Rooted in her rural upbringing, former educator and real estate specialist Jennifer Gazide turned her savings and a small backyard setup into a thriving poultry enterprise in Mpumalanga.
Born and raised in Rolle Village in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, Gazide grew up surrounded by agriculture.
Her early education began at Floraphophe Lower Primary School and Wisani Higher Primary School before she attended Godide High School, where she completed her matric in 1987.
Though formal employment later dominated her early adult life, her connection to the land remained strong. Her mother, Betty Gazide, practised crop farming on family land, instilling in her an early appreciation for agriculture as a way of life.
Her career path initially led into education. After matriculating, Gazide pursued a junior primary teachers’ diploma at Hoxani College. She started teaching in 1992 at Njanji and Maswameni Primary Schools.
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Academic ambitions drive growth
Demonstrating a lifelong commitment to self-improvement, she continued her studies while working, earning a bachelor of arts through Unisa, followed by a bachelor of education in special educational needs.
Her academic ambitions eventually expanded into property development, culminating in a master of science in real estate from the University of Pretoria. This advanced qualification propelled her beyond the classroom.
In 2001, Gazide joined Stannic as a business consultant, later transitioning to the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (MEGA) as a leasing specialist.
“Although I spent many years in formal employment, farming was always something I loved and felt connected to because of my rural upbringing and my family’s involvement in agriculture,” she recalls.
“I had always loved farming, but while I was working in formal employment, I did not give it the attention it deserved.”
The pivot to poultry production
The decisive pivot occurred in 2023, sparked by an opportunity within her own family. Her nephew, Thabo Magwena, was running a small poultry operation in his backyard, but circumstances prevented him from continuing.
Recognising that an established customer base was still seeking fresh poultry, Gazide stepped in to preserve and expand the project. “I saw an opportunity to continue what he had started and build it into something bigger,” she explains.
“Starting my own poultry business gave me an opportunity to reconnect with something I had always enjoyed while also creating a new chapter in my life.”
To formally structure her enterprise, she registered Jen Ronior Associates in 2023, launching on a one-hectare family plot using personal savings rather than waiting for external loans.
Another nephew, Wiseman Gazide, assisted her in building the first-layer house, and Gazide stocked the farm with 100 broiler and 500 layer chicks. Adjusting from corporate routines to hands-on farm management, she quickly mastered critical operational dynamics on the ground – from feeding schedules, heat stress, and disease risks to mortality rates and daily farm accounting.
“Starting with my own resources was challenging, but it also taught me an important lesson: sometimes you have to start with what you have rather than waiting for everything to be perfect,” Gazide notes.
Diversifying the enterprise and local impact
Through steady reinvestment, Jen Ronior Associates has expanded beyond its initial footprint. Today, the farm maintains a continuous rotation of 200 broilers and roughly 360 layers in an upgraded housing system.
To supplement her livestock operations, Gazide has diversified into small-scale horticulture, cultivating onions, cabbages, parsley, lettuce, tomatoes, and habanero chillies.
A lean, dedicated team helps with the day-to-day operations. Assistant Nkululeko Mhlongo manages routine tasks. Gazide’s high school-aged nephew, Hlulani Sibuyi, assists after school and on weekends with maintenance.
For Gazide, his involvement serves a dual purpose: practical support and structured succession planning. “I want him to gain practical knowledge and experience so that he understands the business and the opportunities that agriculture can create.”
Operating in rural Mpumalanga presents distinct challenges, particularly rising input costs and weather volatility. Soaring poultry feed prices directly squeeze profit margins, while severe heatwaves impose stress on egg-laying flocks.
Navigating these weather fluctuations, alongside disease risks and capital constraints for infrastructure upgrades, requires constant operational adaptation.
“Coming from a formal professional career into agriculture required me to learn a completely different way of doing business,” she reflects. “Poultry farming has taught me resilience, patience, discipline, and the importance of understanding your numbers.”
Growth, challenges, and prospects
Despite these operational hurdles, Jen Ronior Associates has established a solid commercial footprint within the Bushbuckridge area. The enterprise supplies fresh eggs and meat directly to local households, spaza shops, catering businesses, and crèches.
While expansion into commercial retail chains remains a long-term goal, Gazide values her local customer base for providing a stable, immediate market that fosters strong community relationships.
Looking ahead, Gazide has mapped out an ambitious five-year growth strategy. Her primary objective is to scale the poultry operation to approximately 40 000 layers, expand broiler capacity, upgrade infrastructure, and implement climate-smart cropping techniques.
“I want to build a business that is commercially sustainable, creates livelihoods, and demonstrates that rural agriculture can become a viable business when it is approached professionally,” she says.
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