Gugulethu Mahlangu
Nominee's Province:
Gauteng
Project Name/Description:
CEO/Managing Director at House Harvest; CEO/Managing Director at GMS Dream House Construction
A combination of being born into a farming family and an innate entrepreneurial spirit have made Gugulethu Mahlangu an agripreneur to be reckoned with. Mahlangu has been cultivating a 2ha on her 14ha farm in Boksburg, Gauteng since 2019, where she grows spinach, marrows and green beans. Although her House Harvest farm is now thriving, the road hasn’t been easy. After spending a year at the University of Pretoria studying agricultural science, she switched to psychology and physiology. Later, she opted to follow in her farmer grandmother’s footsteps whom she witnessed working the land while growing up in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga. Subsequently, she went back to Mpumalanga, volunteering at a farm in eNtokozweni (Machadodorp), where she planted cabbages, but unfortunately the patch of land she worked on was water-logged, resulting in her crop dying. Her next stop was Umzimkulu in KwaZulu-Natal where she and a friend got permission to farm on communal land. She again tried growing cabbages, and this time her crop was destroyed by pests. This did not deter her as she raised her own capital by starting a construction company, GMS Dream House Construction. This helped self-fund Harvest House. Her other passion is sharing knowledge on food security and nutrition. She is currently studying towards a BSc degree in Agricultural Sciences (plant science) through Unisa. Her immediate dream is to become a commercial organic farmer focusing on modern technology such as hydroponics and aquaponics to enable even cities and towns without land to grow crops.
