Banele Ndlovu admits that in high school he used to litter without thinking much about his actions.
“I’d always litter when I was eating snacks, I don’t know why. [But] I was always active when we were supposed to be picking up litter, I wouldn’t stand around not doing anything, I would actively participate,” Ndlovu tells The Citizen.
However, a high school friend who was conscious of the environment always chastised him for littering.
“I just grew with that because he did it so much that it got instilled in my mind.”
Today, the 24 year old, who describes himself as a self-taught environmentalist, now runs a recycling business and operates a community garden in his neighbourhood of Pimville in Soweto.
Tomorrow, Ndlovu will lead a clean-up drive titled What a Waste.
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Community garden
Ndlovu says stories of children in the Eastern Cape dying of hunger spurred his desire to grow veggies on a former dumpsite in his neighbourhood.
“We have so much land as Africans and illegal dumping is such a huge thing in my area, so that’s where I saw the opportunity to start growing plants in all the open spaces that people are just throwing at,” he says.
“People have insufficient food and if they see that they’re benefitting from those places [dumpsites], believe they’ll change their mind-sets about how to treat these places.”
“Finding reliable people, I don’t want to lie, that’s the biggest challenge,” he says.
Other challenges he has faced include the field where he plants his vegetables lacking a proper irrigation system, and a recent setback that disrupted plans to borrow water from a neighbour renting out shacks.
About a month ago, a violent robbery targeted the tenants, with thieves stealing furniture and forcing them to drain their bank accounts. This left the community shaken and they cut off the garden’s water supply.
“This crime didn’t just rob people, it stalled our progress,” he says. However, he is resolute, saying: “Sometimes setbacks lead to better comebacks.”
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Getting support
His work has received support from ward councillor Sebenzile Mabuza who sees Ndlovu as an inspiration for the community.
“In Ward 22, we’re fortunate to have youths like Banele who create jobs and positive change instead of succumbing to unemployment or crime,” Mabuza said.
“His recycling business employs local youths, tackling the drug and crime scourge. He’s a role model for the kind of leaders we need.”
Says Ndolove: “Such backing is really crucial in the stage we are in as a business.”
“We’ve attracted more people, we have been actively on the ground, we kind of understand the basics of what is happening right now, so with her being able to give us even more land, we now have the capacity to call even more people to come and actively participate in the community programmes that are happening. That’s how we got to planting 1 000 trees in a year, that’s because of the community.”
Ndlovu has a dream of planting a million trees in Soweto.
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