Lack of jobs in her community has spurred a 29-year-old Limpopo mother to venture into making clay bricks and selling them to locals.
Thilivhali Muledane from Vyeboom village in Vuwani lays more than 500 bricks a day using an old method of softening clay with her feet until it is fine.
Muledane's journey for brickmaking started when her food business was shut down when the country into hard lockdown last year.
“I was selling food at a nearby secondary school while my husband was laying bricks and he was not coping because of other piece jobs. Then I was forced to shut down after the government announced lockdown due to the spread of Covid-19 and took over the business,” she said.
“I started to mould bricks full-time since February and now I have employed three local men to assist me. I know it's not an easy job but there are no jobs in the country.”
The mother of two said her customers came from several villages around Vuwani and included those who wanted to build decent houses as well.
“My food business taught me a lot about many locals I interact with. So I took that advantage and spread the word about my business,” she said.
Muledane is using an old method to process her bricks.
“I put clay with water on the ground and mix it with my feet and hands. After I have mixed well I put the fine soil in a blank brick-maker.
When dry the clay bricks are packed in a form and burnt with firewood to make them hard,” she said.
She charges her customers R1 per brick and those who buy in large quantities are offered delivery at a price.
Muledane, who holds a matric certificate, said she wished to get resources and grow her business in order to employ more people in her area.
“Mixing of clay soil is the biggest challenge in my business because I don’t have machines that can help me speed up production. The method I'm using has been here with us for ages but it makes things very slow,” she said.
“I do not intend to stop making bricks for as long as I live. Even if it can take years of hard work to get machines that can help make things easy, I won’t stop because jobs are scarce in this country.”
She said she had drilled a borehole as a source of water for her clay soil brickmaking business.
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