Background

Phumani Paper was established in 1999 as a partnership between the South African Government Department of Science and Technology and the University of Johannesburg (formerly the Technikon Witwatersrand).

The vision behind Phumani was to create a series of hand-papermaking manufacturing units in extreme rural poverty nodes in seven of South Africa's provinces. Since the organisation's inception it has assisted in the creation of more than 250 jobs and the implementation and mentoring of 15 small hand papermaking enterprises in communities severely affected by unemployment and HIV/AIDS.

Phumani's handmade paper is crafted from locally available natural resources and waste products. These include the bi-products from sugar cane harvesting in KwaZulu Natal, agri-waste produced from Free State mielie husks, invasive Eastern Cape Black Wattle tree material and banana stem fibres, produced in the Northern Province.

Phumani Paper

Phumani Paper is the central marketing and sales agent for a wide variety of handmade papers and products produced locally by the 15 small business enterprises. Phumani Paper’s National Office is based in Johannesburg and is ideally positioned to create and sustain market opportunities for the paper crafters. The Phumani national office supports and mentors the small business enterprises by providing access to markets, business skills, training and innovative product design, viable production techniques and development programmes.

Each unit has undergone, and continues to undergo, targeted training aimed at allowing it to attain the skill levels needed to compete within the highly competitive local and international craft sectors. The Phumani national office also conducts Research and Development through The University of Johannesburg and the Papermaking Research and Development Unit (PRDU) in the realms of archival paper, pulping techniques, artist collaborations and the manufacturing and development of fuel briquettes. Kim Berman (the founder of Phumani Paper and Senior lecturer at the University of Johannesburg) is a supervisor to several research students, and directs the research being conducted at the PRDU.

The Phumani business units utilise agricultural plant species and agri-waste that are specific to their local surroundings, making the paper produced by each unit unique. The papers created by the Phumani producer groups take on the colour and feel of the natural vegetation found in South Africa and thus have a raw, earthy feel that cannot be reproduced in any other country.

The paper crafters also utilise these interesting and unique papers to produce innovative new products such as customised packaging, conference ranges, corporate gift ranges, cards, stationery and a new lifestyle range. These product extensions are essential to ensuring that the core material produced by the units is able to generate diversified income over the long term.

Philosophy

At Phumani we believe that income-generation and poverty alleviation cannot be viewed outside the context of the broader ideals of human development, empowerment, leadership and emotional health. Most of Phumani's handmade paper crafters are located in rural areas, where few employment and marketing opportunities exist. Phumani's operational philosophy thus centres on maintaining current employment levels while identifying and exploiting future job creation opportunities. This philosophy relies on maintaining marketable product quality at all times and effectively managing the supply chain to deliver maximum benefit to each and every producer.

When you purchase products from Phumani Paper, you become part of our story of human development through the growth of grass roots businesses and eco-friendly products.