‘JUST START! THAT’S WHAT I DID’
LOCATION
KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal
Free-spirited Welile Gumede (29) is a tunnel producer in rural Madundube, 17km outside KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal. She jumped head-first into farming in 2018 after leasing land with 10 dilapidated plastic tunnels from the Qwabe-Nkanini Trust. With little more than her social welfare grant and two obliging farm workers, Welile doggedly restored the tunnels to working order.
Three years on, her business has expanded to 20 tunnels and produces 18t of green peppers and tomatoes a year. The white tunnel domes are an uncommon sight in the rolling green hills of sugar cane and
