While some may be counting on economic recovery measures and financial relief from government, The Grahamstown Project is not floating in that tattered little life-boat. Our flag is flying on the mast of entrepreneurship, the raw talent of people in Grahamstown, and a network of people and organisations who share a values-driven and hard work approach to overcoming the challenges that exist in Grahamstown and the Eastern Cape. At a practical level our woodworking / carpentry skills training pilot continues. “Building skills for life”, is the motto of our English partners, Khanya. In its wake is TGP’s Sewing Skills Studio (aka Project Akhona), led by the hugely talented Akhona Mguwe. A team of practicing seamstresses / tailors and trainees is being built around Akhona who is the product of Nombulelo High School and Dakawa Arts & Crafts Centre where he learned his sewing skills. He is an outstanding example of the talent that exists in Grahamstown.
TGP is working with an ensemble of partners to harness the skills of people like Akhona. Sewing skills will be learned by others and the range of products will become ever more varied. Bottom line, Akhona can sew and make just about anything. His speciality is Sheshwe but the range will find its focus in response to demand from clients. The target market is people with taste, money, and an interest in growing the economy of the Eastern Cape through hard work, team-work, and more work. Products made in TGP’s Sewing Skills Studio will shortly be available to purchase at our Online Shop alongside the delicious array of healthy venison and free-range Eastern Cape meat supplied by The Farm Butchery (Adelaide/Bedford,EC) and marketed as Buck-in-a-Box.
It is deeply saddening that our government appears hopelessly unequal to the critical task at hand and now appears to be competing with Zimbabwe for the All Africa lack of moral-compass booby prize. It leaves the average citizen (without a formal job) who wishes to migrate above a R350 monthly Covid grant with very limited options. Let this be clear. There are no jobs. Grahamstown has thus far been touched lightly by Covid from a health perspective but it has been completely capsized by Covid from an economic perspective. Entrepreneurship – and particularly the social variety – is the only way forward for Grahamstown, the Eastern Cape and South Africa.
Happy National Woman’s Day to you all.
Graeme
GRAEME HOLMES
Before moving back to Grahamstown in Oct 2017, Graeme was a bank executive based in the big smoke and craziness of Joburg. He has 20 years’ experience in the Payments Industry. He is a Chartered Accountant, has a Masters in Management by Research (MMR) from Wits Business School, and attended an Advanced Management Programme (AMP) offered by INSEAD (The Business School for the World!) in France.
Graeme is the founder of The Grahamstown Project. It’s simple. He says, “Grahamstown is a microcosm of South Africa. If we can’t get this place to function properly then the whole country is stuffed. Many of the troubles we experience as a country today have their roots here in Grahamstown. it is here where black and white people first engaged in conflict on the African continent. It is here where 9 wars of dispossession over 100 years took place and virtually destroyed the amaXhosa nation. But we are where we are. I don’t have a British passport and the boat-trip back to where my ancestors came from is exorbitantly expensive. Furthermore, this is my home. I am a son of Africa. We must work together to redress the injustices of the past and move as one into a brighter future.”
Graeme is an avid historian, writer, vlogger and public speaker. Like and follow the Facebook page. Join him on a tour. Contact him. He would love that.