From resisting her father’s farm chores to supplying Spar, Sibahle Sifo overcame severe 2025 flood losses to build Imbewu YeThemba Agricultural Projects into a thriving 5 000-seedling cabbage business in the Eastern Cape.
Sifo spent her youth doing everything she could to escape the agricultural life her father envisioned for her.
Born in Lusikisiki and raised in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, she grew up working on the family farm under the instruction of her father, Mtutuzeli Sifo, but actively resisted following in his footsteps.
“During school holidays we would go to the garden to cultivate and sometimes sell some of the vegetables we produced,” Sifo recalls.
“Ironically, I absolutely hated going to the garden when I was younger. At the time, I never imagined that farming would one day become something I would love and build a business around.”
Her primary ambition was to build a corporate career far away from the land. After finishing at Zingisa Comprehensive High School, she pursued project management training, earning a level 4 certificate through Damelin/SETA in 2016.
By 2019, she had secured a role as a store manager at Vodacom, pursuing what she believed was her true calling.
“I have always wanted to be a corporate girly. Farming was honestly never part of the plan,” she explains.
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A change of heart
Following her tenure at Vodacom, Sifo spent a prolonged period at home looking for new employment opportunities.
During these years of job hunting, family members repeatedly urged her to venture into business, an idea she initially resisted, insisting she lacked an entrepreneurial passion. However, her father remained steadfast in his belief that his children were meant to build their own enterprises rather than work for others.
“Looking back now, almost every sibling in my family has a business of their own. So, in a way, my family had been waiting for this day, but I’m sure none of them ever saw the agricultural side coming,” she reflects.
During this period of job searching, Sifo finally decided to put her project management and leadership skills to the test in the soil.
In 2024, she embraced agriculture, starting small on a portion of her family’s 12-hectare arable holding. Without a large pool of capital, Sifo relied on her personal savings to gradually purchase seedlings and basic inputs.
She also received crucial support with free seedlings from community members outside her immediate family, most notably Nomsa Mfiri and MJ Mfiri, veteran local producers who had worked on her father’s farm for 12 years before branching out to farm on their own.
Beginning with just 300 cabbage seedlings, she worked step by step to master essential agronomy, focusing on spacing, irrigation, fertilisation, and pest control.
Trial by flood and scaling production
On 10 June 2025, severe flooding devastated her initial crop and destroyed critical infrastructure, including farm fencing. Rather than abandoning the enterprise, Sifo chose to rebuild.
“It was a difficult experience, but I decided to start again. When I returned to farming, something changed in me. I started appreciating the entire process: planting, caring for the crop, watching it grow, and eventually harvesting something that I could sell,” she says.
“I lost a lot, but starting again taught me resilience and showed me that farming requires patience and the willingness to keep learning.”
Following the flood, Sifo reinvested her available resources to scale production significantly, growing her output from 300 to 5 000 cabbage seedlings, focusing primarily on the Mega Star and Green Coronet varieties.
She also enrolled in climate-smart agriculture studies through Unisa to build long-term resilience against volatile weather, soil degradation, and pest pressure.
In 2026, she formally registered her enterprise under the name Imbewu YeThemba Agricultural Projects, which translates to “seed of hope”.
Commercial reach and future outlook
To manage operational demand, Sifo works with one core team member, Musa, while Nomsa and MJ continue to provide hands-on assistance and guidance on the farm whenever needed. During peak periods, she employs up to five part-time workers.
Her commercial market spans both informal and formal trade. Imbewu YeThemba supplies cabbage to local street vendors and individual buyers, as well as formal retail buyers, including Spar.
“I particularly enjoy selling to street vendors because when I sell to them, I know that my produce can also help another person generate an income and support their family,” Sifo says.
As Sifo works toward cultivating larger portions of the family’s 12-hectare allocation, her immediate priorities involve securing capital for infrastructure, improving water management, and acquiring dedicated farm machinery.
Reflecting on her business slogan, “Every seed carries hope,” Sifo emphasises the importance of persistence for emerging producers.
“A seed looks small when you put it into the ground, but with the right conditions, care, and patience, it can grow into something much bigger.”
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