Willard is wired!

Hooboy, it was the strangest feeling coming back into the office after being out on the road for three weeks. The only experience that I can liken it to is if you’ve ever slept out in the open under the stars and then you have to go and sleep indoors. Everything seems small, with the walls too close and you feel restless for open space and cold air keen on your face. Sigh, well as least I do …

But I guess adaptability is one of our strongest features of being human and before you know it, you’re back into life routine. People would say to me, so did you have fun? And I’d really think about my answer and couldn’t honestly say yes. Because fun seemed too frivolous a word – our journey had been exhausting and exhilarating; it had been a privilege, we’d laughed a lot together, but there was also a responsibility to report back meaningfully on the stories we were coming across and we’d worked really hard, often past midnight, every night. So the best I could say was that it had been intense.

Mark, Tim and I had worked well as a team, so when we got together again for our last three projects we spontaneously broke out into a slow-motion movie-style run towards each other, grinning like Cheshire cats. Of course the only way to start our day was to go and have a slap-up breakfast, bacon, eggs and boerewors nogal. Lekker!

And here we are, in picture-perfect Cape Town and our project today is called Feeling African. It replaces the earlier project that we couldn’t see near Kruger (Hlanganani Arts & Crafts who we were really sad to miss).

Willard Musarurwa, business-owner of Feeling African, Woodstock, Cape Town.

Basically this is another Old Mutual Legends project, similar to the Waste2Wow people that we visited up in Jo’burg. (Read Of Springs and things). OK, brief explanation: the Legends programme specialises in selecting really good small businesses and entrepreneurs and helps gives them a ‘leg-up’ so speak onto the next level of business, with intensive business advice and support on a range of subjects such as costing and pricing, marketing, employment and sourcing access to markets.

Old Mutual Legends Director Cathy Wijnberg is clear when she says “We can’t afford to take on lame ducks; we haven’t got the time to waste.” So the selection process is quite stringent to ensure that only those who’ve already survived the first critical period of growth are taken onto the programme.  The Old Mutual Foundation has funded the Legends programme over R3 million since 2007, because growing successful businesses is a key factor in stimulating our economy and job creation. The programme has grown so successfully - it has over 80 business beneficiaries like Willard around the country, and it training up another 60 this year - that it was a finalist in the 2010 Mail & Guardian Investing in the Future Awards. Quite an achievement for such a young project!

Old Mutual Legends Director Cathy Wijnberg and Willard Musarurwa discuss one of his products.

Willard Musarurwa (33) one of the Old Mutual Legends beneficiaries. He’s a big man with gentle sunny energy and a wide easy smile.  His business Feeling African makes funky colourful wire craftworks and furniture which are sold locally and exported. His most successful collaboration has been with New York designer Stephen Burks. Willard is married to Anna and they have two sons, Kelly (8) and Tyrone (3 weeks only).  Hmmm, I wonder how much sleep Willard’s been getting lately.

Feeling African wire products are powder-coated to produce a range of vibrant, colourful furniture.

Willard’s story is an example of persistence. Zimbabwean by birth, he came to Cape Town in 2000 looking for greener pastures. “In Zim, the cracks were already starting to show,” he remarks settling down on one of his hand-crafted stools. "I had a dream that one day I would own my own business,” he says. “It wasn’t easy.  When I came to Cape Town, I looked for a job but couldn’t find one. I used to make wire key rings, candle holders, fruit bowls, even tortoises - people really loved those.  I would sell them on Long Street at night, in the clubs.” I’m amazed, why in the clubs? He grins, “At night, when people are drunk it’s the best time to sell.”

A man and his business. "I'm happy and proud to be a business owner. I've overcome many challenges."

But this wasn’t a sustainable living. Things shifted in 2003 when he approached the Cape Craft & Design Institute who helped transform him from a street vendor into a small business. “When I got my first order from a shop in the Waterfront,” he remembers, “they paid me with a cheque for R7000, I was so excited!”

Alexio, originally from Mthatha is now a fully employed wire-worker for Feeling African.

Willard was accepted onto the Old Mutual Legends programme in 2008 and his business has gone from strength to strength. Now he has access to a professional support network, regularly exhibits in trade shows, employs six full-time wire-workers and pulls in extra workers when there’re really big orders, “and we’ve been able to buy a bakkie,” he adds proudly. His products are sold in leading SA interior shops and have featured in local and international magazines. “I want to be a role model for young people in the townships,” he says, ”I want them to know that you don’t always have to go out and look for jobs, you can start your own business!”


Sjoe, it feels good to know that we've helped someone like this. Willard's a good guy and he's worked really hard to make a success of his business.

Martin, originally from Messina, Limpopo province, is now a fully employed wire-worker for Feeling African.

It’s time to bundle up our gear and head off to the airport again (this time without the overweight luggage saga). We’re on a late afternoon flight to Kimberley for our next education project, M² Coffee Shop. Hooray, I’m excited because I’ve never seen Kimberley’s famous Big Hole before and it’s one of those fun things to tick off the list and say that you’ve done. The guys are keen because I’ve booked us into the historical old mining town and we’re staying in the old-timer rooms from the 1870s.

Later that in evening in Kimberley, as the young woman is showing us to our delightful rooms with wooden floors, high-backed enamel bath and a zinc roof that gives the odd creak every now and then; we laughingly make a casual enquiry, “So are there any resident ghosts?” Now this is definitely the wrong thing to ask late at night as I’m about to be left alone in my huge room in which I’m going to rattle around by myself… let alone anything else rattling around me. Tim leans over and says to me, “Do you notice she didn’t say no, she just smiled at us.” Oh boy, too late, now the seed has been planted and we’ve all got the heebie-jeebies. Oooer, this was going to be a long night!