Blessing Pondani saw an opportunity to use his childhood skills to help feed members of the community by growing a veggie garden behind his local Engen petrol station.
Blessing Pondani was born and raised in Malawi. From a young age Blessing was able to grow things with his hands. At age 15 he realised he had a talent, his community supported him even though there wasn’t very much money. The believed he had “green fingers”
“The problem was that I did not have money but a lot of people supported me. When I was a little boy I knew that I was going to do something in agriculture,”
Blessing and his family came to South Africa in 2013. In 2016 he got a job as a cleaners at his local Engen, Riverhorse Valley Convenience Centre. When Blessing arrived at work every morning he would walk around the centre and noticed that the soil behind the Engen was very fertile.
“I told the boss that this was fertile land and that we should use it to grow veggies.”
Blessing’s boss approved of the idea and so Blessing began to work on the soil and planted spinach as his first crop.
“The boss bought fertiliser and then we took the small plants that were starting to grow and we transferred them to the ground and a month and three weeks later we had our first bunch.”
Many patrons of the Engen have approached Blessing to buy his spinach but Blessing and his boss, Senzo Mfeka, prefer to keep the veggies for the community. Recently Blessing added carrots to his garden. He has plans to add tomatoes in the near future.
“When the spinach is harvested he takes it to his neighbours, orphanages and old age homes in KwaMashu and nearby communities like Newlands”
Blessing wants to encourage other Engen garages and companies to start using their open land to develop small veggie gardens for the community as well.
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