A Roving Reporters’ investigative assignment involving DUT Journalism students has given rise to a world-first mentoring project which scooped the top honour at the prestigious Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards held in Johannesburg last week.
The 11th annual Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards recognises businesses, NGOs, NPOs and individuals in a wide range of environmental categories, including community conservation, energy efficiency, green technology innovations, biodiversity stewardship, youth leadership and job creation.
The top award is the Sudley Adams Award introduced in 2012 in honour of the former Mail & Guardian Brand Manager and Convener of the Greening the Future Awards who lost a long battle with kidney disease in May 2012. Previous winners of this prestigious award were Generation Earth (2013), Sanlam and WWF (2012).
This year, the Makotikoti Art Project (MAP), convened by Roving Reporters Director; Fred Kockott, in association internationally acclaimed sculptor Andries Botha, scooped the top honour.
Through MAP, a convicted turtle poacher; Makotikoti Zikhali, is now earning a living making sculptures of turtles with 25 percent of the profits from sales donated to turtle conservation and a further 25 percent toward environmental journalism training and education. The project’s impact however goes far deeper.
“When combined with a mission to protect the earth’s natural resources, create jobs and empower youth leaders, the outcome is bound to capture the world’s imagination. MAP has begun to do just that,” says Botha, who has mentored Zikhali assisted by Kockott and two DUT Fine Art graduates; Siya Madlala and Sbu Mazibuko.
“And art is not just about creating. It’s also about educating and reaffirming human values,” says Kockott who had initially convened a team of DUT Journalism students to investigate a turtle poaching incident in the iSimangaliso World Heritage site that had ended with Zikhali sentenced to five years in prison in March 2011.
The students’ work on this assignment, sponsored by the Taco Kuiper Trust fund for investigative journalism, revealed that Zikhali had killed an endangered loggerhead turtle to sell its meat for food and its fat for muthi.
DUT journalism students who took part in the original Turtle Butcher investigation in 2011 and 2012 were Sabelo Nsele, Joel Burton, Sandile Gumede, Nosipho Mngoma and Nomfundo Xolo.
“Meeting Makotikoti in prison was a turning point in the assignment,” recalls Kockott. “Our thoughts were ‘what will happen to the man after prison? What will stop him going back to poaching for survival?’” He (Kockott) was convinced that ‘The Turtle Butcher’ case, as it became known, could be used not only to promote environmental education but also to offer the convicted turtle poacher the means to earn an honest living by writing his life story and developing his artistic skills.
Botha agreed, and so began a multi-faceted mentoring project.
Following a years’ mentoring at Botha’s studio, the first limited edition of Makotikoti turtles entered the market earlier this year. Total sales have now reached R64,000, raising more than R15,000 for turtle conservation and education.
“This is a sure sign of the financial viability of MAP,” says Kockott. “Makotikoti also continues to write every day, creating a lot of work for students involved in the translations and editing.”
To promote the Makotikoti Art Project, Nompilo Kunene; a third-year DUT Journalism graduate has been appointed as the trainee press officer working directly under the supervision of Kockott and Botha.
“This is a really exciting project. We hope to continue developing (it) as a DUT student driven initiative in partnership with others,” says Kunene who attended the M&G Awards ceremony last week.
“A big thanks are due to Nedbank who have helped make this all happen,” added Kunene.
• Roving Reporters was founded by award-winning journalist Fred Kockott in 2010. The agency provides opportunities to deserving students to take part in-depth assignments and investigations under expert supervision and guidance. Roving Reporters’ training projects are supported by the Taco Kuiper Trust in association with Wits Journalism, the Durban University of Technology and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.
– Waheeda Peters
Pictured: Makotikoti Zikhali, Nomfundo Xolo, Andries Botha and Fred Kockott are all smiles after scooping top honour at the Mail & Guardian’s Greening the Future Awards ceremony last week.
