THANDEKA AND DALUXOLO KUNENE

Ten years ago South Africa became the 27th country in the world to subsidise research for the commercialisation of industrial hemp with small farmers in the Eastern Cape as the pioneering players. Soweto-born entrepreneurs and siblings, Thandeka and Daluxolo, are spearheading the commercial cultivation of hemp. Environmental writer UFRIEDA HO offers the low down on what benefi ts their House of Hemp is reaping.

The T-shirt held up to the light is a burnt orange colour. It’s super soft but also thick and textured. It’s a T-shirt made of hemp and it features a logo with a woman boasting an epic Afro and a cheeky slogan that says ‘Drama Queen’. This is the fresh face of hemp products and it’s a promising forecast of an organics revolution that is is as much about treading more gently on the planet as it is about exploiting the commercial potential of organics for broad-based socio-economic upliftment. Of course hot organics don’t miss the mark when it comes to attracting today’s trend conscious consumers. Industrial hemp is a cannabis variety that produces high abundance of fi bres but minimal levels of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, which is the part of cannabis plants that delivers the ‘high’. The strains of cannabis sativa used for
industrial hemp cultivation around the world are different in height and size to their psycho-active cousins, which hemp proponents say overcomes the danger of cannabis strains growing conveniently camoufl aged among fi elds of hemp strains of cannabis crops. Hemp is the male part of the cannabis sativa plant, which cannot be smoked. Cannabis plants also rack up the green credentials by aiding soil health and preventing topsoil erosion. They are nondependent on pesticides or herbicides and are also believed to remove toxins from soils, and are considered signifi cant oxygen producers. It has the potential to be farmed without high mechanism, has relatively low start-up costs and makes for a sustainable crop that can boost self-suffi ciency in economically stressed communities.

It’s an organics revolution that’s a long time coming. At least that’s what Daluxolo Kunene, marketing and sales manager of House of Hemp, believes. “I can remember ten years ago thinking that we were working ten years ahead of the market, but now I think people are ready for organics and hemp products have also moved on,” says Daluxolo. House of Hemp was founded by Daluxolo’s sister, Thandeka Kunene back in 1998. Since she was just a teenager the Soweto entrepreneur has been captivated by the potential of hemp. “Hemp became my thing when I was just a teenager and it was quite by chance that this happened. One day after church my sister and I were walking past a couple of tsotsis who were smoking marijuana on a street corner. We said something like, “sies they’re smoking dope” and then hey called us stupid girls because we didn’t know that marijuana could make clothes and paper. That’s when I started thinking about hemp and finding out everything I could about hemp,” Thandeka says. The top student was intrigued and became an instant hemp advocate. Even when she was studying engineering at UCT, followed by postgraduate studies in industrial maths, her passion remained hemp.

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