INQABA
YEGOLIDE
Makana Municipality 200 Years
Makana and Rural Eastern Cape Regional
Centre of Expertise in Education for
Sustainable Development
Project Report May 2012
Project Summary – Cleaning, Greening and Saving
Thanks to funding from Makana Municipality, as part of the Makana 200 Year Celebration, the Makana
and Rural Eastern Cape Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development (RCE)
embarked upon a project, entitled Cleaning, Greening and Saving, that would look back to traditional
and indigenous amaXhosa practices, and lessons learnt throughout the history of Makana, in order to
tackle present day issues of food security, energy savings, waste management, nutrition, climate
change, poverty alleviation, cleaning and greening, soil biodiversity remediation and water quality
remediation through phytoremediation. The project began in April 2012 and consists of three separate
but interrelated aspects, which jointly tackle the above issues:
1) Composters
The History: In amaXhosa traditional practices, composting (uthutwini)
was a common place practice at the household level. Each household
would have a place on their homestead where they would drop their
waste materials, which, before the onset of modernity, consisted of
mostly biotic materials. Those ‘waste’ piles would then develop into a
source of worth, as the waste would decompose creating compost. On
that compost traditional amaXhosa families would plant vegetables and
fruit (umfino) as well as harvest wild vegetables and fruit (imifino).
Unfortunately in the 1920’s with the onset of modernity and increased
urbanization, which led to urban crowding, as well as a change in the
consistency of the waste going to the household waste piles, a major problem began to emerge. The
waste piles began to attract rats and other pests, which led to the spread of bubonic plague. The
government of the time’s response was to ban the practice of uthutwini, and since then the practice has
all but been lost.
The Production: In response to this lost aspect of our history, the aim of this leg of the project is to
reintroduce the practice of uthutwini, using modern innovations to bring back benefits from the past,
while avoiding the problems that such a practice held. The Makana Youth from Inqaba Yegolide, and
Samson Tsewu from Ward 7, a local micro-entrepreneur, work with the Makana RCE once a week,
almost every Saturday, in order to build and install composters throughout the Grahamstown
community. Help in the construction and installation of the
composters has come from the student community through
student organisations such as RU Green and Common
Ground who have lent their time and effort to the project.
As of May 2012: 6 composters have been installed at St
Mary’s Development and Care Centre (DCC) Community
Gardens; 2 at the Rhodes University Post-Graduate Village;
6 at the Common Ground allotment gardens; 20 in 20
different households in Ward 7; totaling 34 composters.
The Benefits: Thanks to the generous donations of Pennypinchers the composters also embody the idea
of turning waste-to-worth as they are made from off-cuts of corrugated iron, which generally do not
have much use because of their size. Also because of the design of the composters they promote
aerobic composting as opposed to anaerobic composting. The major difference is that aerobic
composting allows the biotic materials access to oxygen in the decomposing process, which prevents the
production of methane gas as a by-product. Generally when biotic materials are sent to the dump,
because they are often covered and do not have access to oxygen, they go through anaerobic
decomposition, which creates methane gas. Thus not only is the installation of composters reducing the
amount of waste that needs to go to the dump, but it is also reducing the creation of methane gas,
which is a powerful greenhouse gas. Thus the project helps, in a small way, to reduce Makana’s
contribution to global warming. The further benefits of the composters are that they reintroduce
healthy soils, and associated soil biodiversity into the Makana area. The healthy soils are then used as
the basis for the development of nutrition-filled and healthy vegetable gardens and fruit trees, which
form part of the next phase of the project.
2) Tree Planting and Vegetable Garden Development
The Planting: Once the composters have been successfully installed, we
will be planting trees. During the Environmental Education Association of
Southern Africa (EEASA) 30th Annual Conference to be hosted in
Grahamstown this September, the participants will plant trees at the
various different composting sites. The trees will also be accompanied by
the planting of various different vegetables. This will encourage people to
water both the trees and their vegetables, forming a mutualistic
relationship between the two and in doing so we hope to promote food
security, carbon sequestration, urban agriculture and localization of food
production, and the reintroduction of an aspect of Xhosa culture. Furthermore the planting of trees
provides numerous often unrecognised benefits including the filtering of air pollution, the
phytoremediation of water, climate regulation, as well as aesthetic and psychological benefits.
The Benefit: A combination of lemon, fruit and indigenous trees will be purchased for the project at R3500 each and will be sold for R50-00 to the EEASA conference participants in order to help them reduce
the ecological footprint of their travels to the university, as well as fund the future of the project.
The History: In tree planting we have learnt from the traditional amaXhosa saying: “When planting a tree
from the forest, you must bring the forest with the tree”. Learning from this saying, when we plant trees
we aim to plant them with ‘the forest’, in the form of mycorrhiza, a fungi, which forms a mutualistic
relationship with the tree, helps it to grow and ensures its resilience to drought. In the 1960’s such
traditional knowledge was not implemented in one of Grahamstown’s major tree-planting drives, and as
a result the trees planted from such a project started to die and wilt in the space of a few years. Thanks
to amaXhosa traditional knowledge and modern innovation, that should not happen during our project.
3) Hot Box Project
The Hotboxes: The Hotbox is a simple innovation which consists of
two bags made out of cloth, and filled with insulating material,
such as Styrofoam or straw. The two bags are used in the cooking
process, with foods like rice and samp, which require long cooking
times. How the bags work is that once you have brought the food
to boil, you can take the food off the heat and place them between
the bags, in the hotbox. The bags then retain the heat in the pot in
order to continue the cooking process. In doing so the bags saves
electricity/energy, which leads to financial and ecological savings,
as most of the energy requirements of cooking are expensive and
produce pollution as a by-product, whether it is through coalpowered electricity, wood, gas or paraffin cookers. Furthermore, the hotboxes keep the food at a
constant but relatively low temperature, which promotes slow cooking. Slow cooking has the added
benefit of better retaining nutrients in food and thus leads to the production of healthier meals.
