From fast food to fresh harvest: Siyabonga Masinda's inspiring journey back to agriculture

Siyabong Masinda takes a closer look at his wilting spinach in the heat of summer. Makhanda has had inconsistent water supply and water woes for many years. (Photo: Vusumzi Fraser Tshekema)

By Lillian Roberts

31 Jan 2025

Siyabonga Masinda spoke about water stress in Makhanda, returning to agriculture and supporting family, local herbs and international politics.

Daily Maverick first spoke to Siyabonga Masinda at fast food restaurant Spur, which he used to supply spinach and butternut to, while he picked at his breakfast in the quiet restaurant in Makhanda, Eastern Cape.

He told Daily Maverick that the inspiration to start growing food came from his late mother,who he said grew spinach and potatoes, and from Grade 4 he helped her. He said she showed him that people can live from agriculture. Now, he grows food around the same house.

Flowers and herbs

Masinda’s family would eat beans, spinach, potatoes and chilies from the garden. This is where he learned about herbs like Umhlonyane (Wormwood).

Wormwood is a medicinal and insecticidal herb in South Africa, used for headaches, intestinal worms, appetite, and helping to treat malaria. Heating and inhaling the leaves helps treat the common cold, coughs, influenza and asthma.

“There’s a herb, isiCakathi, that is good for babies to get rid of mucus. If they drink isiCakathi, they are able to spit out the mucus.”

Agapanthus, or isiCakathi is native to South Africa. A study found that the biological efficacy of Agapanthus revealed its promising anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, uterotonic, anti-hypertension, and cAMP phosphodiesterase inhibition effects in addition to CNS activities. The antifungal effects of the Agapanthus species “were the most promising”.

Phosphodiesterase inhibitors are substances that prevent the breakdown of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in cells, leading to increased levels of cAMP. They have vasodilation effects (increasing oxygen transport around the body), increasing the ability of the heart to contract and pump blood, and improving relaxation of the heart muscle.

Returning to his roots

When Masinda was young he felt called away by city living, forgetting about his roots. He said he later realised that agriculture was a part of his culture.

Another thing that distracted him from upskilling was urbanisation and the removal of agriculture from most school curriculums, said Masinda.

“To tell you the honest truth, as black people, in general, agriculture is part of our culture. I can explain it bluntly; before the white man set foot in Africa, we were self-reliant, self-sustainable.

“Our life was very communal… The education system under apartheid made us slaves. That’s why you see, you can wake up and stand on top of the mountain here in Grahamstown (Makhanda) and watch the majority of blacks come to this side of the town. And we know this is the result of the Group Areas Act, that the white people are staying on this side and we are staying on the other side of the river.”

Less red meat, more greens

“We are people of herbs, veggies and fruits. That’s what our diet is based on,” he said. He added that he once asked his grandfather how often people would eat meat, and his grandfather said twice a year when he was growing up.

Siyabong Masinda takes a closer look at his wilting spinach in the heat of summer. Makhanda has had inconsistent water supply and water woes for many years. (Photo: Vusumzi Fraser Tshekema)

Masinda said that he was on the verge of being able to eat exclusively from his garden and was teaching his daughter that fast food is oily, unhealthy, and full of saturated fats.

“I can’t just pull her away from this thing. I must pull her away gradually by teaching her. We have a lot of spinach at home, we just planted beetroot, we have chilies, basil, celery. We are trying to plant more and get chickens, so that when they feel like they want to eat meat they can eat once or twice a year. They can get eggs from those chickens as well.”

Spinach — the economical veggie

Masinda started growing spinach in 2019, on a rented plot 15km outside Makhanda. That’s when he began supplying Spur with spinach and butternut. He moved back to the family home in Tantyi, Makhanda, in early 2022, where he continued growing. He sold to Nic’s Nest, as well as Fraser’s restaurant. Now, he sells to Nyama Rama and OBC.

“It’s easy to grow spinach. You plant it once, and then you can chow from it the whole year. It keeps re-growing. It’s a very economical veggie to grow.”

He uses vegetable peels and shrubs as an organic pesticide, not wasting anything in the garden.

“It’s an unpredictable business. Makhanda is one of the water-stressed cities. I will say stressed in the sense that we don’t get water every day. For the past three days we didn’t have water. You can’t farm without water.”

Manufactured scarcity

According to Masinda the lack of political will, political socialisation, and the misuse of political legitimacy within the Eastern Cape is an issue. He told Daily Maverick there was a time when the government would work with the community. A tractor would come till the land and move on to the next plot, so that when harvest came, everyone “got their food in abundance”.

“There’s no scarcity of food. These are the deficiencies of capitalism. These are the brutal strategies of making profit by any means necessary. It’s profit driven. There’s enough to feed everyone. There’s not enough to satisfy everyone’s greed, but there is enough to satisfy each and every person’s need.”

Masinda said he thought that South Africa was suffering from greed and the coercion of the black elite by what he termed “white monopoly capital”, and that he believed people were collaborating with capital for personal benefit, that “they are buying their loyalty so they can sell us out, outright”.

“It’s easier for white monopoly capital to boost one man than it is to boost a community. The rest of the community are just slaves. The whole system is designed like that.”

Making a life, not just a living

Masinda is renovating the family home to sell Kasi (township) food. He’s calling it Nzingha’s Kitchen, after his daughter. He hopes one day she will take over after he has trained her, and once she’s done hospitality courses. He wants her to be self reliant.

He ran the Olde 65 kitchen for seven years in Makhanda, making meals for the patrons of the popular pub. When it closed down, he began selling homemade food on the streets of the town, the Joza location, as well as Soccer City.

Groomed in Black Consciousness, Masinda said Steve Biko taught self-reliance. As a Rastafarian, he also read the philosophy of Marcus Garvey.

“He was trying to improve and instill self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-awareness, self-reliance, unto us, as black people. I give thanks to those greats, because I don’t go to bed without food, I don’t wake up and think about going to slave from nine until five.”

Towards the end of the interview, Masinda got a call from people in a village asking for assistance. He was an agrarian officer at the non-profit Masifunde in 2013 and 2014. He used to help fast-track land claims and improve crop yields.

He needs more space for his spinach and JoJo tanks to collect rainwater. The garden wilts without water. His son, Buhle Bazi, is helping him garden, and he’s trying to steer him towards agriculture, but says he will support his children whatever they do. DM

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