Please find me land for my pigs. This is the plea of a Tsholomnqa shack dweller with a passion for pork farming.
Wonga Sifama’s pig breeding project has become so successful that his pigs are overrunning the neighbourhood.
He has built up a herd of 54 swine, which hog his tiny yard and generate piles of stinky poef.
The neighbours are sympathetic but not amused. While Sifama has no more land to grow his business they are demanding he cuts numbers.
With a heavy heart Sifama has had to stop the pigs from reproducing and has separated the sexes.
“I have separated the bull from the females to prevent them from mating and further giving birth, because my neighbours are always complaining about the smell.
“I’m struggling to find land to expand my business,” Sofami told the Daily Dispatch yesterday.
“The fact that my livestock cannot breed means that my business cannot grow. I want to own a proper farm and help create jobs for youngsters in this village, but there is just no support from government,” he said.
Recently a neighbour and friend, Boniwe Ganga, came to his aid and allowed Sifama to put 31 pigs in her yard.
The Dispatch visited the Sifama’s home situated 300m from the R72 where he spoke about his passion.
The 38-year-old lives in a shack with his wife, two daughters, two nieces and a cousin.
They all depend on his pork business.
At one point Sifama entered the pigsty and showed how he communicated with the swine.
A simple clap of hands got the pigs excited and they rushed to surround him.
“I make a living by selling pigs. A piglet costs R250 and I sell the mature pigs to East London abattoirs for as much as R800 per pig,” he said.
The swine are fed twice a day and regularly injected to make the grade at the abattoir. “I am not doing this project just for money, it is something that I love. This is my dream.”
He has registered a close corporation under the name Sitama Farming and hopes that one day he will rear as many as 300 pigs.
Questions sent to provincial department of rural development and land reform could not be answered as the director for land, Peliwe Njemla, was off sick.
An official in the communications department said Sifama should visit their offices and fill in a land requisition form so that his plea for more land could be assessed. -zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Pig farmer looking for land to grow business
Wonga Sifama’s pig breeding project has become so successful that his pigs are overrunning the neighbourhood.
He has built up a herd of 54 swine, which hog his tiny yard and generate piles of stinky poef.
The neighbours are sympathetic but not amused. While Sifama has no more land to grow his business they are demanding he cuts numbers.
With a heavy heart Sifama has had to stop the pigs from reproducing and has separated the sexes.
“I have separated the bull from the females to prevent them from mating and further giving birth, because my neighbours are always complaining about the smell.
“I’m struggling to find land to expand my business,” Sofami told the Daily Dispatch yesterday.
“The fact that my livestock cannot breed means that my business cannot grow. I want to own a proper farm and help create jobs for youngsters in this village, but there is just no support from government,” he said.
Recently a neighbour and friend, Boniwe Ganga, came to his aid and allowed Sifama to put 31 pigs in her yard.
The Dispatch visited the Sifama’s home situated 300m from the R72 where he spoke about his passion.
The 38-year-old lives in a shack with his wife, two daughters, two nieces and a cousin.
They all depend on his pork business.
At one point Sifama entered the pigsty and showed how he communicated with the swine.
A simple clap of hands got the pigs excited and they rushed to surround him.
“I make a living by selling pigs. A piglet costs R250 and I sell the mature pigs to East London abattoirs for as much as R800 per pig,” he said.
The swine are fed twice a day and regularly injected to make the grade at the abattoir. “I am not doing this project just for money, it is something that I love. This is my dream.”
He has registered a close corporation under the name Sitama Farming and hopes that one day he will rear as many as 300 pigs.
Questions sent to provincial department of rural development and land reform could not be answered as the director for land, Peliwe Njemla, was off sick.
An official in the communications department said Sifama should visit their offices and fill in a land requisition form so that his plea for more land could be assessed. -zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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