Doornspruit Piggery is an emerging enterprise which seeks to stretch its wings to be a commercial giant in piggery production.

Mashashane Village - The enterprise is located in Doornspruit which is about 21 km west of Polokwane. Unlike many piggeries which invite passerby with unbearable smell when approaching them, Doornspruit is one example of the projects with high standard of hygienic practices that subscribe to Occupational Health and Safety measures. The project was started by one hundred and thirty (130) families from Doornspruit village, after the Roman Catholic Church gave their land back in 2004.

The church made an agreement with the then Department of Land Affair that the government should not pay the church the value of land in monetary terms, provided beneficiaries used it for agricultural purposes. The project was shot on the arm from Enterprise which contributed R999.000 for infrastrure support and development whilst Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) topped up with R300,000 that went towards the purchase of a truck. Beneficiaries contribute an amount of R10.00 each to qualify as the active member who will eventually receive dividends after selling of the pigs. Each household received a subsidized amount of R20,000 from the then Department of Land Affairs.

“The idea of starting this piggery comes from the community after having a series of meetings to discuss the most viable business opportunity that we can venture into. After a long discussions we realized that many projects in our nearby communities are poultry producers, we then concluded that poultry business has a congested market in our community so we had to apply our minds and came up with a different business altogether which was piggery, ” he said. He added that the project buy winners (small pigs from three to four weeks) from Abies Piggery which is adjacent to Percy Fyfe area. Presently the project is managed by Mr Malose Malinga who is a Chairperson of the board of trustees. The cooperative employed 4 young people from the same community so that they can be capacitated with the operational skills and support.

The project is funded by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (formerly Department of Land Affairs) which assisted beneficiaries with on-farm piggery infrastructure. The Department of Agriculture did a cofounding for the connection of electricity through the CASP funding. The project was developed by an independent contractor who constructed a 10 pen /run housing area, an office and shower block as well as a feed shed. The whole project is fenced in and an effluent dam was constructed close to the project. The beneficiaries currently operate in partnership with the strategic partners who assist them with production and marketing of pigs. The project exists because of its intention to develop a successful black owned piggery enterprise in Polokwane Municipality and to contribute to the economic growth of the country through sustainable black owned piggery enterprise.


The enterprise will have a positive impact in the local economy of the Limpopo Province by encouraging most black farmers to participate in the Piggery industry. There are very few black owned successful piggery enterprises in the Province and then this clearly indicates that the business will able flourish immediately when it gains its momentum. This enterprise can be used as a model to pave the way for other black emerging farmers to enter in the piggery industry. When Malinga was asked whether he received training in running piggery, he responded to Temo News with a smile. “South African Piggery Organization (SAPO) is the institution that trained me in various areas such as operations and book keeping. The project sells their pigs to Montina Abattoirs which is in Vhembe District. As we speak now, there are prospects of us supplying Pick ‘n Pay stores. One of the plan that we have is to expand to three sheds which each can accommodate 400 pigs then we can say we have achieved something,” he said.