Jabulani Ntuli has left a legacy for his family. The Ntuli’s were living solely on a child grant from their son Nkosinathi, until the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme, run by NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust, came to their community of eSikhawini near Empangeni. The project aims to give the opportunity to those most in need, to grow a future for themselves, by training them to grow indigenous trees from seed, showing them how to nurture them until they reach a certain height. The trees are then traded back to Wildlands for goods such as groceries, agricultural goods and building materials, and the trees are planted back into the community or into reforestation programmes run by Wildlands.
Planting out the growing seedlings into containers such as potting bags, or using plastic bottles and yoghurt tubs, is one of the constraints that limits these “tree-preneurs” from growing large amounts of trees, as these are difficult to come by in large quantities. The Ntulis embraced the project and the whole family started growing trees, mother Zanele Ndlozi, nine year old Nkosinathi Ntuli as well as his older sister Thandeka who is now 18 years old. Jabulani was unemployed for a long time and while he was looking for work, he saw an opportunity to help the family grow many more trees. He designed and made a machine to make potting bags.
Zanele Ndhlozi plugs in the home-made wooden machine, wires extending in all directions, takes the square plastic sheeting and places it on the wire that is now heating up… to demonstrate how she and her two children make potting bags for the indigenous trees they are now growing in the thousands in their back yard. Sadly, Jabulani died in March 2010, but not before showing his family how to use the machine, and they continue to produce the bags for the huge amounts of trees they are growing.
They have about 5000 trees in their yard in June 2010, having traded in 2000 trees at the last collection in November 2009. Most trees have a value of about R 5, depending on how tall they are and which species of indigenous tree they are. The family has purchased bicycles, wheelbarrows and cement with their tree growing income, as well as groceries. With Jabulani’s death in March, they were able to buy the many groceries needed for his funeral. They are now saving trees in order to send Thandeka to the University of Zululand.
Ndhlozi speaks gently of her husband and the hopes and plans he had for the machine: “I hope that one day we can make a lot of potting bags and supply them to other tree-preneurs. Jabulani wanted to make this a business but he died before fulfilling this dream. We need to get more waste plastic in order to make this dream come true as we cannot afford to buy the plastic.” she said.
Charmaine Veldman, Programme Manager for the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme, explains that this family’s story illustrates how the project creates opportunities for an entrepreneurial spirit to thrive, which is why the people growing trees are called tree-preneurs. “We are hoping to find another supply of waste plastic to help the Ntuli’s reach their dream, especially as Wildlands now has a recycling department – I am sure we can match a waste supply with this family’s plans,” she said.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)