The Production: The hotbox aspect of the project is currently employing local women linked to the St
Mary’s DCC and Ward 7 on a piece-by-piece basis to produce the hotboxes. The women from St Mary’s
DCC are pooling the financial earnings from the development of hotboxes in order to eventually use the
funds to feed back into the community through a community-based initiative. The materials used in the
production are truly embodying the ethic of turning waste-to-worth: the outside of the bags are made
from off-cut material from various different clothing outlets, whereas the insulating material is made up
of Styrofoam sourced from the iRhini dump in partnership with the Masihlule Project. Thus in the
production of hotboxes, which are used to help save energy, and promote slow-cooking as a healthier
alternative, one can reduce Makana’s ecological footprint, while helping families to save money, all
while creating a source of income in the production of the hotbags.
The History: The slow cooking method is learnt from traditional amaXhosa cooking practices, which
would bring food to boil using flames from wood fires, and then slowly cook the food using coals.
The Roll-Out: Once the hotboxes are complete, they will be loaned out, free-ofcharge, to the various different families throughout Grahamstwon who are the
beneficiaries of the project. The savings attained from the hotboxes are being
worked out by Jenna Larson, who is a sociologist working on the project
examining the micro-finance aspects. It is our hope that we can encourage the
families to invest the savings attained from the hotboxes into vegetable gardens
and thus promoting longer-term food security, financial savings, nutrition and
health practices in a virtuous and reinforcing cycle.
The Partners
Cleaning, Greening and Saving brings together a diverse
grouping of iRhini residents, groups and organisations who
are working and learning together to enact change
through the Cleaning, Greening and Saving Project. The
project illustrates the importance of developing
partnerships and networks, and in doing so helps to bridge
divides in the Grahamstown community, and, hopefully, in
doing so help contribute to a stronger sense of community
in Grahamstown. The partners include:
Common Ground: A student organization focused on the promotion of permaculture and urban
agriculture, which is donating volunteers, resources and skills to the project.
Galela Amanzi: A student organization, which installs rainwater tanks in the Grahamstown community.
Inqaba Yegolide: A Youth Cleaning Cooperative from Ward 7 who are working on all aspects of the
project.
Makana Municipality: Who are kindly funding this initiative.
Pennypinchers: A hardware store, which has been generously donating off-cut corrugated iron for the
project.
The Rhodes University Environmental Learning and Research Centre: A centre dedicated to
environmental learning and research, which has provided skills, knowledge and resources.
Rhodes University Geography Department: The Rhodes University Geography Department has kindly
agreed to lend GPS equipment to the project for the purposes of GIS mapping of the project.
RU Green: A student organization dedicated to dealing with socio-ecological problems has contributed
volunteers, transport and tools to the project.
St Mary’s Development and Care Centre: A community centre, which focuses on the development and
care of 80 children from families across Grahamstown. Both the community centre and families
attached to the centre are involved in the project.
The Masihlule Project: A non-profit organization responsible for recycling on the Grahamstown dump,
who has collected and donated Styrofoam for the project.
Rhodes University Post-Graduate Village: A village of post-graduate students at Rhodes University who
are benefiting from the project through two new composters, which started their first vegetable garden.
Ward 7: The residents of Ward 7, which includes a growing total of 20 households who currently have
composters installed, and are set to engage with the other aspects of the project.
The Finances:
Thanks to the generous contributions of time and resources of many of the
partners in the project, and due to the overarching theme of turning waste
and waste products, of little to no market value, into worth, we have been
able to keep the costs of the project down quite significantly. The costs
summarized below, are those incurred by the budget allocated by Makana Municipality to this project.
All other costs and inputs not mentioned below have thus far been rendered, for all intents and
purposes, free of charge to the project. While this is a positive trend, illustrating the community’s
support for the project it is not necessarily a trend that we can expect to continue indefinitely.
Past Expenditure:
The work of installing composters began on the 14th of April 2012, and has occurred on 5 subsequent
Saturdays, with an average of 5 members of Inqaba Yegolide taking part, each receiving R65-00 for their
work as well as a meal at R15-00 a head. This puts the overall costs for the production, transportation
and installation of 34 composters at R2 000-00. These costs will continue into the future.
Expected Expenditure:
The Hotboxes are being made by the ladies involved in the project at the agreed upon price of R10-00 a
bag, or R20-00 a hotbox, as each hotbox consists of a pair of bags. If we are to make a total of 100
hotboxes this would put the total amount expected at R2 000-00.
The Makana Parks and Recreation Department has expressed strong interest in combining the
Millennium Tree Planting Project with the Cleaning, Greening and Saving Initiative, and possibly
contributing trees to the project at a reduced rate. If this occurs, this will substantially reduce the costs
of purchasing trees. If not, we are looking at an average of R35 - R50-00 a tree for about 100 trees,
which would cost approximately R3 500-00.
In order to calculate the financial aspects of the project and the savings involved in the project, the RCE
is hiring a resource economist to work on the project. Transport costs are also expected to eventually be
incurred by the project, as well as the costs of purchasing seedlings for the development of family
gardens. The exact figures involved still need to be calculated, depending on the willingness of the
community to freely contribute and reduce the costs involved.
Geographic Information System (GIS):
In order to ensure proper monitoring and evaluation of the project,
we are currently undertaking the digital mapping of the project and
all of its relevant details with the help of the Rhodes University
Geography Department and through the use of the online
Arcgis.com service.