By Buziwe Nocuze
- He sells cheap pork to his community but struggles to collect daily food waste for his twenty three growing pigs.
- Rising petrol prices punish this small farmer who spends heavy money every month on fuel and medicine for his pigs.
Ayanda Luhlabo refuses to let unemployment beat him. The 36-year-old man from Khayelitsha in Cape Town runs a pig farm to feed his family.
His journey started with a heavy blow in 2021. He bought one pig and sent it to a friend’s farm to breed. The pig gave birth to 12 piglets.
Then sickness wiped out his entire herd. Swine flu killed every single pig shortly after they were born.
But Luhlabo fought back. He started farming again in 2024 because he could not find a job.
“Now I have 23 pigs. I raise them, slaughter and sell them,” he said.
He breeds Large White pigs because they pack more meat. He slaughters the animals and sells the pork to local street vendors and meat buyers.
He chops his prices to help his community. When big shops charge R68 for a kilo of pork, Luhlabo only asks for R58 to R61.
But high daily costs are punishing his small business. He keeps his pigs locked in a barn and buys medicine from Agri Mart to block diseases.
He struggles to find enough food for his growing herd. He leaves buckets around his area to collect food waste and mixes it with bought pig feed.
Now rising petrol prices are hitting his wallet hard.
“To go around the location collecting food waste I use around R900 for petrol. But now that it has increased I will have to pay more,” he said.
He also drops R900 a month on pig food and pays a worker R800 to guard the animals.
Luhlabo said farmers bleed money every day to keep their animals fed. This forces them to push up their meat prices to survive.
Pictured above: Ayanda Luhlabo started farming in 2021 so that he can take care of his family.
Image source: Ayanda Luhlabo
