Nxamalala –
First Visit
Gail Robinson
1
Climate Change Awareness and Adaptation in Nxamalala
Selecting a Community
Umphilo’s community worker, Ms. Dudu Khumalo, began her search for a suitable community
to engage in the second series of workshops in the Mngeni catchment by liaising with a contact
in Implendle, who referred her on to Mr. Shabalala, a member of the Landless People’s
Movement. I also contacted Mrs. Penny Rees, from the Dusi uMngeni Conservation Trust
(DUCT), which organization has done extensive work in the uMngeni catchment, both
environmental monitoring and community engagement with a view to improving the quality of
the Mngeni River and surrounds. Penny suggested other contacts who she believed could be
helpful in linking us up with a community through their community links.
Shabalala’s initial recommendation was three communities in the Midlands – Curry’s Post and
two other areas in the Dargle. Umphilo, having encountered in our Kwa Ngcolosi project the
challenges and lack of cohesion that accompanied engaging several disparate communities
simultaneously, decided this was not a viable option. After further discussion with Shabalala he
recommended Nxamalala, a community of around 53 households on 172 hectares of privately
owned land. He referred us to community activist, Mr. Bonginkosi Ngcobo, who is a director at
the sawmill located on the Nxamalala land in this Lions River area of the KZN Midlands. Ngcobo
is involved in formalizing the bequest of Nxamalala land, by farmer John Fowler, to its current
residents who do not have possession of the title deeds, although it seems the land is privately
owned by themselves.
Our final decision to engage this community was influenced by two key factors. First, having
land tenure meant the community had enhanced potential for developing long-term vision on
how to use it. Second, involvement with the Landless People’s Movement seemed to suggest a
level of community organization. This did not unfold in the way that we had anticipated,
however, and fairly early on in our engagement with Nxamalala we became aware of
complexities in the community dynamics that were not evident at the outset of our
involvement.
Establishing Ties
Umphilo team members, Dudu, Danford and I, made our first trip to Nxamalala to meet with
Bonginkosi on 28 November, 2013. Our goals were to orientate ourselves with the area, meet
with some of the residents to introduce ourselves and the project, and confirm the GPS location
of Nxamalala for the purposes of climate change modeling by UKZN, which would form a key
part of our workshop resource material. Confusion surrounded determining the GPS as google
searches had revealed that there are several places known by the name ‘Nxamalala’, which are
quite separate from this settlement. Fortunately, once there, we were able to confirm the GPS
by using the Corrie Lynn school building across the road from Nxamalala as our formal point of
NXAMALALA – FIRST VISIT
GAIL ROBINSON
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reference. We were further able to confirm the location by identifying the nearby sawmill on
the Google satellite map.
The early morning drizzle and mist that enveloped the countryside as we made our way along
the N3 from Durban to Howick, and then more cautiously on past Midmar Dam and onto the
Petrus Stroom gravel road, enhanced my sense of an ill-defined world ‘out there’, while we
were snug inside the car. After crossing the Mngeni River, the road cut a swathe between
fields of commercially- grown tall mealies, swaying under the mist of irrigation systems. After
several unintended forays in the wrong direction, followed by phone calls to (the as yet
unknown) Bonginkosi, we honed in on Nxamalala, and were relieved that Bonginkosi had not
abandoned his look-out post (and us) for a drier morning out of the weather. His huge grin
echoed our delight, and he gave us a warm welcome. We followed Bonginkosi’s
recommendation that we leave the car just inside the entrance to Nxamalala, and began our
transect walk through the area, as its name suggests, on foot.
Discovering the lie of the land:
Our Transect Walk
Picking our way through knee-deep muddy trenches, I was glad that I had not tried to negotiate
this track in the car – we would have needed a tractor rescue once mired in the sodden clay.
Bonginkosi shared details on the story of ownership of this land as we clumped first through the
reeded wetland adjacent the road, on up the hillside between the houses to the large field at
the top of the plot. We heard that the Fowler family had owned the land for over a century –
Corrie Lyn School shares the name of the home of one of the Fowler brothers, at whose gate is
NXAMALALA – FIRST VISIT
GAIL ROBINSON
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a rock dated 1882. One of the brothers – part heir to the Fowler land – befriended a farm
labourer’s son, and on acquiring his share of the farm bequeathed the Nxamalala portion of the
farm to the labourers and their families. However, the new owners are not in possession of the
title deeds, which Bonginkosi hopes to secure through the land claims committee.
