WEZANDLA CRAFTS

Zanele

Sampler

Zanele Msomi has been working with Wezandla for 24 years as a sampler, creating the first models, test pieces, and prototypes. Her work is essential for testing design, fit, and materials before a product moves into full production. Through her prototypes, she ensures that the final products meet the highest standards of quality and design.

Zanele has a large family with six children. Her youngest son, Luthando, is six years old and in first grade. Three of her older children attend Shiane School, about 20 kilometers from Elandskraal near Rorke’s Drift. Because the school offers excellent English lessons, she willingly covers the daily taxi and bus costs – made possible through her income at Wezandla.

At the age of 22, Zanele began her training through an internship in the Drakensberg mountains. There, she took part in a bridging course sponsored by Wezandla, where she eventually learned to sew.

On weekends, Zanele enjoys spending time with her family and tending to her household. In her own garden, she grows tomatoes, spinach, and peppers. Zanele says the orders from Trusted Craft Design in Germany are especially important to her, as they are always treated with priority. German customers are particularly loyal and play a central role in her work.

Phakamile

Seamstress

Phakamile Sabela is 33 years old. Since 2022, she has been living in a new house after her previous one was destroyed by heavy rainfall and flooding.

She is a mother of three children aged four, thirteen, and sixteen. Her youngest attends a nearby crèche, while the eldest goes to school in Shiyane. To ensure her children receive a better education at a well-regarded school, she pays 250 Rand for transport. Mine, Zanele, Virginia, Muge, and Phiwa also send their children there. Education is a shared priority among them.

On weekends, Phakamile devotes herself passionately to her garden, where she grows fresh vegetables. At the sewing workshop, she has specialized in sewing circular pieces – small ones for phone pouches and larger ones for versatile all-purpose bags.

Makoki

Beadworker

Makoki Mbatha is 36 years old and began creating intricate beadwork at the age of 14. Her first creations were small beaded animals.

Makoki has experienced much loss in her family. A few years ago, when we visited her at home, her beloved grandmother was still alive – but has since passed away. Makoki has one child; her second sadly died young. Her grandchild, who had already made her a proud “grandmother,” tragically passed away at only eight months old.

On weekends, Makoki joyfully runs her own Spaza shop – a small store where she sells ice blocks, snacks, chips, and cookies. A large freezer allows her to buy goods in Pomeroy and keep them fresh for her customers.

On Saturdays, she enjoys some peace and quiet but also attends church with enthusiasm. She lives with her sister, who also raises her child alone, and Makoki supports both financially. Her mother lives in Johannesburg but does not have a steady job. Every morning at 7:20 a.m., Makoki walks to the sewing workshop – a constant part of her life and a place where she brings her skills and passion every day.

Jabulile

Beadworker

Jabulile Mkize has been working with Wezandla since 2002 and is the longest-serving employee. However, she began her beadwork journey back in 1997. Even in her free time, she continues to create intricate beadwork pieces – not only as an additional source of income but also as a creative pastime.

She is a mother of five children, but the loss of one of her children, who passed away at the age of twelve from appendicitis, still pains her deeply. Four of her children still live at home, while her eldest son works as a clothing store manager in the Northern Cape Province (Kuruman) – a success she is especially proud of.

Jabulile lives with her family in a small two-room house, complemented by a traditional rondavel (a round grass hut). She enjoys spending her weekends in the mountains, where she collects firewood together with other women – a tradition known as “Tesa.” This task is reserved exclusively for women and offers them a welcome break from cooking and household duties.

Together with Lungi Sabela, she tends a vegetable garden where they grow spinach, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and potatoes. They take turns watering and sharing the work.

Before long, Jabulile will be retiring – a new stage of life that she approaches with calm and confidence.

Nonhlanhla

Seamstress

Nonhlanhla Ndlovu is 50 years old and an important pillar of support for her family. Her mother still lives in the house, and she takes care of both her and her sister-in-law. She has three children aged 22, 25, and 31. Her eldest son works as a security guard in a mine, while her youngest has just finished school and already has a child of their own.

As the only one in the family with a steady income, Nonhlanhla carries a great deal of responsibility. Her first husband left her, but she now has a new partner by her side.

Sewing is her great passion – she especially enjoys challenging bags that test her skills, and she is always eager to learn new techniques. She also enjoys working in her garden, though she still lacks a reliable water supply for it.

Once a month, she travels to town – either to Pomeroy or Dundee – to take care of errands. Despite all the challenges, Nonhlanhla approaches life with great determination and dedication.

Phindi

Detail Seamstress

Phindi Sabela is Zanele’s sister and a very close relative. She has a ten-year-old child and lives without a partner. She shares a home with Mine’s father in the Kraal – a residential compound made up of several houses that function as one communal unit. Phindi is also Mine’s aunt.

At the sewing workshop, she specializes in marking and securing seams, attaching magnetic buttons, smaller sewing projects, and leatherwork. Slowly but surely, she is building a reputation as a seamstress who willingly takes on challenging and demanding tasks.

On weekends, she enjoys relaxing and celebrating – especially when Zanele invites her over. Those gatherings are often filled with dancing and joyful energy.

Mine

Administrator

Mine Sabela is an ambitious woman with a strong desire to become a teacher. Unfortunately, her schooling was interrupted by very early pregnancies, so she was only able to attend up to the eighth grade – though at Shiyane, a well-regarded but distant school. She currently takes on administrative tasks at the sewing workshop and often prepares the shipments for Trusted Craft Design.

