STAR🌟; NTOBEKO MAFU

Mhlengi Mafu 

Star is her nickname given to her by one of her big brothers and she is indeed a STAR. In the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal, in a rural area called Nhlazatshe, Edendale (near Pietermaritzburg), a young woman is turning hardship into hope. Ntobeko Thokozisile Mafu—at just 23 years old—has become one of South Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs; her story is one of grit, vision, and radical compassion.

Born and raised in the shadows of struggle, Ntobeko lost her father in 2018, after which many of the subsistence farming activities that sustained her household disappeared. Desire, however, does not wait for perfect conditions—and at the age of 18, after experiencing teenage pregnancy and the loss of her dad, she resolved to build something lasting. She decided to carry on what her father had started: growing, feeding, empowering.

Madame Clucks A Lot: More Than Just Chickens

In 2019, Ntobeko published Letters to Whoever Needs to Hear This: Notes from Me, a self-help book born out of her own pain, reflection, and purpose. She used the proceeds not merely to survive, but to sow seeds—literally and figuratively. With those funds, she officially registered her farm business, Madame Clucks A Lot, which started primarily with broiler chickens. 

Madame Clucks A Lot isn’t just another poultry farm. It is a regenerative agroecological farm with a multi-pronged purpose. It combines:

• Free-range broiler chicken production
• Organic crop farming (vegetables, leafy greens)
• Agricultural training & mentorship programmes for local, often rural, people who want to get into farming or food production  

This diversity has become a strength, especially given the setbacks she has faced (one of them being load-shedding that wiped out 650 chickens in one cycle). Instead of quitting, she pivoted, diversified, leaned in harder. 

Education, Recognition & Global Footprints

Education has been central to Ntobeko’s rise. She earned a diploma (and advanced diploma) in Human Resources Management from Durban University of Technology (DUT). She’s also taken specialized training in broiler production, entrepreneurship, and business incubation through DUT’s Innobiz Centre, among others. 

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2023, she was named among the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans under the Business category. She has represented South Africa internationally—addressing issues like food insecurity at the Asia World Model United Nations conference in Bangkok, and later in Germany via the BeVisioners program. 

Locally, she has won multiple pitch competitions, awards for youth entrepreneurship, and has grown her small venture into an enterprise employing multiple people and training over 160 people in her community in just the past year. 

The Trailblazer Factor: Why Ntobeko Inspires

What makes Ntobeko Mafu more than “just” a young farmer or businesswoman is how she leads—with courage, integrity, and empathy. A few of her standout qualities:

• Resilience in adversity. From teenage pregnancy, to losing her father, to the devastation of losing stock, she has faced immense challenges—but each time she transformed them into lessons and opportunities.  
• Visionary pivoting. Recognizing that agriculture isn’t only about production, she has woven training, mentorship, and community engagement into the core of her business.  
• Empowering others. She doesn’t hoard knowledge: she teaches it. From young people (even as young as 13) to adults in rural areas, she is opening doors for many who might thought none existed.  
• Standing for integrity. She has turned down opportunities that conflicted with her values, choosing ethics over easy gain.  

Dreams & Aspirations: Where She Wants to Go

Ntobeko’s ambitions are big, but they’re grounded. She wants:

• To scale up to commercial farming: owning more chicken houses, moving beyond backyard scale, owning her own hatchery and abattoir.  
• To build the full value chain so that what starts on her farm ends in markets in her control.
• To expand her training programmes so more rural people—and especially marginalized youth—can learn how to run sustainable farms and businesses.
• To contribute to a South Africa where food security is not a privilege, but a reality; where households, schools, and communities have local, sustainable access to nutritious food. She believes this also helps address deeper social issues like gender-based violence, inequality, and broken families.  

Why Her Story Matters

In a world where too often young people feel powerless, where women face systemic obstacles, and rural communities get left behind—Ntobeko’s story is a vivid example of what is possible when purpose meets perseverance. She is proof that:

• You don’t need to wait for someone else to create opportunity—you can build it.
• Your past doesn’t have to define your future—it can fuel it.
• Business and community are not opposed. A company can be a force for social good.

The Legacy in the Making

Ntobeko Mafu, from Nhlazatshe, Edendale, is not just a name on a list of young achievers. She is a torch-bearer for regeneration—in soil, in people, in possibility. She stands at the crossroads of agriculture, activism, and enterprise, forging a path that is both profitable and meaningful.

Her alarm clock isn’t just ambition—it wakes her for service. Her business isn’t just about chickens and crops—it’s about dignity, resilience, and feeding more than mouths—it’s about feeding hope. For anyone looking for a role model who is classy in her craft, bold in her beliefs, and trailblazing in her steps, Ntobeko Mafu is that model.