The residents of the houses are farm labourers, workers at the sawmill and neighbouring
chicken farms, amongst other enterprises such as chicken farms and cabinet making. However,
at the time of the workshops, it was reported that those working at the farm had had their
employment contracts terminated.
Vegetable gardens are established in some of the properties, most of which are individually
fenced, the largest and most productive being situated just above the wetland. A fenced and
gated spazashop/shebeen is close to the track, and opposite a large house with matching gates.
We did not see evidence of cattle, but several of the families keep chickens, sheep and goats,
and one a rabbit – I don’t know if this was a pet or for the pot. There were also guinea fowl in
one enclosure – either captives, or opportunistic visitors!
The garden nearest the wetland is irrigated by means of a pipe through which water is
suctioned. Green Jojo tanks were dotted around the hillside, often alongside stand-alone
outside pit toilets. The 200 litre tanks are filled by the Howick municipality, and while the
community feels they are (usually) reliable, they expressed concern over the quality of their
water for home use and consumption, mentioning the risks they are exposed to by bacterial
activity in the water that causes it to smell, and a sludgy residue that discolours it. Although the
community purifies the water using chemicals like JIK, the community leader said that other
community members don’t like the smell of JIK in their drinking water. The other sources of
water that were identified, and are used when there is a delay in refilling the tanks, were a
small stream that flows below the saw-mill site into a dam, and a stream which arises from a
spring and flows into a marshy area/wetland, between the road and Nxamalala farm.
The use of the communally owned two hectare field is under discussion. The intention was that
community residents would use this resource to collectively grow crops for commercial gain.
However, they rely on neighbouring farmers to plough this land for them and, at the time of
our visit, were still waiting for the farmer, Mr. Fowler, to do it at his convenience. Previously,
the ploughing has happened so late in the season that the mealies and beans sowed only grew
to half size. It seems that there is dissent about the best way to proceed with farming this field.
Some residents are in favour of dividing it into smaller plots, one per household, which each
family will then make use of. Others would like to make use of it for grazing their goats. Part of
the reluctance to proceed with a communal venture stems from a concern that not everyone
would commit an equal number of hours to maintaining the field, and yet would have an
expectation of benefitting equally from the sale of the produce.
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GAIL ROBINSON
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While Dudu and Danford greeted some of the residents with a view to introducing themselves
and chatting to them to find out more about Nxamalala, they were waved away, and told to
approach someone else. There was little community engagement at Nxamalala farm, and
although Bonginkosi was an interesting and informative guide, I had a sense of disquiet that he
did not seem as integral to the farm community as I would have expected. This feeling did not
persist, however, once we had returned to the car and driven the two or so kilometers to the
Siyakuhla Sawmill at which Bonginkosi is one of the directors. We did not tour the sawmill itself,
which was running under the watchful eye of the manager, Mr. Bester, but went instead to the
area adjacent to the mill where workers, and some of their families, live in timber huts
constructed out of waste material from the sawmill.
While negotiating the rutted verge as I parked the car, I felt dwarfed by the front-end loader
which roared up and down the road, a capable young woman at the wheel. Pyramids of waste
surround the mill, which overlooks a small dam and a cleared, level site with neatly stacked
timber planks, air-drying in preparation for sale. I did wonder how these neat mounds, which
looked on the Google map like square haystacks, were able to dry out in the rain.
Entering the residential area we were greeted cordially by the residents, women with small
children, while wary dogs, chickens, and a pair of caged doves kept as pets, looked on. Dudu
commented on the tiny square windows in the cabins, glassless, like two sightless eyes peering
out of the gloom. We tracked through the clay-floored village, side-stepping a scattering of
debris and admiring vegetable patches and ingenious – although not always successful –
attempts to keep the beady-eyed chickens outs and the unseen rats at bay.
Bonginkosi has a cabin here which he uses for lunch preparation, but he does not live here. This
was clearly not the case for the women and toddlers whose voices floated after us through the
thin timber walls, murmuring, shouting, murmuring, while we walked. Before we said our
goodbyes, Dudu and I used the pit toilets situated at the far side of the village. Once done we
walked to the centrally situated water tank and tap, where the closest neighbour lent us his
soap for hand washing. I was acutely aware as I felt the mist seeping through my clothes, of
how little shelter their shelters provided these residents at Siyakuhle Sawmill.
Our transect walk complete, we had a tangible sense of the resources to build, and obstacles to
thwart, healthy stable lifestyles for this community of Nxamalala as they face increasingly, the
challenges of climate change.
NXAMALALA – FIRST VISIT
GAIL ROBINSON