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Nqobile Tshili, [email protected]

IN 2017, tragedy struck the rocky terrain of Enkwalini in Bulawayo’s Entumbane suburb, when a student from Bulawayo Polytechnic College chose to end his life by leaping into its depths. The sorrowful incident deeply troubled businessman, Remegious Nkomazana, who couldn’t help but contemplate a solution to end the ongoing loss of lives to such despair.

Enkwalini, which translates to “rocky place,” had once been a quarry mine back in the 1970s. However, the land had never been properly restored, leaving behind a huge pit which became a pool. The pool gained notoriety for the heartbreaking number of individuals who had taken their lives by drowning themselves in it. A grim monthly occurrence saw people choosing this location as their final refuge, leading the media to dub it the “pool of death.”

For some, Enkwalini was believed to be cursed, in need of a spiritual cleansing. But Nkomazana envisioned a different future for the place, one filled with potential and life, rather than loss. He saw an opportunity to turn the area into a profitable enterprise, focusing on a fisheries project.

In 2017, he initiated discussions with the Bulawayo City Council, seeking to lease Enkwalini for his venture. However, to his surprise, the local authority offered him not only the pool but also the surrounding land.

Since then, he has dedicated his efforts to transforming the landscape and preventing further tragedies from occurring in Enkwalini. An encompassing perimeter fence now safeguards the area, and two prominent banners boldly declare, “Trespassing is prohibited” and “beware of dogs,” deterring unauthorised access.

Contrary to its previous infamous nickname, the location is now known as Enkwalini Urban Agriculture, marking its profound shift from tragedy to prosperity.

Saturday Chronicle recently had the privilege of exploring the innovative project, which primarily focuses on poultry farming, boasting around 1 500 birds. In addition, the team is working diligently on a dog breeding project, with various breeds already present on the premises.

Nkomazana, the visionary behind the transformation, takes immense satisfaction in knowing that since he took charge of the project, Enkwalini has not witnessed any further loss of life. It’s a story of renewal and hope, where a place once associated with despair is now being reshaped into a thriving hub of opportunity and growth.

Ncube inside the fowl run which is one of the enterprises under Nkwalini Urban Agriculture

“The reason why we applied for the land is that we were reading in the news that people were killing themselves at Enkwalini. I remember that time a student at Bulawayo Polytechnic College had died at the stream. So I thought of applying to the council to utilise the dam and conduct fish farming. To our advantage the council gave us more land so we decided to do poultry and fisheries on the land. Now we want to start a dog breeding project which is still at its infancy stages. We are still trying to get the proper breeds before we go commercial with the project,” said Nkomazana. 

He said he is now working on expanding the poultry project beyond the current 1 500 birds.

“We want to build something bigger as we believe that the business has to grow. At the end of this year, we want to destroy the structure that we have and build something bigger next year but it requires investment into the business. We are targeting producing up to 5 000 chickens next year,” he said. Nkomazana revealed that despite his desire to solve a community problem, he encountered opposition when he began the project. Some of the people engaging in semi-household horticulture and fishery farming were unaware that the property had been leased to him and continued to trespass. He chose diplomacy, in which he would engage the neighbourhood, but some of them would go so far as to cut and steal the fence.

“But we kept our cool and prioritised engagement and now we are no longer having those problems. The only problem we had this year was when some individuals raided the poultry and stole about 30 chickens. We had a new guy who was still afraid of the dogs and he could not release them. But everything is now in order. I’m happy and I’m really proud that we have addressed the issue where individuals were throwing themselves to the water body,” said Nkomazana.

His only complaint, he says, is that the council gave them a five-year lease, which makes it difficult to invest more resources in the project.  Michealina Ncube, Nkomazana’s sister who works at the site, let slip that residents who have lost loved ones continue to approach her, asking if their children would have jumped into the pool.

“But almost on a weekly basis we receive people who come here looking for their relatives thinking that they would have thrown themselves to Enkwalini. Some would even tell us that the person would have written a suicide note. They think it is an easy place where they can end their lives but from the time we started operating here we have not recorded any incident here,” said Mrs Ncube.