BY December Ndhlovu
Introduction
The Mpumalanga Water Caucus (MPWC) has been given an opportunity to temporarily employ 50 people in Bushbuckridge to do river cleaning, establish an agroecology farm and land restoration activities through the Social Employment fund (SEF). The participants will be working two days a week, eight days a month for a stipend of R1850 for general workers until the end of May 2024. This opportunity was facilitated by Project Biome (PB) and it is supported by Avocado Vision (Avovision). Avovision is supported by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) which has partnered with Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) program.
Launch of the 10 trees project in Acornhoek, RDP village
How did it all get started?
In November 2022 we were invited to a meeting in Timbavati at the White Lions Headquarters. In this meeting USA representatives were present from an organisation called Project Biome (PB).
Their main purpose is to regenerate and rewild Africa to ease the climate change effects and possibly save the world from a catastrophic natural disaster that could be caused by unusual and rampant climate change related phenomenon. PB liked the river and illegal waste cleaning activities that the MPWC has been doing over the years, and the founder of PB Zach Bush, proposed that their regenerative work starts in Acornhoek close to the Timbavati area.
He proposed that a project to plant 10 trees per household be initiated to complement the 90 home gardens in RDP Village area, implemented by Zingela Ulwazi Trust (ZUT). It was then agreed to launch the project in April 2023 - this is their first project in Africa, they are supporting many other organisations and networks globally.
It was then agreed to launch the project in April 2023 - this is their first project in Africa, they are supporting many other organisations and networks globally.
In April 2023 the PB team came back to South Africa and launched the 10 Trees project in Acornhoek. The 10 Trees project is implemented by Zingela Ulwazi Trust (ZUT), the organisation that established over 90 home gardens in the area.
We travelled to Cape Town, Boschendal for the launch of Project Biome Africa Seed and currently the PB team consists of two South Africans, and three people based in the USA.
Project Biome team at the Bushbuckridge SEF site addressing the participants
What is the The Social Employment Fund?
Avocado Vision (Avovision) is contracted by Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to roll out the Social Employment Fund (SEF) program in Mpumalanga. The agreement is between PB and Avovision with MPWC serving as the implementing agent.
The SEF program participants earn a monthly stipend of R1850, paid directly by Avovision until end of May 2024- the work programme is 2 days a week (16 hours), totalling 8 days a month. There are total of 50 SEF programme participants employed on this basis - 10 are from Sudwala and 40 are from Bushbuckridge (BBR). The Sudwala team is expected to assist the BBR team by sharing their knowledge on land restoration, which they have been working on for a few years.
The SEF participants have expressed excitement for this opportunity, some participants have been doing this work for a long time on a volunteer basis - MPWC has been involved in river and illegal waste cleaning activities in Bushbuckridge since 2009. MPWC adopted the N’waritsane River and cleaned the immediately vicinity which includes an illegal dumping just few metres from the river. The Nwaritsane Bridge is another hot spot for illegal dumping and MPWC has requested BLM to help with the removal of waste after our collections for removal to designated dumping sites.
Who are the Stakeholder Institutions?
MPWC has been engaging with government departments to source support for personal protective clothing and equipment (PPC/Es), as well as partnership and collaborations, to continue the work programme beyond May 2024. MPWC has engaged with Inkomati Usuthu Catchment Management Agency (IUCMA), Bushbuckridge Municipal Manager (MM), Economic Development Planning and Environmental management (EDPE), and Local Economic Development (LED). We aim to toe ngage with Kruger National Park (KNP) and Kruger to Canyon (K2C) and other relevant institutions to assist in any way they can for the sustainability of this project.
As MPWC we would like to collaborate and partner with any institution or organization that is interested on the rewilding and regenerative project. MPWC would like the project to expand into other villages so that the ecosystems dignity of these areas is restored.
MPWC and Bushbuckridge Local Municipality meeting
Bushbuckridge Social Employment Fund participants’ training by Avovision
With Avovision and Social Employment Fund representatives at the training
Current status
MPWC will be engaging with relevant stakeholders to intensify the rewilding and regeneration work by collaborating and partnering with them for sustainability of the project, to raise funds and build capacity for the expansion of the project to the whole of Bushbuckridge.
The vision is to rewild and green Bushbuckridge to be an example to other rural areas about how to respond to climate change and global warming. We would like to broaden the project to home gardens, indigenous trees planting, establishment of 5 indigenous chickens per household.
The MPWC proposes that this is the complete combination of water management and agroecological farming activities to respond and adapt to climate change, and will create sustainable food security, water security and healthy livelihoods.