Blog posts of '2022' 'November'

Four years ago Sr. Teressa Zungu, a member of the Holy Childhood Sisters in South Africa, started sewing courses for women around the rural town of Eshowe. Today, her idea has grown into a project for the whole of Zululand, supported by German development funds.

Sipho Makhanya is moving in-between sewing machines. The sound of clattering needles and cackling female voices is circling around him. He checks a pair of shorts, touches the seam with his fingers, assesses the result. “Good work”, the 51-year-old says to Nqobile, a young woman from Vryheid. Together with seventeen other women from all parts of Zululand she is finishing up her sewing course in the Development Center of the Catholic Diocese in Eshowe. Before, she has designed patterns, learned to handle different fabrics, worked with mobile and industrial sewing machines. She has sewed dresses and trousers, school uniforms and tracksuits. Today she will work until late at night to finish her last piece: A black summer dress with leopard patterns. “Every learner must be able to design and produce different clothes after the course”, Sipho says.

Bringing the project to the people

The skilled tailor is sharing his knowledge, and that has a lot to do with Sr. Teressa Zungu. The Franciscan Sister of St. Clare Convent in Eshowe recruited him two years ago to teach sewing in Vryheid. At the time, Sr. Teressa traveled up and down the Zululand Diocese to find companions and form new groups. In 2016, she started to teach sewing to a group of Eshowe women herself  – and realized a great interest and potential in her work. Some learners traveled more than 200 kilometers to join a sewing course. “But we realized that the cost and effort was too much for many women”, Sr. Teressa says. “That is why we started to go into the communities and bring the course to the people.” This outreach approach costed money: Sewing machines had to be bought, rooms had to be rented. She needed petrol money and funds to pay the instructors’ stipends. “We needed help to take the project to the next level.”

Planting a seed

Sr. Teressa found help with the German organization Yebo Zululand Initiatives and the International Rural Development Service (ILD). Up to this day, they are supporting the project with subsidies and donations. Meanwhile, ten sewing groups are working all over the Zululand region. “Sr. Teressa has planted a seed four years ago, and it has grown into a strong tree”, says Edeltraud Parensen, founder of Yebo Zululand. More than 200 women have participated in sewing courses over the years, says Parensen, who compares the development of the project to a “snowball effect”. “The social interaction within the groups helps the women to cope with everyday life”, she says. “And the sewing enables them to support their families.” At the moment, paying customers are predominantly rural schools. Demand for school uniforms in South Africa is huge, as children wear them from the first to the last day of school, in class, at sports lessons or at functions. “It is very important for the women to acquire contracts in their local neighborhoods on their own”, says Sr. Teressa. “We can give them wings, but they have to learn to fly themselves.”

Repay the trust

“We help each other out”, says Nolwandle Nxumalo, who has been part of the sewing initiative for years. She focuses on the social impact of the project: Women like herself are pulled out of unemployment and apathy. “Life in Zululand can be very difficult. Many people are poor and sit at home all day, because they are uneducated and nobody believes in them”, the 52-year-old claims. While some of the women are receiving their certificates for completing the course, she gives a blazing speech. She thanks project managers and the sponsors for their commitment – and promises to repay the trust wherever she can. “I will give every woman a push if she wants to be pushed”, Nolwandle says. When the sewing machines start clattering again, she is putting her words into action. She shares knowledge with newcomers, helps to acquire new contracts and supports the women with daily issues.

Continued support for women

In the future, her commitment will be needed more than ever. In February, the opening of the new “Innovation Center” in Eshowe was celebrated. Regular workshops will take place there soon, when students from all sewing groups in Zululand can come together, share their experiences and learn new techniques. Part of the ceremonial launch were the blessing of all new rooms by Bishop Xolelo Thaddeus Kumalo and speeches by the German sponsors, who will continue to support rural development in the area, both through sewing workshops and agricultural projects. Among the invited guests was Sipho Makhanya. He had organized a fashion show, where the women could present their work to a bigger audience. They walked the improvised catwalk proudly, a dream in blue, a leopard dress, a colorful pink spot. Sipho laughed and raised his thumb, watching the result of all his efforts. A touch of Haute Couture, in the middle of African Zululand.

After Esona Mtshengu was retrenched she taught herself to sew and watched YouTube videos for ideas before creating her own fashion business.

The Khayelitsha resident began MTS Accessories soon after she lost her job in the travel industry last year.

MTHATHA – Eastern Cape rural development and agrarian reform MEC, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, has handed over vegetable seeds, gardening implements, industrial sewing machines, poultry, and piggery feed to 33 women-owned co-operatives in Mqanduli in the OR Tambo district municipality.

