DELMAS – Gone are those days where the place of a woman in a home environment, was designated only in the kitchen.
That was proven when female farmers from all three districts of the province came in numbers to the provincial female entrepreneurs of the year ceremony that was held last Thursday at the Victor Khanye sports center in Delmas.
MEC of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Administration, Ms Violet Siwela, honoured women who played a significant role in the field of agriculture.
When delivering her keynote address, she indicated that it’s a privilege for her department to host the ceremony during Women’s Month, which symbolized that without women, the world would be nothing.
“I’m very humbled that my department held this event during this month, obviously a month when we can take time and look back at where we come from as women. Where we are now and pave a way forward in terms of where we want to be,” said Siwela.
She stated clearly that the ceremony was not about winning, but the awards were a way of acknowledging positive contributions in making the province and the country a better place and she also encouraged women to be involved in agriculture, especially those who are in deep rural areas because some of them have land, but they are not using it.
” In order for the government to eradicate poverty, we as women, need to be involved in agriculture as already the government has introduced a program called ‘Masibuyel’ Emasimini,” said Siwela.
She went on and emphasised that women must be placed exactly where they deserve to be in all agricultural economic activities.
It was revealed that empowering women in this field, one of the government’s main priorities in such a way, was one of several measures such as the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme that was introduced to reach out even to those who are in deep rural areas.
The nominees were divided into seven categories: Best farmer worker, best substance producer, top entrepreneur: small holder, top entrepreneur: processing: commercial and top entrepreneur: export market.
The overall winner, Ms Thandi Mokoena from Matsino Enterprise project from White River, was over the moon when she was announced.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News after receiving her prize of R75 000 she said: “The competition was very tough. I never thought that I would be a winner, but we manage to win because of working hard and commitment, since dealing with forestry is not any easy thing to do. To me, it’s a great achievement.”
