Success in a bottle

INSTEAD of resorting to crime, or begging, two brothers and a friend are making ‘sea bottles’ and selling them at Hibberdene beach. “I don’t want to commit crime. I am still learning. I want a good future as my mother didn’t get a chance to study,” said Thamsanqa Ngobese (21). Thamsanqa is helped by his brother, Percy Spesihle (13), and their friend Sbonelo Zondi (17). The team hails from Mfazazane in Mtwalume.

It’s a sweltering day, and Hibberdene’s beach is bustling with holidaymakers. It’s a team effort – Percy sells the bottles near the rest of the local traders, while Thamsanqa and Sbonelo go down to the river to wash and fill the glass bottles with seashells and river water.

Thamsanqa, who dreams of becoming a paramedic one day, said he has been crafting ‘sea bottles’ for the last five years during the summertime to make extra money while at school. Although he got the idea from a shop, Thamsanqa quickly pointed out that the ‘sea bottles’ are made his own way. “They are unique,” he said, smiling.

There are a few steps to follow when creating a sea bottle. The industrious trio firstly collect seashells – sea grass as Thamsanqa calls it – from the beach, and old glass bottles. A drop of blue tint is added to the water to ‘take on the colour of the sea’.

If the positive comments from beachgoers walking past are anything to go by, the team has a winning product…which is proudly South Coast. With the money they earn, Thamsanqa goes to the chemist to buy medicine for his mother who suffers from an ulcer. “I can’t sleep at night when my mother doesn’t have her pills as she doesn’t sleep very well.”

He said he got his brother and Sbonelo involved in the concept, as he wanted to show them how to survive, that it’s good to work and to make a honest living. “In our community, the local children do bad things and I want to be different from them,” he pointed out. Thamsanqa said he sleeps better at night, with no stress, knowing he has done a honest day’s work.