Speaking in Mqanduli, Qoboshiyane said his department had a constitutional responsibility to use public funds to respond to the needs of the people by supporting them, especially rural communities and co-operatives, to produce their own income through agriculture and textile production.

“We identified women-led co-operatives and gave them the resources they requested from us. The most important thing for us is that if our people have information about how to access government services and support, they access them for their own development.

“It is important that people realise they are their own liberators from poverty and government can contribute and assist them in their efforts so that those efforts become a success. There are difficulties but it is important that people produce food to sell to the markets; those who can’t produce must buy from producers so that our province can grow,” he said.

Of the 33 co-operatives, eight received industrial sewing machines, overlockers, two 50-metre lengths of fabric, cotton, domestic machines, industrial irons, cutting tables, and display racks for the finished products, the department said in a statement.

Nokwakha Pali, a member of Siyathunga sewing co-operative, said they teamed up to teach each other sewing, making clothes for women, churches, and school uniforms.

“We are happy that the MEC gave us these industrial machines because previously we couldn’t put embroidery on our clothes and decorate the material we produced because the old Singer machines don’t have that capability. We also need a place to do our business and to teach some unemployed youth sewing so that they can earn an income and stay away from taverns and drugs,” said Pali.

Thirteen vegetable-producing co-operatives from Libonde, Port St Johns, Mhlontlo, and King Sabatha Dalindyebo received wheelbarrows, spades, fork spades, hand hoes, rakes, watering cans, potato seeds, green coronet cabbage, cremsome globe beetroot, ford hoek giant spinach, texas grano onion, walthum butternut, and carrot seeds to produce vegetables to be sold to local markets, including retail stores.

Seven pig farmers who had also called Qoboshiyane’s office for help to feed their pigs received ten 40kg bags of pig growth, yellow maize, bran wheat, and creep feed.

Pig farmer Ntomboxolo Habe of Saints of Primary co-operative said they asked for help with pig feed, medicine, and assistance to build a piggery structure.

“This feed from government will help us improve the condition of our pigs to be good for all markets, including retail markets. This will help us grow our herd so that we make more money. We thank government for responding to our call for support because we started this piggery project to create jobs for some of the unemployed youth so that they don’t end up doing crime,” said Habe.

Three poultry farmers received ten 50kg bags of broiler starter, finisher, post, and chicken feed yellow maize, and 200 one-day-old broiler chicks.

Nothemba Mdunyelwa, a Mqanduli poultry farmer who started her poultry production in 2013, said she used to struggle because some of her customers did not pay her money for the chicks, so she then decided to write to government for help with her poultry production.

“I wrote to the department asking for support to help with my business because I was struggling. I produce broiler chicks and sell both chicks and chickens to the locals. My poultry business helps me to provide for and educate my children and I live a better life because of this business. My life has been different ever since I started this business. I am very excited for getting this support from government,” said Mdunyelwa.

It was all ululation and dance at the Mthatha crafters’ imbizo on Friday as a group of industrious women celebrated a gift that will give their work a massive boost.
Arts and culture deputy minister Maggie Sotyu delivered on her promise to bring the crafters much-needed industrial sewing machines to boost their sewing output.
Sotyu handed over 19 machines at the crafters’ Imbizo at AbaThembu acting King Azenathi Dalindyebo’s Bumbane Great Place near Mthatha.
Sotyu said the Imbizo was a follow-up of the previous engagement which she had on June 9 2017 with the people of Bumbane, Sithembe and surrounding villages.
The machines were welcomed by Dalindyebo and his mother Queen NoCollege Dalindyebo, as well as Cacadu senior traditional leader Nkosikazi Nongongo Ngonyama.
Ngonyama said although initially the groups of women who were to benefit were 12, the number had now increased to 35.
Dalindyebo said King Sabata Dalindyebo mayor Dumani Zozo had donated another machine and that meant there were now 20 machines to benefit rural women in and around Mthatha.
In June last year, when Sotyu was in Bumbane, she listened to Dalindyebo and a group of crafters calling for radical rural women development.
They requested the deputy minister to donate some sewing machines and assist in developing their skills as part of rural women empowerment.
“At the 2017 Imbizo there were requests from various groups of women in the arts sector for sewing machines and other material,” the deputy minister said.
“Now I have come not to make speeches, but to deliver on my promise, the promise made by the ANC for the people of this area,” said Sotyu before handing over the machines to Nkosi Ngonyama and Queen Mother Dalindyebo who received them on behalf of beneficiaries.
“These are not personally for the king and his traditional leaders, but are to benefit the community.
“However they will be kept at the Great Place for everyone to have access,” she said.
She said that machines had come from donors.
The deputy minister said she would not stop at donating the machines, but the local municipality, the provincial government and the national government would assist in marketing the products of these women, even internationally.
The crafters said the donation would help fight poverty and unemployment...