In 2018, Zwelihle Mhlongo’s heart broke into a million pieces when he saw the ruins of his late father’s once-thriving sugarcane farm in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal. It would take a mammoth effort, but he did not give up and despite the neglect and mounting bills, he restored the farm and his father’s legacy.
Mhlongo, along with his brothers, made an early decision in life to diverge from their father Miya Johnson Mhlongo’s farming legacy. Instead, after completing his studies at the Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation, specialising in front-end loader operations, Mhlongo found himself in Mpumalanga, assuming the role of a supervisor for a prominent mining company.
The five-hectare farm had been under the management of Mhlongo’s father as part of a Tongaat Hulett cooperative. It was among the farm holdings that yielded over 30 tonnes of sugarcane per season. Business was good, and the family was thriving.
When it rains, it pours
However, tragedy struck when Bab’ Mhlongo passed away just as he had successfully organised another cooperative with six other farmers. The group was finalising the purchase of a 20-hectare sugarcane farm when everything came to an abrupt standstill.
“It was a terrible situation because large pieces of land that used to be green with sugarcane and filled with busy bodies during harvest looked like useless land, dead and empty,” Mhlongo recalls.
The situation on the farm worsened as the Tongaat Hulett’s farming cooperative found itself deep in Eskom debt amounting to hundreds of thousands of Rands, he explains. This financial burden haunted the irrigation-dependent farmers, including the Mhlongo family, who struggled to keep their crops alive.
“Farmers could not continue because they struggled to irrigate without electricity,” says Mhlongo.
Consequently, the lands remained dormant and unused. Attempts by a different cooperative to revive the farming scheme also eventually failed.
Mhlongo was overcome with a heavy sense of guilt. While he was climbing up the corporate ladder at a mining company in Mpumalanga, his father’s legacy, a piece of his childhood and history, was vanishing.
“I just realised that I’ve had enough of waiting for people to help me run my father’s farm and I hated seeing that once-beautiful piece of land looking so dead. I took it upon myself to go back home and start working the land,” he says.
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No victory without sacrifice
Today, under his leadership, the farm has been revived and is once again bustling with activity. They now farm on about five hectares, yielding between 20 and 26 tonnes of sugarcane per harvest season.
Getting to this point required immense sacrifice on Mhlongo’s part. With only the knowledge passed down from his late father to rely on, he dedicated all his time and effort to the task, a journey he vividly remembers.
“I found myself sleeping with an empty stomach on some nights because things were just so expensive then. I had to pay workers, buy fertilisers, pay for equipment and transportation, the list was never-ending.”
Mhlongo has also managed to expand farming operations.
“When I used the whole farm, I didn’t struggle much. I was more experienced. I got a farm manager involved, and he managed the farm and workers while I was away in Mpumalanga.
“Whenever I got paid from my jobs as a mining supervisor, I would communicate with the manager, and he would give me a list of things that needed payments and I would send him the money. I didn’t have to travel back home for things like that.”
Although he was away from the farm most of the time, he trusted his manager and made sure that he was at the farm for planting and harvesting season.
“I liked times like that. I think for those I had to be there to supervise them myself because I wanted to make sure the workers planted the way I did and harvested the way I did,” he adds.
A restored legacy
Looking back to where he is now, two words stand out for him: patience and wisdom. He says if it had not been for his patience, he would have abandoned the farm in 2018 when he started. However, because of his patience during the process, he is now able to provide for his family, make a stable living, and save some money.
Mhlongo’s decision to return to the farm, to pour his heart, soul, and resources into its restoration, is a testament to the enduring legacy his father had instilled in him.
Despite the challenges and setbacks, one can only hope that Bab’ Mhlongo is filled with pride, knowing that his legacy, though tested and nearly lost, has been reclaimed and revived by his son.
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