In photos: Young and old bead together for Khayelitsha’s elders

Ntombizanele Jozana shares stories with younger participants as they bead colourful bracelets.

Music, laughter and lively conversation filled the room at Ikamva Labantu’s Living Legacy Centre in Woodstock, Cape Town, where young and old came together on Friday to bead bracelets for Mandela Day.

The event was hosted by Ikamva Labantu and Relate Beads with the theme, “It is in your hands to combat poverty and inequity”. Members of the public could book a beading circle to participate, with proceeds going towards supporting and feeding more than 2,700 older people in Khayelitsha.

Ikamva Labantu director Ishrine Davids told GroundUp that Mandela Day is an opportunity to recognise older people who continue to support families despite poverty, illness and the lasting effects of apartheid.

“We choose older persons because they are the people who lived through apartheid, who saw Mandela being released, who fought for justice and had every single right taken away from them, and today are still living with the consequences of apartheid,” she said.

Davids said many older people raise children because parents are unable to care for them. Grandparents often care for second and even third generations of children while surviving on meagre pensions.

81-year-old Mary Hoaeane from Khayelitsha is one of the many “gogos” who joined the event. She has been part of Ikamva Labantu for six years.

Care for older persons is one of Ikamva Labantu’s main focuses. The organisation provides meals, social activities, community clubs, home-based care, healthcare, mental health support, legal assistance, and income-generating opportunities.

It has a long-standing partnership with Relate Bracelets, through which older people make handcrafted beadwork that provides them with additional income.

“It’s around a beading table that you start hearing stories. For me, that is more important than the actual beading,” said Davids.

“Today’s event lifts my spirit so much, and it inspires me because we are still following in Nelson Mandela’s footsteps and his work,” said 74-year-old Ntombizanele Jozana from Khayelitsha. She has been a member of Ikamva Labantu for 25 years.

“To me, Mandela Day reminds me that elderly people should not hold on to the knowledge they have. We must go to crèches and schools and speak to young people,” she said.

Participants made colourful bracelets.

Jozana said that at first saw beading as a way to earn an income, but over the years it has become more than that and a way to contribute to greater causes beyond her own community. She recalled making bracelets to raise funds for penguin conservation after oil spills around Robben Island, and to support elephant conservation initiatives in Kruger National Park.

Another Nyanga participant noted how much South Africa had changed since apartheid, saying older people had never been exposed to events such as these during those years. She said today Black and white South Africans are able to gather together because of the freedom Nelson Mandela fought for.

More than 100 people participated in the event.

A participant takes a picture of the bracelet they made.

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