The members of the Imbadu Community Bakery Cooperative believe the business will not only help feed Khayamandi and the greater Stellenbosch, it will also empower community members.
Imbadu started as a housing cooperative looking to access land with more than 600 members in August 2023. Since then, the board worked to get land, but due to bureaucratic delays and challenges the co-op decided to shift its focus to being an economic driver.
“Even through the housing co-op, our aim was to have strategic economic goals and skills development,” Thumakele Gosa, director of Imbadu Cooperations, points out.
“With guidance and help the co-op decided to establish a bakery cooperative in Stellenbosch, making various kinds of baked goods starting with bread.”
The savings from the original co-op, around R1,5 million, was used to establish the Imbadu Community Bakery Cooperative. Now, with a boost from the the National Development Agency (NDA) and Minister of Social Development Nokuzola Tolashe, the co-op aims to employ 22 locals, predominantly women and unemployed youth.
Tolashe visited the bakery’s soon-to-be facility in Plankenbrug last Wednesday (9 July), where she handed over a cheque of more than R2 million.
The donation comes during July, when International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated on 5 July, recognising the role co-ops play in addressing and promoting sustainable development.
“Cooperatives are the backbone of many economies across the globe,” Tolashe says. “In South Africa they are the heart of the much-needed village and township economic revival. The Imbadu community bakery will ensure goods and services needed by the Khayamandi community are produced in their own community and the money received, by community members through social grants paid by Sassa also circulates within the community.”
Nasiphi Mafumbula, chairperson of the cooperative, says members have undergone training and they are excited to get started. The building that will house the bakery needed renovations, and the team worked closely with both the Stellenbosch and Cape Winelands municipality to ensure everything was up to standard.
Gosa says the bakery will be up and running by October. A large part of the funding from the department will be used to buy machinery for bakery.
“The community cannot wait for us to be operational and are already asking when we will be selling our bread,” Mafumbula adds. “We are starting with 22 employees, but our hope is to employ hundreds of people from Khayamandi in future and deliver bread, not only to Stellenbosch, but even exporting it overseas.”
