A musician from Gugulethu in Cape Town has dreams of transforming the township into a honey hub. Vuyo Myoli regards himself as a farmer by day and an artist by night.
He started off with an organic food garden, during the COVID-19 lockdown. But he has now set his sights and taste buds on something somewhat sweeter.
One could say that Myoli has always had a bee in his bonnet. Even though, as a child, he may not have fully appreciated the immense value the little insects have on the environment.
He now dreams of setting up beehives in all thirteen market gardens in Gugulethu.
“I grew up liking bees because there was always marigold around. Maybe taking bees, taking those tins of juice, we were thinking that we were making honey but we were killings bees. Now it’s time for me to pay back and we can’t live without bees. Four years without bees, we are all going to die in the world.”
Bees are among the hardest-working creatures on Earth. As pollinators, they play a crucial role in biodiversity, food security, and human livelihoods.
Myoli says, as a certified beekeeper since last year, he is still learning. It’s not only his desire to set himself up as a beekeeping business, he also hopes to impart the knowledge and importance of bee conservation to his community.
” I need 25 hives to start getting honey from Gugulethu because I realise in the people that I’m meeting they are asking me: are you the beekeeper from Gugulethu? Do you have honey that is coming from Gugulethu? So I’m trying to come up with that solution now. Hence, I’m going to teach even others in my community how to take care of these hives that are in this market garden. The next campaign that I will be doing is one market garden, one hive. In that sense, I’m giving a free pollination season which is what is expensive so that garden must have the best produce. You see now we are tackling two things, the food and the honey side of the thing.”
Myoli is appealing for sponsorships to acquire the hives necessary to fulfill his dream of making Gugulethu the buzzword in the local honey business.
