Despite growing up in the agricultural heartland of Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape, it took the death of his beloved mother in 2014 to inspire Siphosihle Maseko to pursue farming, his true calling.
Today, his 10ha farm is thriving, but Maseko still remembers the tough times when after his mother’s death when he was struggling to make ends meet. His mother, Xoliswa Maseko, lived off a Sassa grant, and he suddenly also had to take care of his grandmother, Ntombomzi Maseko.
“I started the farm because of the hunger,” he admits.
“I was not working, had the qualification, but I was unemployed.”
Maseko holds a diploma in agricultural management from the Nelson Mandela University. With his qualification in the bag, he applied for numerous jobs in both the private sector and government, but was rejected for all of them.
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When he eventually landed a job, though, he was unhappy and quit after a few months.
Going the extra mile
He says, “At home my grandmother showed me the available land and advised me to go into agriculture. I really didn’t want to do it because I had no background in agriculture. I didn’t want to, but I had to. So, I left the job and became a taxi driver for a few months to raise funds for my farm.”
Maseko drove his uncle’s taxi between Keiskammahoek and Qonce. When needed, he would also get behind the wheel for long-distance trips to Cape Town or Mthatha. He managed to save up about R18 000 which was enough to kickstart his new life as a green maize farmer.
Most of the money he made came from short trips, recalls Maseko. His taxi was popular with the youth who liked its fresh look and the pump-up songs he played. Gqom and Amapiano tracks were his go-to genres, but the song “66” by Felo Le Tee X Mystro kept him going.
At times, he would also earn extra cash by driving trips at night for people who went to taverns and bars.
All about the future
“I saved [most of] the money I got,” he says. “For example, if I had R2 500, I used R1 000 for petrol and saved R1 000. It was a difficult time but I had to start and make a living for myself.
“Getting start-up capital is a challenge but saving up, talking to people and engaging with people does help. I have never received any type of funding or assistance. I have been doing everything out of my own pocket.”
Maseko says he was raised by a trio of women in Keiskammahoek: his mother, grandmother, and his aunt, Thobeka Nciza. He describes his childhood as pleasant and, for as long as he can remember, he dreamt about working as a forensic pathologist.
“I was very interested in corpses when I was young,” he laughs. “Whenever there was a funeral at home I wanted touch the corpse and find out the cause of death. I liked dead bodies.”
Smooth sailing until…
With the right measurement of inspiration and good grades, Maseko cruised through high school and became a top student at Breidbach Secondary School in Qonce, formerly known as King William’s Town.
“In high school I was clever,” he adds, detailing how he excelled in life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics which easily landed him a spot at Wits University in Johannesburg.
However, varsity life can be a humbling experience for many matriculants and Maseko too discovered this. Though his first-semester marks weren’t too bad, it dropped considerably in the second semester causing him to drop out of Wits.
Moving on to greener pastures
He eventually completed his studies at Nelson Mandela University, closer to home. This was a big moment because he could now use his experience in enterprise budgets to introduce his taxi-owner uncle to some of the possibilities held by the barren land at home.
The two later joined forces and, in 2020, started farming with green maize on two hectares. A year later, they parted ways and Maseko has since also added cabbages while expanding his operation.
He already produces about 45 000 cabbages and supplies both formal and informal markets. “I make sure that when they need my produce I deliver, and that is why I plant in large volumes every month,” he explains.
Jumping through rings of fire
However, as any seasoned farmer will testify, this isn’t a job for the faint-hearted. Maseko has already survived two bad seasons as well as a hailstorm in December 2021 that destroyed three hectares of green maize just a month before it was to be harvested.
Last year, his farm was also hit by a locust outbreak, but he keeps on pushing forward. And he continues to slowly but surely build his dream of one day owning a 200ha farm that includes livestock farming.
“I have [academic] knowledge of both kinds of farming and I want to combine them soon,” he says. “There is also an undying fire inside of me. I work hard and I earn a profit, but I want to do more.”
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