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Vho-Kaizer Mafela, had been twisting strips of slightly dry canes into all-purpose baskets, flower pots and washing bins. 

Mafela's weaving magic continues

 

Entrepreneurship should stand the test of the harshest of times, and when a weaver about whom the newspaper wrote a story some eight years ago is still going from strength to strength today, that is something laudable.

A resident of Tshikota Location, Vho-Kaizer Mafela, had been twisting strips of slightly dry cane into all-purpose baskets, flowerpots, and laundry baskets by the riverside near Firefly Bakery in Louis Trichardt when Limpopo Mirror first met him almost a decade ago.

“Even today, I am still weaving different items for sale,” he said. “Weaving has become my lifestyle, and when I am not weaving, I feel sick in body and spirit.”

Mafela, who is originally from Maebani village in the Kutama area, stated that he had not had the opportunity to go far in school because of personal challenges and difficulties, but he was fortunate enough to utilise his skills as a weaver to earn his bread.

“God has been with me all along, and I’ve been doing wire baskets and other things ever since I was a small boy,” he said. “It had all started at school, and almost all the teachers liked what I was doing then.”

Most parents and boys will remember this man for the attractive wire cars that he sold in the streets of Louis Trichardt from the early 2000s. But today, he says, he has moved from using wire to specialising in river cane wares and acorns.

“My designer domestic wares are good in shape and form,” he said. “I sell them to the public at affordable prices.”

 

 

Date:15 June 2020

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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