She went ahead and did the thing financial advisers always tell us not to do.
But what else could she do? the businesswoman jokes.
She had a vision – to bring exquisitely packaged masonja products to the world, while uplifting her community at the same time – but she didn’t have the capital.
“So I cashed out my pension fund to start my business in November 2021,” the Joburg-based businesswoman, Wendy Vesela-Ntimbani, tells Drum.
And so far, so good, she adds.
There are challenges, she admits, primarily funding.
But so far, she has managed to employ seven people, four of whom are based in Johannesburg and three of whom are in Phalaborwa where the harvesting of the delicious mopane worms which are the main ingredient of her products, Matomane, happens.
Matomani protein bars.
Given her rural upbringing, it was inevitable that Wendy would come back home and do the kind of work she is doing.
“I was born and bred in Kheyi village in the Mopani District of Limpopo. It was beautiful. I have happy memories of walking to school and coming back to play every day.
“We ate beautiful food and had a deeply rooted sense of community.”
“Growing up in a community that’s tight-knight, your identity is always ‘you are a child of the village, not just your mom and dad’.”
Most of the homes in her village, including her own, had trees with mopane. But when harvest season came, neighbours would call on other neighbours to come join them as they went into the forest to harvest the nutritious caterpillars.
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“It was just more fun that ways,” Wendy recalls.
“Every December, we would go the forest and harvest the mopane as a community.”
This sense of embeddedness within a greater whole stays with you your whole life.
That’s why after a successful career, first in chemical engineering in Joburg, then in supply chain management in Europe, Wendy decided it was time to come back home and figure out how to create a distinctly Southern African brand, with many health benefits, that would also benefit her rural community back in Limpopo.
“I finished matric in 1999, then left to go study in Joburg in 2000. I have never been back since. What I mean by that is, I have never gone back to live in Limpopo since 2000. But my parents still have a home in the village and in Phalaborwa.”
She visits often and has the help of her parents and other employees to ensure that she doesn’t run out product to make her popular Matomane protein bar product, the manufacturing of which she has outsourced to another company for now.
Besides the dark chocolate-covered bar, Matomane also has in its range hand-picked whole mopane worms, biscuits and flour that you can use to bake nutritious pizza, muffins, cookies, bread and other tasty baked treats.
Mopane flour is a versatile ingredient.
Mopane flour is a versatile ingredient.
Mopane flour is a versatile ingredient.
Mopane flour is a versatile ingredient.
Besides the stress of ensuring that “we don’t run out of the product in warehouses because we can’t harvest enough mopane,” is the stress of managing the day-to-day running of the business.
For the first challenge, Wendy has a plan to plough back some of the profits of the business in conservation and creating more employment.
“When people see value in the trees and the mopane worms in them, they will become more invested in conserving them,” the 40-year-old entrepreneur says, adding that “the mopane numbers we see now compared to when I was growing up have gone down”.
“This is due to overharvesting, climate change and deforestation.
“My vision is to increase the number of mopane trees and educate communities about the value of conservation.
“Regeneration will lead to an increase in the population of mopane caterpillars through creating an environment in which they will thrive.”
This will require even more funding, which she is hoping to secure.
But till then, with her committed team of seven, she is marketing, harvesting and creating greater awareness about “this superfood” that’s so yummy, full of protein, planet-friendly and nutritious.
Wendy with a bowl of mopane.
The three employees in Phalaborwa and the four in Joburg, where the sales, marketing and distribution happens, assist immensely in making the stress of managing the day-to-day running of the business more manageable.
“I think many of the challenges I have are generic in terms of challenges that new businesses often face.
“There’s the novelty of the product. It’s new but not necessarily new. So I am asking people to try it out.”
“Then there is the funding challenge and trying to get access to market – I have found trying to get into retail to be such an expensive process.”
But with a second harvest season for Matomani just around the corner, Wendy is focusing on creating more jobs for now.
“Last season, we hired 15 people. This season, we hope to hire 20.”
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The profit she has made from sales has greatly assisted with the expenses of running the business, she says, but additional funding can help her grow more trees and hire more people from the village.
This is what’s at the heart of Matomane, which means “mopane caterpillars” in her Xitsonga language dialect: profit to empower people and protect the planet.
“Seeing people positively receiving the product” has been one of the successes of the young business that will be year-old in November 2022, Wendy tells Drum.
“Some customers are even monthly subscribers in the sense that each month, they have Matomane products delivered to them.
“I even had a friend call me at 4am the other days, saying, ‘Wendy, please send me masonja!’” she says with a laugh.
Cooked mopane worms.
While mopane worms have been part of the diet for many Southern African communities for a long time, many South Africans have never tasted these caterpillars which mainly feed on mopane tree leaves before they become moths.
But people generally are curious when they see the Matomane products being marketed online and at food expos, she says.
“And they are willing to try it out. So this business is about taking our local delicacy – our superfood – and taking it to the world.
“I’m blessed to have had good jobs, education, a house – the basics which many in the village do not have.
“I wanted to help the people in my community empower themselves. Having been raised by this village, I asked myself how do I give back – especially to young people who have not had the opportunities I have had?
“Starting this business comes from knowing that, because I am a village child, I am not one. I am many.”
“As the community, we already harvest mopane. So I thought, let’s harvest more and look after the trees and create sustainability.”
Matomane has in its range of protein bars, hand-picked whole mopane worms, biscuits and flour that you can use to bake nutritious pizza, muffins, cookies, bread and other tasty baked treats.
Matomane products.
Matomane is one of the more than 1 000 African businesses whose products are available to try at the Organic and Natural Products Expo Africa currently underway at the Wanderers stadium in Joburg.
Tickets for the three-day expo, which ends on Sunday, 23 October, are available online at www.organicandnatural.co.za or can be purchased on arrival using Snapscan, Zapper or credit card only. Bone fide trade visitors are invited to apply for complimentary trade tickets online.
You can buy Matomani products online at www.matomani.com.