Traditionally, African women are expected to stay at home and look after the children while their husbands work to sustain the family, but Ms Sanah Thifulufhelwi, a 63-year-old grandmother from Muledane village, says the time has now come for women to be independent.

Thifulufhelwi has been selling peri-peri for nearly 20 years, with a customer base from all over the province. She has never been married, although she has two children whom she raised by herself.

“After I passed my matric in 1983, I was employed by a firm in Shayandima. I worked there until most of the firms were closed by the present government, so we were left with no other choice but to find other means to support our families. Some people were so confused and desperate that they started selling dagga and other illegal substances for survival, but I was not going to find myself on the wrong side of the law. In 2004, I decided to sell peri-peri, and the rest, as they say, is history,” she said.

Thifulufhelwi buys her produce directly from peri-peri farmer Thakhani Ramathavhana, who owns a big farm at Sani village in the Nzhelele area. She also regularly visits the hawkers’ tents in Johannesburg. She has customers from as far as Polokwane, Mpumalanga and Johannesburg who order peri-peri from her, and Thifulufhelwi makes sure that they receive it on time.

With the profit she has made from selling this hot spice over the years, she managed to build herself an eight-room house at Nzhelele and put her two children through school.

“I am calling on all women to stand up and start generating an income for themselves. Powerful women with their own money cannot be abused by men, because they don’t beg them for anything. When you see signs of abusive tendencies, you can pack your bags and move to your own place. That is the independence it gives you when you make your own money,” she said.