A wave of change for the Jeffreys Bay community

In a community where children do not have many options, a world-renowned surfboard maker is carving opportunities to keep children off the streets.

Growing up with a single mother, Thys Strydom spent much of his younger years with friends. After moving from the mountainous Baviaanskloof area of the Eastern Cape to Jeffreys Bay at a young age, Strydom was introduced to surfing and was “bitten by the bug”.

Today, Strydom (57) is a world-renowned surfboard maker with his own brand, Rebel Surfboards. But even more admirably, Strydom makes use of his time helping young community members get into the sport as an alternative to getting drawn into the gang-ridden streets of the area.

In the early 1990s, Strydom spotted a group of children sharing a makeshift surfboard – waiting on the beach and taking turns when one fell off.

By that time, Strydom had been surfing for years. He offered the group of children some of his old surfboards. From there, he coached the group with the help of his friend Etienne Venter, and helped the children get into competitions.

“The families of the children Thys has taken in are very happy, because surfing is a much better option than drugs,” says Keegan Mitchell, an Eastern Cape surfer who has known Strydom for eight years.

The main objective for Strydom is to keep these children off the street and away from gangs, drugs and alcoholism.

Although his work is far from done, Strydom has achieved some success in his goals. He has helped children compete at provincial, national and international levels.

Going forward, Strydom wants to establish a surfing team for the Sarah Baartman District.

“I never had these opportunities,” says Strydom. “That was the main drive behind all of this – while I couldn’t do it, I will help these children to do it.” – By Tim Malinzi

Leading wastewater monitoring to track to Covid-19

At the height of Covid, while many were ensuring that they were safe and protected, Professor Angela Mathee (62) and the team of researchers at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) were working hard to monitor more than 80 wastewater plants within South Africa to observe the SARS-CoV-2 RNA within them.

“I grew up in Athlone, on the Cape Flats,” she says. During that time there were not many options available for careers except nursing, and she pursued it. However, “it was absolutely the wrong choice for me”, she explains.

At the end of her honours year in microbiology, she saw an advert for a project at SAMRC – looking at the levels of bacteria in the sea – “and I just loved that work, so that started my career in environmental health”.

At the start of Covid, many different research entities were trying to find out how to manage Covid-19.

After a successful discovery in the Netherlands that Covid can be tracked in wastewater because of the viral particles that can be found within urine and faeces, Mathee and the team started testing that theory within wastewater plants all over South Africa.

“We got together and found that the initial proof of concept worked and we ended up with around 80 wastewater plants that they monitor.”

Through her work, Mathee has made a lasting impact on different communities. “I am proud of the way that my research on lead poisoning [has] contributed to it no longer being used in petrol.”

With regard to the pandemic, she says, “I love the way that instead of falling or being crippled by Covid-19, we built something that helped in the moment, but will also leave a legacy for years to come.” – By Tamara Wicomb

Striving for ‘holistic homes’ in Khayelitsha

For more than a decade, Nokuphiwo Jada – community activist and founding member of the nonprofit Earthchild Project – has been working with children in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, teaching yoga, mindfulness and life skills.

Earthchild Project works with schools in underprivileged communities. Jada is the schools programme manager in Khayelitsha, and her focus is currently on working with teachers in the area.

“I felt like … I’m not doing justice if I’m working with kids only, because the teachers are stressed, and we can only do so much with these children if I’m not applying these tools to the parents and to the teachers,” she explains. “I’m trying to create a holistic home.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, when Jada was involved in a feeding scheme for local children, she came into contact with mothers who were facing difficult times – unemployment, abuse, divorce, neglect. The experience motivated her to start an independent project for women empowerment.

“I started by doing family yoga, going and visiting them,” she says. “My focus is on women, because it goes down to them being mothers of these children.”

In 2022, Jada launched the project Sisterwood, with the aim of bringing together unemployed women in the community for an empowerment curriculum that would help them to connect with themselves and the tools at their disposal.

The Sisterwood sessions involve skills development, mindfulness work, yoga and meditation, and focus groups.

It is easy to become numb in the face of difficulties endured in Khayelitsha, according to Jada, especially given the community’s culture of not talking about personal problems. It was only through yoga and meditation that she learnt to accept rather than suppress emotions.

“We live in a community where death has just become part of us … even before Covid … but no one goes through counselling,” she says.

“It’s really about … breaking these cycles, and changing the systems … so that we can have better people, so that we can have better homes,” she says. – By Tamsin Metelerkamp

We should leave this Earth better than we found it

Environmentalists and holidaymakers are concerned, as high E. coli levels persist at Durban beaches owing to raw sewage spilling into the sea.

