The Siyazondla Homestead Food Production Programme (Siyazondla HFPP) was launched in Mbhashe Local Municipality in 2004/2005. Siyazondla can be translated as ‘we nourish ourselves’, ‘we feed ourselves’ or ‘we look after ourselves’. The level and pace of social mobilisation that occurred among the potential participants was consistent with the high profile that politicians were affording the Siyazondla HFPP, but soon outstripped the limited institutional capacities and budgetary resources of the Department of Agriculture in the municipality. During the first three years, women from villages in each of Mbhashe's 24 wards (subsequently expanded to 26 wards and later to 31 wards) organised themselves into 15-member clubs or groups. This was the condition set by the then Department of Agriculture (DOA, currently Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) extension officers for participation in the Siyazondla HFPP. By the end of the first three years, 265 such village-level clubs (with a total of almost 4 000 members) had been established, each with a constitution detailing its objectives, its membership, and the roles and responsibilities of its members and executive. At the time of writing, only about one in every five of the Siyazondla clubs in Mbhashe had received the assistance from the DOA to which they were entitled (Blaai-Mdolo 2009).

This chapter documents a case study in which I describe and discuss the experiences of the members of 10 Siyazondla clubs that fall under a single administrative area (formerly headman's location) in the Eastern Cape's Mbhashe Municipality. My perspective is somewhat unusual. My account of what happened is not intended to be read as an evaluation of the programme design, the efficacy of its implementation or its performance in terms of its own goals and indicators. Instead, I approach Siyazondla HFPP from the perspective of women and women's groups who view themselves as prospective participants in the programme and as potential recipients of its benefits. Their stories form the main focus of this case study. Despite having complied, at no small cost in terms of time and money, with the administrative and bureaucratic procedures required for them to become participants in the programme, they have not been able to gain access to the benefits it provides.