She is a mother of two children, an eight-year-old boy and a ten-year-old girl. Her children also attend Shiyane School and are away from home daily from 5:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There, they receive balanced meals: a simple breakfast and a warm lunch with vegetables, beans, rice, samp, and sauce.

Since Mine and her children enjoy browsing the internet, she regularly buys data for their internet access. She has not yet started her own vegetable garden, as she recently moved. In addition, free-roaming animals would eat her plants, so she first needs to build a sturdy fence for protection.

Lui

Color Specialist

"Lui", Lungisile Mkize, is a mother of three children aged 16, 19, and 21. She lives several kilometers away and takes a taxi to work every day.

Lui is an expert in colors and masters color mixing with great precision. At the sewing workshop, she is responsible for printing fabrics and ensures that every print is unique. With her calm and focused nature, she is able to fully concentrate on her work and apply color evenly and carefully.

Lungi

Seamstress

Lungi Sabela has three children from her first marriage, who live with her late husband’s family after his passing. She lives with her current husband and their shared child a few kilometers away. Every month, she receives a sack of flour as support from her father-in-law, “Mkulo.”

Together with Jabulile, she takes care of her garden and is already active there early in the morning at five. She is especially looking forward to the upcoming gardening training, as she hopes to deepen her knowledge further. In her family, she is the only one with steady employment, while her sister is ill and currently without work.

Her eldest son is studying to become a teacher and has received a scholarship. He lives in a student residence during his studies.

On weekends, Lungi enjoys visiting friends and relatives in the area. She also travels to town twice a month to shop and run errands.

Muge

Purse Seamstress

Muge Sabela is 36 years old, married to a gardener, and mother of two children. She lives together with her mother-in-law in a small brick house.

On weekends, she spends a lot of time with her friends Zanele and Mvuse. Within their close-knit women’s group, they find mutual support and strengthen one another – together, they feel empowered.

Her greatest passion at the sewing workshop is making purses. She loves the challenge of ironing together many small pieces of fabric and sewing them precisely. What she values most is the chance to keep learning new things. In her sewing group, the women regularly switch tasks, giving everyone the opportunity to try different techniques and grow their skills.

Virginia

Pouch Seamstress

Virginia Sithole is Mine’s mother and has five children, with Mine being the eldest. She receives no financial support from the fathers of her children, so she raised all her children on her own income. Her children are now 11, 16, 18, 27, and 29 years old, and she still supports one of them.

She lives on the grounds of the sewing workshop, as she had to leave her former home. The Dedekind family provided her with a small piece of land, where she now lives.

At the workshop, Virginia is a highly skilled seamstress, especially for pouches. She buys her seeds in Dundee – including cabbage, peppers, and tomatoes. She learned the basics of gardening in her childhood, when she lived on a farm.

Recently, she built a small two-room house through hard work and dedication. She financed it partly with her savings and partly through an interest-free loan from Wezandla.

Mvuse

Seamstress

Mvuse Sabelo is a mother of three children aged 4, 11, and 15. Her household includes six people in total, among them her grandmother, affectionately called “Gogo.” Her husband is a basket weaver who makes intricate telephone wire baskets. Together, they keep 20 goats, which they sell within their community. The animals play an important role, as they are often used as offerings in traditional rituals.

On weekends, it’s laundry day for Mvuse – a time when she prefers neither visitors nor noise. She devotes herself entirely to the washing and enjoys the quiet.

She would love to grow more crops, but her goats are curious and often break through the fence, which isn’t high enough. Her husband is already retired and uses his pension to buy food for the family. Mvuse herself has saved diligently and built her own house. At the sewing workshop, she particularly enjoys the delicate task of turning small textile brooches – a job that requires great patience.

Kulumile

Quality Controller

Kulumile Sithole is the sister of Mvuse’s husband and a mother of twins, though sadly, one of her children passed away. She also cares for her sister’s child. Her husband lives and works in Pretoria at an NGO, so he is rarely at home. She herself does not travel there either.

Despite the challenges, Kulumile built her own house, with her husband contributing a small amount. The land belongs to her only son, of whom she is especially proud. He is the only young person from her community who earned a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources at the University of Durban. He studied there for four years and worked hard to build his future.

During our last visit, we had the chance to see her home and admire her impressive garden. Through hard work, she expanded and fenced it to protect her plants from chickens and geese. A scarecrow watches over the beds, where many small seedlings and onions are growing.

Kulumile is a sensitive and conscientious person. She works in quality control at Wezandla Crafts and uses her income to support many family members. Among them is her elderly mother-in-law, who lives in a traditional round hut above her home.

Siggi & Wezandla Crafts

How it all began

In 1996, Siggi Dedekind founded Wezandla Crafts to empower women in the deep rural areas of Zululand, South Africa and to fight the high unemployment in the region. The name “Wezandla” means “made by hand” and symbolizes the artisanal craftsmanship of Zulu women.

Today, the project employs 15 women full-time, while many others work from home – mainly in bead embroidery, sewing, and basket weaving. In a region with over 80 % unemployment, it has become a vital source of income for numerous families.

Originally, the women produced traditional Zulu jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, and belts. When the market for these items proved limited, Wezandla Crafts developed a new technique: sewing beads directly onto fabric. This led to the creation of the now-popular, intricately decorated bags and textiles. As the product range expanded, the women also learned new skills such as cutting, sewing, and ironing, enhancing both their craftsmanship and career opportunities.

Wezandla Crafts remains true to its philosophy, relying on local materials and using traditional hand-screened fabrics. The project combines tradition with innovation, helping to promote the economic independence of Zulu women while preserving a valuable cultural heritage.