Employment is one of the most persistent challenges facing South Africa, with a national unemployment rate of over 30%, and the challenge is particularly acute in deep rural areas like ours. In our community, formal employment opportunities have historically been extremely limited. For generations, households have relied on a mix of subsistence farming, government grants, and remittances sent home by family members working elsewhere.
Migration for work has long been a defining feature of how households in our community earn income. Working-age adults often leave the community to find employment, typically on mines or farms far from home, sending money back to support their families. While this system has helped sustain rural households, it also means that local opportunities to earn an income within the community remain scarce. It also carries social costs, with many families spending long periods separated from parents, spouses or siblings who must leave to work elsewhere.
It’s also important to note, when discussing work in our community, that employment statistics do not always reflect the realities of rural life. Work within households, including caring for children or elders, managing subsistence gardens and livestock, maintaining homes and supporting extended family networks, is essential to daily life but is not counted in formal employment data. Social expectations also influence who takes up paid work. For example, newly married women (oomakoti) are often expected to take primary responsibility for the home and children.
Within this context, creating local livelihood opportunities can have a significant impact.
When the Social Employment Fund (SEF) issued a call for proposals, the Nosintu Gwebindlala Foundation (NGF) was interested in applying. NGF is a nonprofit organisation based in our community, founded by Nosintu Gwebindlala, the senior traditional leader of our area and Chairperson of the Bulungula Incubator Board. The organisation focuses primarily on social support services, assisting community members in accessing documentation and services such as IDs, birth certificates, and social grants.
As a relatively new organisation, however, NGF was not yet eligible to apply independently to the SEF. The Bulungula Incubator, therefore, applied as the Strategic Implementing Partner to support NGF in accessing the opportunity.
While Bulungula Incubator holds the formal contract and is responsible for oversight, compliance, and reporting to the SEF and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), the Nosintu Gwebindlala Foundation leads the programme’s operational implementation. NGF manages participant recruitment, day-to-day coordination and programme delivery across participating communities.
Through this partnership, the programme secured funding to create 1,000 jobs across four administrative areas in our region: Xhorha Mouth (where we operate), Mbutye, Mkatazo and Bafazi. Participants work 7 days per month, 8 hours per day.
The work focuses on two areas identified as priorities within the community, 1) food and nutrition, and 2) environmental management. Across the programme area, nine government school gardens, five early childhood development (ECD) gardens and four community gardens have been initiated. These gardens contribute to improved dietary diversity while encouraging household and community food production. Participants are also engaged in environmental work addressing unmanaged waste dumping and the spread of invasive alien plants that damage local ecosystems.
In addition to the 1,000 participant roles, the programme has created further employment through administration, coordination and services required to support implementation, including transport and other local suppliers.
In rural communities where incomes are often extremely limited, even a modest but reliable income can have a meaningful effect on household stability. Because many households share resources, income earned through employment programmes is often directed quickly toward everyday needs such as food, schooling costs, clothing and healthcare. It also allows people to remain in the community while earning an income, rather than needing to leave for migrant labour, which has historically shaped employment patterns here.
While the programme is still in its early months, some of these effects are already visible. Malibongwe Gwadiso from our community is employed through the programme to collect waste. Before joining SEF, he had been unemployed since 2024, when he last worked on the government-supported construction of the Folokhwe bridge near our high school.
He describes how difficult it was not having work and being unable to provide food for his family. Now that he is employed through SEF, he says he can buy food for his two young children and has started buying bricks to build a new house.
Stories like this illustrate how employment programmes can begin to shift everyday realities in communities like ours. As the programme continues, we are beginning discussions around research that will explore the broader social value of work programmes such as this — looking beyond income to better understand how employment influences household stability, wellbeing and community life. More info to come – stay tuned!
