Eastern Cape Entrepreneur Turns Ancient Bone Broth Tradition Into Rural Jobs for Women
- Phumeza Stuurman, 46, founded Rural Impaqt Bone Broth in Nxarhuni near East London, where she and an all-female team produce bone broth using traditional cooking methods.
- The business transforms discarded animal bones into a nutrient-rich product that is delivered weekly to customers across East London.
- A participant in the Stellenbosch Business School's Small Business Academy, Stuurman hopes to create up to eight permanent jobs for rural women and youth as the business expands.
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Phumeza Stuurman, a 46-year-old social entrepreneur from East London, is turning a centuries-old African cooking tradition into a lifeline for rural women and youth, one pot of bone broth at a time.
Through her business, Rural Impaqt Bone Broth, Stuurman and her all-female cooking team in the village of Nxarhuni slow-cook chicken and beef broths over open fires each week. Animal bones, typically discarded as agricultural waste, are transformed into nutrient-rich broth packed with natural collagen, amino acids and minerals. The finished product is delivered to loyal urban customers in Beacon Bay and Vincent in East London and sold at local markets.
Stuurman said the business is reintroducing traditional knowledge passed down through generations while adapting it to meet current food safety requirements and the growing demand for healthier eating options.
Heritage Meets Modern Wellness
Bone broth has been consumed across cultures for centuries and has surged in popularity among wellness consumers. Stuurman sees this as an opportunity rather than a trend. "In a market dominated by synthetic supplements, we offer a wholefood alternative that is affordable, natural, healing, and deeply rooted in African food tradition," she said.
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The business operates as a circular economy, channelling urban consumer demand back into rural employment. Stuurman described it as creating "value where none previously existed."
Inspired by the African concept of *vukuzenzele*, meaning wake up and do it yourself, she said she chose to focus on what her community already had rather than what it lacked.
Check out a video she posted on Rural Impaqt's Instagram account:
From Public Servant to Rural Business Builder
Stuurman spent 15 years working in financial management and performance monitoring in Gauteng before returning to East London to be closer to family. Despite holding an MBA, she was candid about the shift in thinking required to run a business. "My mindset then was of an employee, not a business owner," she said.
She is now a participant in the Stellenbosch Business School's Small Business Academy (SBA), a programme run in partnership with Standard Bank and the Border-Kei Chamber of Business. SBA Head Professor Armand Bam said the programme was designed to bridge the gap between technical ability and business knowledge.
"The majority of small start-ups fail in their first 12 to 24 months because the entrepreneurs, while having the technical skills in their sector, lack the knowledge of how to plan, run and sustain a business," Prof Bam said.
Currently operating from her home kitchen as a micro-factory, Stuurman's vision is far larger. She aims to establish a small-scale production facility that creates between 5 and 8 permanent jobs for unemployed rural women and youth within the first year.
She said the long-term objective is to create a rural manufacturing ecosystem while proving that high-value health food production can thrive outside urban centres.
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Source: Briefly News
