UFAL

A friend called me from Dubai, it was treating him well but it was time to relocate to his homestead, you know the saying “there’s no place like home”. He had plans, he was thinking of a farming enterprise, I am talking about poultry, eggs and fresh produce like spinach and cabbage. He was also going to revolutionize the industry. For every item bought, there would be free delivery. Doesn’t sound like much now but he’d be the exception in his homeland of Limpopo. Limpopo is a rural area and the tempo of life is slow, to get your fresh vegetables you had to go to the local merchant, an inconvenience because in some areas shops are miles ahead. There’s also the case of the demographic in Limpopo, elderly people like grandparents lived there. Having farm fresh produce delivered at their doorsteps would be highly advantageous for them and they would appreciate the service. To make life even better, he was thinking of having an app built to satisfy the orders of the business. You could also order from the website, via sms or send a “please call me” and we will get back to you. I told him that I thought it was a great idea, well thought off with a lot of empathy. In my mindseye I pictured Amazon and drones, I saw fulfillment centers, I thought it had real potential. He proposed that I be his partner for the enterprise, “50/50 but you’d have to relocate to Limpopo for a while” he said. It was an opportunity and the prospect of building something so beautiful and meaningful thrilled me and so I accepted.

We started work, we had a ‘bakkie’ or van (Hyundai H100) and more than 100 hectares of land that needed to be cleared up. We bought logs and a fence to secure the perimeter. The enterprise was still in its infancy so we did the labor ourselves with the aid of two locals. We also cleared a small portion of land so that there would be entrance. We bought gates and installed them. A third member joined us, his name Tumelo but we just called him Stumza. He lived in the area and was the uncle of my partner, Kalushi but they were the same age, born on the same year. Stumza was a great asset, he was smart, creative, resourceful, had high levels of emotional intelligence, a lot of enthusiasm, knew the locals, a prominent member in the community and worked exceedingly hard. He was the perfect guy. Stumza could start and maintain a fire with minimum resources and it would last for the whole night or for when we needed to cook, heat water for bathing or just to keep us warm. To be fair Kalushi was equally equipped and he was a great cook. He cooked with a lot of love and care, his food was hearty and delicious. They were both necessary and essential for when we slept in the bushes.

We cleared a bit of land and called the borehole guys to drill up water but first we had to get the capital because the company was cash strapped considering the investments made already. We drew up a prospectus for investors offering them a share of the profits on 20 hectares of land. It worked and we had enough money for the borehole. In our area, one would get water at around 30 meters so we budgeted for 50 meters. The guys drilled past the 30 meter and still no water. Okay, that’s fine we made provisions for this, we told them to carry on. 65 meters and there was still no water and our budget was already inflated so we abandoned the mission, we simply didn’t have enough money. We consulted with a rehab center that was closeby and they had a borehole, they told us that they got water at 110 meters, almost double what we budgeted for, we were thunderstruck. Had we known beforehand, we would have invested the money wisely or asked more money from our investors. Our sources misled us, our Intel was false, we threw away all our money in a 65 meter well. Luckily we had something in the form of capital, not a lot or sufficient but something. With the capital we had, we shifted our attention on poultry houses. We built a 600 bird structure ourselves and in a couple of days commenced growing 400 chickens. For 6 weeks we lived at the bushes at the farm taking care of our investment. One dreadful day, after we had grown them and they were ripe, they were stolen. See, we were in a celebratory mood because we were done with our last cycle, the chickens looked good and were ready for the market. We hadn’t had a decent bath in days, so we left the farm for a while to refresh ourselves, it was well deserved. In an opportunistic move, some locals saw that as a sign and drove to the farm to steal over 300 chickens. When we returned to the farm we were distraught at what we saw. At least they didn’t steal all the chickens, it was a merciful steal, we still had 70 chickens, not enough to do anything. The stress was unbearable for my partner as he was pouring in his own money for the enterprise and it was not bearing any fruit, just disappointments. He also had to think about everyone, we hadn’t been paid in years and time was not slowing down. Fear won. He lost faith in the enterprise and enrolled to finish his studies as a teacher. I came back to Gauteng with nothing, as a loser, a failure, with nothing to show for my efforts and people were laughing behind my back. Certain family members exhibited schadenfreude. It was brutal, I had to move in back with my mother in her 3 room house, all the rooms were taken so I had to sleep on the floor with couch pouches serving as aids as I laid on the cold concreate floor, added thick blankets to improve the width and comfort, a couple of months later I graduated to the uncomfortable miniature couch that had me sleeping in one position the whole night with my legs and feet hanging in the air because there was no support and the space was constricted and confined, I slept like I was in a cacoon but it was not warm and accommodating but it did incubate my spirit, it was humiliating, at least I was young. Stumza found employment at the local retail store and Kalushi became a primary school teacher – he was the only one with a solid Plan B and he pushed the button, the captain who abandoned his ship.

There’s no hostility in my tone of words, on the contrary, I understand, we did everything imaginable, we gave everything to the process, we asked assistance from the government and other organizations and the response was mute, we got promises of assistance but they were void, no one helped. We did everything except to show patience, keep persisting and trust in the process and to be honest, what’s a business enterprise without those three ingredients? Let the record show that I didn’t give in, I was pushed out by inactivity, negativity and smear campaigns against my name. Even against that, I wanted to continue because the vision was above any one person. Kalushi was smart enough to have a button to push, I admire that. I don’t want or need any buttons to push, I have no ambition of working 9-5, that’s how you survive, I am not trying to survive, I want to thrive. I wish all the best to Kalushi and Stumza, maybe one day our dreams will metastasize but if not, UFAL was almost something beautiful. It still could be, maybe I was the problem and now that we live in different provinces you could execute the vision without me. I am willing to relinquish my 20% percent ownership stake if it means the success of the enterprise, after all 20% of nothing is still nothing and we invested way too much for it to amount to nothing.