How Tumi Mokwene grew 13 000 chicks into a 900 000-bird broiler business
What started with 13 000 broiler chicks on a single farm has grown into Phetogo Farming Enterprise, a commercial poultry operation placing nearly 900 000 birds per production cycle across three farms. For founder Tumi Mokwene, however, the journey has always been about more than simply producing more chickens.
By Maile Matsimela, digital editor at African Farming
Twenty years ago, Tumi Mokwene placed his first flock of 13 000 broiler chicks on a farm in Kameeldrift. Today, Phetogo Farming Enterprise operates production sites in Bronkhorstspruit, Lanseria and Kameeldrift, supplying about 900 000 broilers per production cycle.
The business employs more than 50 people and has developed into one of South Africa’s technologically advanced black-owned contract broiler operations. But for Mokwene, growth cannot simply be measured by the number of chickens leaving the farms.
“Our goal has never been simply to produce more chickens. The goal is to become more efficient. If you modernise your operation but fail to improve production efficiency, then bigger numbers alone do not make you more profitable.”
Also read: She supplies 3 000 chickens a week – how Itumeleng Mahwete built Nakedi Poultry Farm from scratch
Farming was part of his childhood
Mokwene’s relationship with agriculture began long before Phetogo existed.
He grew up in Legonyane Village in the Madibeng Local Municipality in North West, where farming formed part of everyday family life. His mother kept a household food garden, while his father worked in a factory but also kept cattle.
Those cattle played an important role in supporting the family.
“I grew up seeing my father using cattle to educate us. That stayed with me,” Mokwene says.
Poultry farming entered his life through his uncle, who operated a small broiler farm near Winterveldt. While studying at the University of Pretoria, Mokwene regularly helped deliver chicks and feed to the farm.
It exposed him to poultry production, but the idea of building his own agricultural business would emerge from a much broader question about what he wanted to do with his life.
Finding his purpose in agriculture
Mokwene recalls attending a church service in Sunnyside where the pastor spoke about discovering one’s purpose.
The message prompted him to think about his own future.
“I started asking myself what God’s purpose for my life was.”
His thoughts returned to the farming experiences of his childhood and some of the conditions he had witnessed in agriculture. In particular, he remembered seeing farm workers transported on trailers under poor conditions.
It convinced him that farming businesses could do more than produce food. They could also improve the lives of the people working in agriculture. That vision led to the establishment of Phetogo Farming Enterprise in 2006.
The name Phetogo means “change”, reflecting the principle on which Mokwene wanted to build the business.
From one farm to three production sites
Phetogo’s first flock consisted of 13 000 broilers at Kameeldrift.
From that starting point, the operation gradually expanded and today has three production sites in Bronkhorstspruit, Lanseria and Kameeldrift.
Together, the farms supply about 900 000 broilers per production cycle under a long-standing contract-growing agreement with Festive, a division of Astral Foods.
The relationship has exposed Phetogo to established production systems, standard operating procedures and technical support.
Mokwene says these continually push the operation to improve, but he cautions that partnerships, infrastructure and technology cannot compensate for weak management.
“The infrastructure can be world-class, the technology can be the best available, but if you don’t have passionate people driving that system every day, it simply won’t work.”
That philosophy is visible in how Phetogo manages its employees. The business invests not only in buildings and equipment but also in performance management and production incentives.
Production teams know how their performance is measured, the targets expected from them and how bonuses are calculated. Mokwene says this encourages workers to take ownership of flock performance rather than simply viewing their responsibilities as another job.
Accountability also extends beyond workers inside the poultry houses.
When production targets are missed, management assesses different parts of the business, including procurement, maintenance and administration, to establish where the problem occurred.
“You cannot blame workers for everything. The office must deliver. Procurement must deliver. Finance must deliver. Everyone contributes to production.”
For a business that began with 13 000 chicks, reaching nearly 900 000 birds per production cycle represents substantial growth. But Mokwene’s approach remains centred on the lesson that has accompanied that expansion: scale only matters when it is supported by efficiency, disciplined management and people capable of running the operation.
In Part 2 of our series on Phetogo Farming Enterprise, African Farming goes inside the poultry houses to look at the technology and management systems used to produce broilers on this scale.