Freshly picked tea leaves are packaged into crates and then taken for quality control before being transported to the factory. (Photo: Lucas Ledwaba/Mukurukuru Media)
In the mid-morning sunshine they are hard at work harvesting tea leaves to be processed at the nearby Mukumbani Tea Factory below the picturesque plantation. This is the home of Midi Tea, grown in the lush valleys of Venda in Limpopo.
The production machinery has to be kept spotlessly clean to ensure high safety and health standards as a workers here hoses down one of the processing machinery. (Photo: Lucas Ledwaba/Mukurukuru Media)
In another time the plantation, which was established under the Venda Development Corporation, employed as many as 2,000 workers. But changing business and political dynamics have seen the workforce reduced to 231, only 80 of whom are farmworkers. Then, the workforce covered an area of 1,057 hectares. It has been reduced to 70 hectares.