potatoes. SHG members learnt from Zimele how to wash the potatoes by hand and prepare them for packing. They then packed the potatoes in 10kg bags to be sold at Spar.

In January, Masikhule SHG sold 50 bags (half of their harvest) to Spar at R35 ($3.50) a bag; the other half of the crop was sold locally and used by themselves in their households. They planted 75kg of seed and harvested 1000kg of potatoes, resulting in a significant profit. They encouraged other SHGs from all over Swayimane to also sell their potatoes to Spar supermarket and many did so recently. As a result, Spar supermarket has indicated that they would be interested in purchasing vegetables from these SHGs in future.