Activist and project manager on the Cape Flats, Denisha Anand, 30, is on a mission to restore the relationship between marginalised communities, the environment and its biodiversity. As she does this, she is also focusing her efforts on school learners in and around the Princess Vlei community.

Anand’s most notable work is the restoration of Princess Vlei through a civic-led organisation called the Princess Vlei Forum. The vlei was unkempt by the city pre and post apartheid, and recently threatened by a mall development due to its neglected state. 

The vlei, which runs through Lotus River, Grassy Park and Strandfontein, was named after a Khoisan princess, who, according to folklore, was abducted by Portuguese sailors while bathing in the vlei. 

“It’s important to note that this wetland was one of very few recreational and biodiversity spaces allocated to so-called coloured people due to the group areas act. My work addresses the impacts that this history has had on both the people who use the vlei and the vlei itself,” the activist told Daily Maverick. 

Anand’s motivation to work in environmental activism was sparked by trips she would take with her father that included hiking and scuba diving. These experiences, she said, brought her a sense of belonging in natural spaces. She believes that this is an innate feeling we all can experience. 

The activist continues to scuba dive and snorkel, exploring ocean communities in her spare time. Referring to herself as an “avid nature person”, she also enjoys hiking, water painting, and is interested in plant storytelling — a skill she picked up while working towards a master’s degree in environmental humanities which looks at plant human intimacies and practices.

Anand added that when she learnt about the impact that colonialism and apartheid had on infringing on this innate feeling, she said she became angry, and that anger drove her to create more inclusive spaces around biodiversity. 

“Apartheid played a huge role in disconnecting people of colour from safe biodiversity spaces and this legacy can still be seen and experienced in the country today. Conservation needs to be centred on belonging and justice to undo these past crimes against both people and the environment,” Anand said. 

Denisha Anand’s motivation for working in environmental activism was sparked by trips she would take with her father that included hiking and scuba diving. (Photo: Jodi Windvogel)

Secretary of the Princess Vlei Forum Bridgette Pitt described Anand as passionate about her work, with a strong vision, willingness to learn and develop new skills and a hard worker at achieving these new skills; not forgetting her extensive knowledge of the indigenous fynbos. 

“Denisha is very compassionate and has a strong sense of social justice.  She has a good understanding of the social, historical and cultural challenges facing the local community, and a strong vision for the role nature can play to heal some of the historical wounds,” Pitt told Daily Maverick. 

Anand said her drive was to restore the site socioecologically and to also advocate for intersectional climate justice. One of the ways in which Anand has done this is by starting the Princess Vlei Guardians Project at schools in the Cape Flats area to reconnect the youth to the vlei through biocultural approaches. 

Shafiek Isaacs, a teacher and Guardians Project facilitator, told Daily Maverick that working with Anand in the field was a wonderful experience as she was goal oriented and knowledgeable about anything that the learners in the Project asked her. 

“The relationship and reputation that she built with the learners is nothing compared to what anyone one can imagine. She has the ability to communicate with people; to do things in a compassionate way. She just has it,” Isaacs said. 

According to Isaacs, the Project has greatly affected the learners, and as a result the community and learners are now interested in planting trees and starting their own home gardens. 

Anand’s efforts haven’t come without challenges. She has faced several hurdles such as funding for the restoration of the vlei, communication breakdowns with the City of Cape Town and dealing with the stigma associated with the neglect of the site. As a woman, however, she has experienced micro-aggressive patriarchy in the form of being labelled as an angry woman of colour or experiencing claims of being too emotional about the projects she works on, and feeling unsafe when out in the field alone.

But this hasn’t deterred her drive to continue fighting for Princess Vlei. Her work has attracted recognition as she was listed on the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 young South Africans, Environmental Category. She also won the Young Professional of the year award: National Wetlands Indaba 2020. 

Beyond her external recognition, Anand’s work is greatly appreciated by her community. 

“There are many reasons why her work is valuable, but I think something that is really of value is her understanding of how issues of race, economic empowerment and gender intersect with environmental issues. Princess Vlei was severely neglected in the past because of the racial bias in resource allocation in Cape Town, and this continues to impact the site,” Pitt said. 

Anand believes that women’s connection with the environment, coupled with indigenous practices that women tend to also be custodians of — due to their responsibilities of sustainable harvesting, wood and reed collecting and wild food foraging — can help mitigate and manage climate change effects that women are at the forefront of witnessing. 

Outside the work Anand does in her community, she is interested in indigenous and medicinal plants and has begun making products from these plants. This was inspired by her now five-year-old daughter who struggled with eczema. Her daughter also had allergies, including to nuts, eggs and milk. Anand decided to avoid overly processed and chemical-filled products and began working on alternatives that would be suitable for her daughter.  This saw her launch her own range of branded products — Ori Organics — that is now stocked and sold in shops in the Western Cape.

“People started constantly asking for the products I made for my daughter and I thought I could maybe just turn it into a business,” said Anand. She now stocks her products at zero-waste stores. “Everything comes in glass. I have biodegradable packaging,” the activist said.

Alongside her healing carrier oils, she also sells healing salts from Baleni in Limpopo, which are harvested by women from a sacred water site. 

“My products have more than one use because I believe in multipurpose products, so that we buy less, slowing down consumerism… and connect with the products you are putting on your body,” Anand said. 

Anand is constantly motivated by her daughter who grew up in natural spaces because of the work that she does.

“I have an obligation to help secure their futures on this planet, we all do. My hunger for socioenvironmental justice drives me, it’s something that will never die,” Anand said. DM/OBP