An age-old food tradition is creating jobs for rural women while promoting healthier eating habits with a bit of entrepreneurial get-u-and-go.
Phumeza Stuurman, 46, has built the Rural Impaqt Bone Broth enterprise in the village of Nxarhuni, on the outskirts of KuGompo City, where an all-female team produces chicken and beef bone broth for customers across the city.
The business transforms animal bones, often discarded as waste, into nutrient-rich broth that is slow-cooked over open fires using traditional methods.
Stuurman said the idea was inspired by a desire to create economic opportunities in rural communities by using resources already available locally.
“Inspired by the African term ‘vukuzenzele’, meaning ‘wake up and do it yourself’, I saw untapped potential in the wisdom and resources that we already have in our rural community, rather than focusing on what we lacked,” she said.
The broths are produced fresh each week and sold through social media, WhatsApp orders, local markets and collection points in Beacon Bay and Vincent.
While bone broth has been consumed by cultures around the world for centuries, it has recently gained popularity among health-conscious consumers because it is rich in natural collagen, amino acids and minerals.
Stuurman said the business combines traditional food knowledge with modern consumer demand for natural, minimally processed foods.
“We are bringing what our grandmothers knew back to the table, in a format that meets modern food safety standards and consumer desires to live well and eat well,” she said.
“In a market dominated by synthetic supplements, we offer a wholefood alternative that is affordable, natural, healing, and deeply rooted in African food tradition.”
After spending 15 years working in financial management and performance monitoring an& evaluation in Gauteng, Stuurman returned to KuGompo City to take on family responsibilities closer to home, though she still needed to earn.
Even though she holds an MBA, she said the transition from employee to entrepreneur required a different way of thinking.
“My mindset then was of an employee, not a business owner.
“The knowledge gained through the MBA has come in handy in strategising for the business and most business concepts are not foreign to me.”
Stuurman participated in the second East London cohort of the Stellenbosch Business School’s Small Business Academy (SBA), a programme run in partnership with Standard Bank and the Border-Kei Chamber of Business.
“The SBA helped equip me to think big and scale the business — to work on the business, not just in the business,” she said.
The academy provides business training, mentorship and practical support to entrepreneurs from low-income and marginalised communities.
SBA head Prof Armand Bam said the programme was designed to help small businesses overcome the challenges that often cause start-ups to fail.
“The addition of Standard Bank, as a partner, solidifies our commitment to advance business knowledge and practical capability, enabling small business owners in disadvantaged communities to grow sustainable enterprises that create jobs and strengthen their communities,” Bam said.
So far, Stuurman has employed three part-time workers but she hopes to expand significantly in the coming years.
Her vision is to establish a dedicated production facility that could create between five and eight permanent jobs for unemployed women and young people in its first year of operation.
“Our vision is not just to build a food brand but to grow a rural manufacturing ecosystem, based on a commercially viable, scalable business that uses health food as a vehicle for rural economic transformation – creating dignified local employment, activating local supply chains, and demonstrating that high-value health food production can happen outside of urban centres,” she said.
Stuurman believes businesses rooted in rural communities can play a significant role in tackling unemployment and creating sustainable livelihoods.
By converting what was once considered waste into a marketable product, she hopes Rural Impaqt can demonstrate how entrepreneurship can unlock value, create jobs and bring economic opportunities closer to where they are needed most. — DDC
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