Mulauzi promotes healthy environmental health practises

He is as busy as a bee – if he is not caught up in meetings trying to secure sponsorships, Mxolisi Mulauzi from Diepsloot is making sure that where he stays is extra clean and well taken of.

The 38-year-old philanthropist got involved in serving the community after he went to an environmental health camp almost two decades ago. But by then, Mulauzi had already discovered that he loves taking care of the environment and looks at dirt differently. He said he has always been involved in community clean-up campaigns.

He says they established a non-profit organization called, Bonhle Ke Tlhago in 2007 – a year after the camp. His ideal goal with the organisation was to preserve nature and educate people about how to take care of it.

Mulauzi lived not far from a stream that the community used for a variety of tasks such as doing laundry, however, as time went on, the stream began to be filthy and that is how he started getting ideas about combating waste.

“It was so clean and that was in the early 1990s before Diespsloot became a township. It began to be dirty afterwards as people started to dump dirt which polluted the river. I realized that we could have turned that place into something that would have been significant to Diepsloot if we took care of it as a stream. But, because we started to be lazy to take care of our environment which is also harmful to nature; it became what it is today.”

He recalled, “We would collect metal objects as we returned from school and took them to scrapyards for cash. Back then, recycling did not include plastic. So, the whole idea developed from that change. As recycling changed to include plastics, we thought of the stream because there is so much plastic being dumped there.”

He said his work has escalated to other things, “We at Bonhle Ke Tlhago run a recycling company where we buy recycling wastes such as cans, boxes, plastics, and paper and we also run another company called ‘Ocean Protectors’ where we look at waste pickers or reclaimers., those gentlemen you usually see pulling trollies filled with recyclable items on the streets. We call them ‘Ocean Protectors’ because they pick up waste from where it starts because waste from the township starts there and then ends up at the rivers. They are actually heroes.”

Mulauzi has also reaped the benefits of his hard work, he said received Bontle Ke Tlhago received numerous awards from different recycling companies. “We also received certificates after we created sculptures from recycling materials that we have collected,” he said.

That is why he encourages people to go green and look at dirt differently. “We never heard of people getting sick after using water from the stream which also connects to the Juskei River, until recently. We have to protect the environment and then we will enjoy the benefits of nature. We also had got involved in planting trees at schools which is something we encourage people to do because it will benefit generations to come.”

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