Lindokuhle Mabaso left university with nothing but a dream and R3,000 in his pocket, but today his farming business supplies some of South Africa’s biggest retailers.
“The career that I was doing and the dream I had did not match the course that I was doing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. So I decided to drop out,” he says
With only R3,000 in his pocket, he started Mabaso Able Solutions in Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal.
The business supplies major retailers including Roots, Spar, Boxer, Food Lover’s Market and Durban markets, as well as his local community.
Mabaso produces spinach, green peppers, chillies and other vegetables. But his farm is not only about selling. He also trains youth to venture into agriculture and takes in students from colleges and universities for in-service training.
“What inspired me is that you need a farmer three times a day. Agriculture is life. Agriculture is the backbone of the country. Whatever you eat on your tables, just know that it came from us as farmers,” he says.
What makes his business different is how he farms.
“Sometimes I do deliveries door to door, and then I also use the organic way. I use the old way to deal with agriculture so that I can protect my soil,” he says.
“Because what I’m doing, I’m doing for my kids, for my people, for the next generation to get this soil healthy. I’m not focusing more on chemicals.”
His strategy to reduce costs is the same: go back to the old-school way. He focuses more on organic and reduces these chemical things.
Mabaso started with very little.
“I started my business with little money. I think it was R3000, and then MTN Venture gave me 25K,” he says. “I used what I have actually.”
The first things he needed were seeds, seedlings, and water. He installed a water pipe from the main pipe, but water remains his biggest challenge.
“You can’t farm without water. That’s when my life changed,” he says.
His biggest expenses are materials and seeds. He has faced serious financial setbacks.
“Right now we need a borehole, but we don’t have money to install a borehole. There are many challenges in agriculture,” he says.
Despite that, he has achieved a lot. He has won two awards, a tractor, and won the best upcoming farm of the year. Also won the agriculture award of the year.
Mabaso currently employs two permanent workers and six seasonal workers. Everyone is youth, except his mother, who is part of the team.
He is in partnership with Manja Care Centre, and also works with Leisure Tools, MTN, Salam Foundation, and many other big companies.
“We also see the lights right now because we have many people that want us to come and do business with them.”
Mabaso is also well known on social media, where he pushes his work. On Facebook and TikTok, with a good following of 60K followers. Water scarcity nearly destroyed him. In January, he lost around 6,000 cabbages, and in October he lost 90% of his spinach production because of water problems.
Now he has the opposite problem.
“Right now we always run out of stock because our spinach is so good. Retailers always order our spinach.”
But fuel is killing his profit.
“Fuel prices are high, and we end up not seeing the profits. That’s something that is draining us because the disease is so costly for us. And for us to travel to big retailers is kilometres and kilometres away.”
His next dream is to venture into agro-processing, but he needs technology for his farm.
