THIS FEATURE IS FROM VELD & FLORA SEPTEMBER ISSUE 108(2), PAGES 44-47

#GROW

Growing trust Sthembile Zondi

In Pietermaritzburg, a young curator’s energy is helping transform one of SA’s oldest national botanical gardens

Dec 9, 2022 | WRITTEN BY PATRICIA McCRACKEN. PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED.

Above: “Walking around the garden every morning really inspires my productivity,” says curator Sthembile Zondi.

HERITAGE AND INNOVATION could be an explosive mix but Sthembile Zondi (34) has deftly woven them together along the road she has carved through life. In 2018, this brought her back to her home town of Pietermaritzburg as the newly appointed curator of the KZN National Botanical Garden.

“Every morning I walk around the garden to gather energy and inspiration,” she says.

Originally founded in 1874, it is one of the longest-established national botanical gardens in the SANBI network. Sthembile had not grown up thinking of herself as a garden leader – at first, she had just seen gardening as a natural part of life and a tradition that it did not occur to her to escape.

“I grew up in a rural area where gardening was a routine chore for a girl child, whether you liked it or not,” she recalls.

“We mainly produced crops – food for the table. It made me very aware of being part of the cycle of plant life. I found that I had a passion for sowing a seed and nurturing it to peak growth for harvesting.”

Above: “I absolutely love my job,” says KZN NBG curator Sthembile Zondi – here she checks in on protea propagation with Peter Padayachee, former nursery horticulatural conservation worker.

GREEN STREAM

Her maternal grandfather had chosen her name, Sthembile, meaning trust or belief because, he told her, “We believe you will grow up to be a very courageous woman who chases her goals without fear and that you will succeed and shine bright for this family.”

That seemed a lot to live up to at a young age, especially when Sthembile moved from her rural primary school to a Catholic boarding school 100 kilometres away in Verulam.

“Everything suddenly changed,” Sthembile recalls. “I found things hard to understand and called my folks begging them to let me quit school.” But that would fly in the face of her family’s values. Sthembile’s grandfather strongly believed in education and proper goal-setting and both her parents were teachers. It was the memorable way her parents talked her through her fears and homesickness that turned Sthembile towards becoming the young woman her grandfather had hoped for.

GOAL SETTING

“My parents instilled real confidence in me that, despite your background, nothing is impossible,” she recalls. “From that day, I never looked back.

“It is why I always go back to them for strength and wisdom whenever life seems hard. I do not believe that I would be where I am today without the constant support and unconditional love that I have from them and my younger brother.”

They supported her next journey to study horticulture as a career, when Sthembile enrolled for a national diploma in horticulture at Durban University of Technology. “This is where my passion really ignited and led me to where I am today,” she says. “It was exciting to get an opportunity to learn about plants and their importance and to follow up with visits to nurseries and botanical gardens, and internships to learn more about the practical side. I was certain that I had chosen the right field.”

Above: These germinated and bagged proteas are ready to be planted out as part of an educational display in the garden.

PLANT PATH

Sthembile followed up with a B.Tech in horticulture through UNISA, studying while she was gathering valuable, varied work experience.

First there was Pietermaritzburg’s Jesmond Dene nursery, then working as an agricultural facilitator for the LIMA Rural Development Foundation in Mount Frere, Eastern Cape. She joined SANBI’s Free State National Botanical Garden as a horticulturist in 2010. Two years later, she was transferred back to home ground – the KwaZulu-Natal National Botanical Garden in Pietermaritzburg, where she has now been for a decade.

In 2015, SANBI sent her to London for the Chelsea Flower Show, an eye-opening experience. “I really enjoyed observing the various garden displays through their construction phases to completion,” Sthembile says.

“The huge range of designs and of plants displayed was breathtaking and almost unreal. It seemed to be a huge celebration of just how beautiful well displayed gardens can be.”

Yellow clivia (top; Clivia miniata) and red-hot poker (bottom; Kniphofia species) are among the plants that flourish in this Pietermaritzburg garden.

PART OF THE CHANGE

Sthembile was promoted from horticulturist to curator in 2018 and continued expanding her studies with a MANCOSA postgraduate diploma in business management.

“It is so special to be helping people realise the importance of conserving our natural world.

“Knowing that I am part of the change the world needs for the future keeps me going and pushes me to give my all.”

Above: “Working in such a space of peace and tranquillity is a constant delight,” says Sthembile Zondi.