Ka Mehla Bakery project empowers locals

LEEUWFONTEIN – The Makuwa family owned “Ka Mehla” bakery project in the rural Leeuwfontein Township outside Marble Hall continues to equip and empower young locals with basic skills in the bakery industry.

The Ka Mehla Bakery, which started operation at the end of August 2020, currently employs four bakers, a cashier and a delivery person. The project also benefits unemployed locals who sometimes collect various products in trolleys and sell to the community.

The bakery, which produces bread, buns and cakes, intends to serve the community their quality and freshly baked products on a daily basis at an affordable price amid the current hard economic times the entire country endures.

Zethu Makuwa, leader of the project, mentioned electricity as a major challenge standing in their way to maximally run the project.

“Electricity is a big problem for us because we don’t currently have the needed type of connection to effectively run our kind of business. We need a three phase type of electricity connection and a container to be easily accessible to the entire community,” said Zethu.

According to Zethu, the project is the next successful of choice in the entire rural Moganyaka area outside Marble Hall which has hired and equipped local young people with basic skills in the bakery industry.

“In a period of five years, we want to run profitably enough to be able to invest back in the growth of business and have our own bakery,” added Zethu.

Asked whether government was supportive enough for youth-ran local projects that benefit communities, Zethu said that as years progressed, government tried its best.

“We have NYDA, Sefa&Seda and Leda and many other initiatives and programs to assist young entrepreneurs with financial and non-financial aid. I am grateful to be an entrepreneur at this time,” further said Zethu.

As words of encouragement to aspirant entrepreneurs, Zethu said they needed to dream, believe and do things until they got them right.