No: 1085470
Write to:
Zisize Trust
c/o David Cooper
The Garden House
Trellech
Monmouthshire
NP25 4PA
Where is Ingwavuma?
Ingwavuma is located in KwaZulu Natal Province, (the dark lilac one below) which is situated in the North East of the country.
MAP OF KWAZULU NATAL
Ingwavuma is a deep rural area in the far north of KwaZulu Natal Province. Its remote location, high in the Lebombo Mountains, render it unspoilt, beautiful, but extremely poor. It stretches the length of the border with Swaziland to its West and Mozambique to its North. It does not appear on most maps and I have had to type in the rough location of Ingwavuma Town and marked it with a red dot, but Zisize works across the width of the area of the typed name! As a comparison, for those familiar with Wales, Ingwavuma’s area equates to that of the former Mid, South and West Glamorgan. Zisize works in many communities over the whole area, up to 40 miles from its base near Ingwavuma Town, along rough dirt roads.
Ingwavuma is more than 155 miles from the nearest Industrial Centre in Richards Bay and 260 miles from Durban
Ingwavuma’s proximity to Swaziland and Mozambique results in a history of cross border travel in search of work, family separations and returns after parents’ deaths to live with extended family. Their muddled identities, with no South African birth certificate or identification documents, result in no Government assistance via grants and an extremely deep level of poverty in an area where almost everyone is poor.
Unemployment rates are extremely high. There is no industry, so the only jobs are found in schools, shops, hospital, police service, prison service and with NGOs. Zisize is the biggest employer in the NGO sector by far. It has trained more than 70 staff who were previously without work or qualifications beyond High School Matriculation,to be skilled at their jobs. They are encouraged and assisted to get professional qualifications and several have studied part time at UNISA and SANTS and gained degrees or diplomas.
People rely on government grants – Child Support grants, Foster Care Grants, Disability Grants and Old Age Pension, none of which provide a living income. Subsistence farming around the homesteads, when the weather is not too wet or too dry, is the only other source of sustenance.
There is poor infrastructure, very few people have piped water, most have to collect from tanks or boreholes, springs or rivers, hence the reliance of rain to water gardens for most people, and why they often fail.
Water collection duties start young!
In 1998 when Niki first went to Ingwavuma there was no tar road at all, now there is one from Bhambhanana at the bottom of the mountain to Ingwavuma ‘Town’, but this is still the only tar road.
All others are dirt roads, which make travel arduous and after heavy rains, almost impassable.
Most people live in self made houses from stick and stone or stone and cement. A few have RDP houses, which are watertight
Others are not
Several young people, assisted by Zisize when they were children in child headed or single parent, very poor families, have been helped through university and, now graduated, got professional posts and built homes for their families in Ingwavuma.
Electricity is available in very few homes even in 2025