Janet Simpkins, an environmentalist and director of Adopt a River Eco Solutions, a registered nonprofit working in the river and environmental space, has been at the forefront of testing for toxins at beaches, cleanups and advocacy.

Simpkins and her team began testing the beaches and rivers after the floods in April this year. Along with beach cleanups she has done extensive work cleaning up the uMngeni River and surrounding areas by encouraging community participation.

Simpkins says her supportive family, team and passion for the environment help her do her work as director of Adopt a River. Based mainly in KZN, Adopt a River focuses on community-based solutions to river and beach health issues.

With the help of sponsorship, Adopt a River cleans the uMngeni River mouth and the nearby area by hand, taking out about 1,000 bags of rubbish a month.

Simpkins says she has always cared for the environment and, at age 16, she remembers asking her dad to make her a little homemade can crusher. She collected aluminium cans and made a bit of pocket money giving those to recyclers.

“I’m primarily in this game because I have a deep love of nature and realise that everything is connected. I am greatly concerned about the future of our planet. I have three children, and I’m sorry that we created this mess. I want to try to change behaviours; try to create awareness so that we can start in some small way to turn the tide on what is happening on our planet.

I know this is a cliché, but we have to try to leave this place better than we found it,” says Simpkins.

“South Africa’s rivers are a vital cog in the ecosystem, providing water for drinking and irrigating crops. We cannot allow them to deteriorate and collapse.” – By Naledi Sikhakhane

Doctors helping to shorten long surgery waiting lists

It’s 7am on a Saturday and instead of sleeping in, volunteers at Project Flamingo are back in their scrubs, this time pink, to care for cancer patients in under-resourced hospitals.

The project’s founder, Dr Liana Roodt (41), is not someone who sits still. She moves through the maze of Groote Schuur Hospital with as much agility as a cat, as if it’s her back yard.

That’s probably because it is. Roodt spends every Wednesday at the Breast and Endocrine Unit here, and it’s also where her nonprofit organisation, Project Flamingo, manifested with its first surgery list in 2010.

Twelve years on, it operates cross-country and sees already overworked healthcare professionals volunteering their Saturdays to perform life-saving cancer surgeries.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing what somebody needs, and not being able to provide it. Not because you’re incapable, but because you don’t have the resources to do it,” says Roodt.

This frustration drove her to start Project Flamingo, which performed 200 catch-up surgeries in 2022.

The project also performs stoma reversal surgeries and distributes pamper packages to newly diagnosed patients.

“The response from our patients has always been amazing [and] inspiring. They are awesome, that’s why we do what we do,” says Roodt.

The project recently expanded to the Eastern Cape and is helping even more patients. It now operates in Groote Schuur, Tygerberg, Livingstone, Cecilia Makiwane and Eerste River hospitals.

Roodt’s plate is a full one, as she spends her days working at either Project Flamingo, Groote Schuur, or her own private practice. With this heavy workload, it is personal conviction that keeps her afloat.

“You are the face. When a patient gets diagnosed and there are delays … they don’t get upset with the hospital manager or the minister of health. You are the face of a system that they get angry with, and you are as angry and as frustrated as they are.” – By Aiden Louw

The community leader who caught a rhino poacher

Siyabonga Bashe (39) never imagined that he would be the one to foil a daring prison break. Bashe grew up in Seven Fountains, an area surrounded by private game reserves and farmland. The community is roughly 30km southeast of Makhanda, along the N2 to Gqeberha.

There is a concerning lack of police presence in the Seven Fountains community. There were no posters raising awareness about the escaped prisoners, says Bashe.

Around the time of the prison break, two young children noticed a man who seemed to hide whenever he was looked at, says Bashe. Bashe currently lives in a squatter camp that is rapidly growing, making it challenging to keep track of who lives in the area.

The children insisted that something was amiss with the man, pushing Bashe and other community members to take action and call the police. Trymore Chauke, a poacher, was only identified once his picture started circulating on police WhatsApp groups.

The issue of rhino poaching directly affects the Seven Fountains community, as many farms have closed down owing to the opening of game reserves.

“There are very [few] jobs here and most of our people are working in those game reserves – making us part and parcel of protecting the game reserves because they are the only ones giving our people jobs,” he explains.

Following Chauke’s rearrest, the Lalibela Private Game Reserve will now be supplying the two children with school uniforms for the rest of their school careers.

Bashe stresses the importance of unity and working in tandem with other people. “It is the only thing that community people can do and the only thing that can keep the community together,” he says. – By Takudzwa Pongweni/ DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper which is available for R25 at Pick n Pay, Woolworths, SPAR and Exclusive Books. For your nearest stockist, please click here.