Speaker, the annual Female Entrepreneur of the Year award was held in the Eastern Cape over the weekend. Its aim is to encourage and recognise the participation of women in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.
A Limpopo woman, Mavis Mathabatha, won the 2010 Female Entrepreneur of the Year award, as well as R365 000. Mavis Mathabatha is the leader of the Lammangata Moringa community wellness project, which cultivates and utilises Moringa Oleifera, a plant possessing remarkable nutritional properties. The plant, which is known as the miracle tree, possesses vitamin A and C, iron and protein.
The Lammangata Moringa project produces and packages 10 000 tons of all- natural Moringa leaf powder. It creates jobs for 12 women and five men. The project also offers Moringa Oleifera seedlings and education on nutrition at no cost to rural communities in Limpopo.
The ANC encourages these kinds of initiatives, especially initiatives that empower rural women, particularly those who derive their livelihood from the use of productive land. Thank you.