Bees aren’t just about honey; they are the backbone of agricultural productivity. Sibongiseni Peacock, an innovation manager at the DG Murray Trust (DGMT), says that to protect South Africa’s food systems, the country needs a coherent policy vision that supports small-scale beekeepers with land access and extension services.
South Africans consume about 5 000 tons of honey annually – that’s roughly 10 million standard jars. However, most of it is imported because the local honey industry is unable to meet demand for the natural sweet stuff.
The industry comprises about 400 “commercial bee farmers” who own about 60 000 hives between them. There are over 2 000 small-scale beekeepers in the formal sector (those with fewer than 200 hives) and an estimated 4 000 informal beekeepers.
Production, though, is not evenly split between the different categories of honey producers. To their detriment, small-scale beekeepers are often excluded from the value chain and face underinvestment, rendering them underutilised. Instead of thriving in a market where there is high demand, small-scale beekeepers are struggling to expand. Their success is not only good for local economies but would improve rural livelihoods.
This is the logic behind a pilot initiative run by the non-profit, Siyazisiza Trust, in the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu-Natal, which seeks to demonstrate how small-scale beekeepers can be supported to improve rural livelihoods and agro-based businesses. The pilot centres around 50 young people who are trained and mentored in beekeeping.
A sweet success story
One of the programme’s success stories is the experience of Sabelo Khubone, a young KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane farmer who turned to beekeeping to diversify his income. Sugarcane has been the main source of income for many rural communities, but over the years, farmers have felt the pressure of higher input costs, bad weather and cheaper sugar imports.
Because sugarcane fields are rich in nectar sources that support robust and thriving bee colonies, the landscape is conducive to beekeeping. Farmers like Sabelo can easily incorporate beekeeping while continuing with their core business.
Today, Sabelo is producing premium honey from his twelve hives and beeswax for local markets, all within a few months of completing his training. With continued guidance and assistance from the Siyazisiza Trust, he has expanded into auxiliary beekeeping services, such as aiding farmers with pollination, processing honey into other products, and providing safe removal and relocation of honeybee colonies from houses or public areas.
Sabelo’s transformation from a struggling sugarcane farmer to a budding beekeeper demonstrates what happens when opportunity and support come together. Siyazisiza’s training programme demonstrated to Sabelo and other young farmers that innovation is feasible even in traditional agricultural systems.
“I feel like I’m running a business that I can grow for the first time, instead of one that is shrinking every year,” Sabelo told me.
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Bees and agriculture
According to industry predictions, agricultural productivity will continue to decline until more beekeepers receive training because of the crucial role bees play in pollinating crops.
Supporting small-scale beekeeping helps protect food systems, rural livelihoods, entrepreneurship, ecological resilience and conserving bees. Yet in conversations about rural development, beekeeping tends to be overlooked as an opportunity.
Although there are regulations about bees in South Africa, there’s been no coherent policy vision which recognises beekeeping as a strategic economic, ecological and food-system asset. There have been some positive shifts, like agriculture minister John Steenhuisen recently acknowledging the importance of this subsector in food security.
What is needed
Still, existing regulations treat bees primarily as a biosecurity issue, focusing on compliance, registration, disease control, and hive movement rather than their economic role. This creates a policy gap in South African beekeeping: without support for beekeepers, the healthy colonies that underpin agricultural pollination are weakened.
Access to extension services, land, processing facilities, and markets is limited for small-scale and emerging beekeepers, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. From entry-level training to sustainable business development, there is no well-defined national pathway to support them.
Even though NGOs and community organisations are filling this void by assisting beekeepers like Sabelo in gaining market access and skills, these initiatives must be supported by policy and funding at a national level.
- Sibongiseni Peacock is an innovation manager at the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) focused on building productive synergies between communities and the environment. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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