• A 68 year old Lusikisiki grandmother started selling maize and beans meals after her pension ran out before month end while caring for eight grandchildren.
• The pensioner sells maize with beans for R25 and mealie meal with beans for R20 to help buy food and pay household expenses.
A 68 year old grandmother in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape has started selling food to survive.
The pensioner began the small business after realising that her monthly old age grant was not enough to cover the needs of her large family.
She is raising eight grandchildren after both her daughters died in 2024 and 2025 following illness.
“My daughters died in 2024 and 2025 after being ill, so I didn’t have a choice but to take care of their children because they had no one except me,” she said.
The grandmother said her pension would quickly run out after buying groceries and paying insurance policies.
“The old pension grant that I am getting is not enough. It gets finished after buying food and paying insurance policy and the food doesn’t last us the whole month,” she said.
Before she started selling food, things were even harder.
She said the family sometimes ran out of food before the end of the month and she had to ask neighbours for help.
“I was asking for food from my neighbors. I knew that I won’t have guts to ask all the time so in some days we would eat rice and cooking oil. It is then that I took a decision to make an extra income,” she said.
Now she cooks and sells traditional meals in her community. She sells a bowl of maize mixed with beans for R25 and a bowl of mealie meal mixed with beans for R20.
“I am selling my customers healthy and African food. At first I didn’t know that they would like it but I was amazed on how they loved it,” she said.
Some of her grandchildren receive the R370 child support grant. She said she does not use that money for groceries.
“Some of my grandchildren are receiving their R370 government grant but I don’t take it. They are using it to buy toiletries and clothes,” she said.
The grandmother said the small business has helped reduce her stress.
“My high blood was always high because of the stress caused by the responsibilities that I have, but now things are better,” she said.
She is already thinking about ways to grow the business and is looking for other products she could sell in town.
Image Caption: A 68 year old Lusikisiki grandmother sells maize with beans and mealie meal with beans to support her grandchildren.
Pictured above and image source: Supplied
