The blazing heat was relentless as groups of people who work and live on Kwandwe Game Reserve entertained guests and officials at the inauguration of the Mgcamabele Centre at KwaPontak Village.
The blazing heat was relentless as groups of people who work and live on Kwandwe Game Reserve entertained guests and officials at the inauguration of the Mgcamabele Centre at KwaPontak Village.
The guests, who were seated in the marquee, struggled to cope with the overwhelming heat and wondered how the entertainers seemed to be managing so much better without any protection from the merciless sun outside.
Almost all the women, performers and guest alike, had their faces painted with white spots in traditional Xhosa fashion. Dancers were dressed in colourful traditional costumes as they sang and danced for the appreciative audience.
Perhaps the greatest admiration was reserved for a sweet old lady who need a crutch to get up, struggle her way over to the microphone and stand under an umbrella to address the gathering.
Nontsikelelo Margaret Biko, the widow of the struggle hero Stephen Bantu Biko, led residents of KwaPontak in song and then addressed the group in a mixture of English and Xhosa.
She invoked the progressive teachings of her husband who was savagely beaten to death by police interrogators for his beliefs. She said that Biko would have been proud of this group that had done so well to look after itself.
The Mgcamabele Centre was built by community members working in a self help programme led by Noluvo Njadayi.
When she and other women in the village of KwaPontak decided that they needed a community centre where they could care for young children and create a space for unemployed women to work on job creation projects, they formed the Imizamoyethu Self Help Group.
This group made use of bricks donated by Makana Brick and other materials made available by Kwandwe Reserve.
Di Hornby, the director of the Angus Gillis Foundation did as much as she could to facilitate the efforts of the group, but kept out of the decision making process which was left exclusively to the project’s steering committee.
The Angus Gillis Foundation is a charitable trust dedicated to improving the quality of life of rural communities within and bordering on Kwandwe Private Game Reserve. It is also responsible for setting up leadership training programmes on Kwandwe.
Originally, a total of 47 people worked on the nine farms that used to comprise Kwandwe. Today the reserve employs almost 200 people, making it one of the largest employers in the area.
Most staff members had no previous experience of either conservation or the hospitality industry. But, through extensive training and motivation programmes, Kwandwe employees have considerable enthusiasm for and expertise in running a sustainable ecotourism venture.
