With the start of the marula season, hundreds of unemployed rural women from the Mutale District are smiling all the way to the bank with the profit they make from the product they produce from this fruit.
This is the time of year when women from villages such as Niani (Matswena), Muswodi, Shakadza, Tshiungani, Muraluwe and Tshipise-Zwigodini gather in large groups to collect the fallen succulent yellow fruits to start making the traditional marula beer that they sell to local villagers and customers from as far as Gauteng.
The marula tree is found in the northern and north-eastern parts of Limpopo. The fruit, which normally starts to ripen between January and March each year, has numerous nutritional benefits, which are used for different purposes. Traditional doctors, for instance, use the tree's bark for medical remedies, while the fruit itself is loaded with vitamin C and commonly eaten by both humans and animals.
Except for the marula beer, which is extremely popular among locals, high demand exists for the many other different commercialised products that are being produced from the fruit, such as hair and skin products, jams, and soaps, to mention but a few.
Rural women have, over the years, taken advantage of this season and the abundance of the marula fruit to sustain themselves and their families. So too have Ms Denga Tshirundu and Ms Mavis Tshiguvho from Shakadza village opted to work together to collect marulas and started making their own marula beer last weekend. The fermentation of this brew takes about two to three days.
"The season of the marula (mukumbi) gives us a good opportunity to make money. It costs us nothing to collect the fruits. We sell 20-litre containers of marula beer for as much as R200; 2-litres for R20. There is good money in it for someone who is unemployed," said Tshiguvho.
Ms Azwihangwisi Netshifhefhe is also from the area. "Life is hard for the rural woman who does not work, but come the marula season, one can put food on the table for the family because customers come in larger numbers to buy our beer."