CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BAOBAB

  • The baobab is revered by Venda communities. In the past, kings, elders and leaders held meetings under the tree. Tribal leaders believed the spirit of the tree helped them make decisions.
  • The San believed that any person who plucks the flowers from the tree, will be torn apart by the lions because there are spirits in the flowers.
  • Zambians believe that, long ago, the first baobab saw itself in the lake surface. And started complaining about being fat and wrinkled, so the Creator replanted it upside down.
  • In Zambia’s Kafue National Park, one of the largest baobabs is known as “Kondanamwali” or “the tree that eats maidens”. It is believed that the tree fell in love with four maidens and grew jealous when they found husbands. One night, during a thunderstorm, the tree opened its trunk and took the maidens inside. It is said that on stormy nights, you can still hear them crying.
  • Limpopo natives believe that women who live in kraals where there are many baobabs, have more children than those who live outside the baobab zones.
  • The Sunland ‘Big Baobab’ is in Modjadjiskloof in Limpopo Province, South Africa and is famous internationally for being the widest of its species in the world. The Sunland Big Baobab is carbon dated to be well over 1 700 years old and has even made the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

NENEKAZI SONGXABA
–a passion for environmental science

 

 

SANRAL’s new Environmental Coordinator is proud to be working for an organisation where she believes she can deliver

NENEKAZI Songxaba, the Environmental Coordinator for SANRAL Southern Region, was appointed earlier this year. She is responsible for the development and maintenance of the national road network in the Eastern Cape, including environmental monitoring, reporting, evaluation and liaison. “SANRAL’s approach to environmental management is integral to the agency’s record of corporate citizenship and compliance across the domains of environmental management on its projects across South Africa. I am very passionate about environmental science and the opportunities on existing and forthcoming road infrastructure development and maintenance projects in the province,” she says. Before joining SANRAL, Songxaba worked as the environmental manager for Eskom in East London and as an environmental scientist for Terreco Environmental Consulting in East London.

She graduated with a BSc in Botany and Zoology and then obtained a BSc Honours in Zoology, both from the University of Transkei.

“Songxaba brings a set of strong credentials in environmental management to SANRAL’s Southern Region,” says Mbulelo Peterson, SANRAL Southern Region’s Manager.

From page 1 After months of work clearing the route for the ring road, the engineers came to the final baobab in their path. This enormous tree had sunk its roots into underground rocks, and it took two tractor-lead-backhoes (TLBs), an excavator and a crane to get it to budge an inch. Once it was released from the ground’s rocky embrace, the two TLBs dragged the tree along the ground, while supporting its branches, and then swung it into its new resting place at the side of the highway, a little worse for the wear, but no less majestic.

The process was long and arduous – it took the team all day to move the tree – but in the end, it was a success. All the baobabs that had to be moved in the construction of the ring road survived their ordeals, and this one was no exception. It is fed and watered extensively – a luxury in water-scarce Limpopo – and soon settled down into its new home as if it had never put down roots anywhere else.