In 1981, about 3000 people were resettled , in the remote,mountainous area of KwaZulu Natal (KZN) , with their meagre belongings.   Most of the people had grown-up in the nearest town about 150kl away.  There was nothing there, bar a  stream ,  at the bottom of the hill.  It was from this stream that the  people obtained their water for drinking and washing.   Taps were installed, in the streets, many years later. There is still no electricity.

A trading-store was established by a local businessman & today, that is still the only store in the area.  A school was completed about 7 years ago.  There is still no police station or clinic.

For the poor, the old and the ill, it is a community of woman and children, since most of the men have gone to the cities to find work.   This project is their “bread and butter”.

Often employed as night-watchmen, the Zulu men found abandoned telephone wire in the streets& used it to decorate the tops of their traditional war-sticks, or “knob-kerries”.    Weaving is a traditional craft of the Zulu people.  Orginally Grasses were used .   Telephone wire began to replace the grasses. 

In 1992 Deirdre Moser met three of the woman, from the village, who had been sent to the Johannesburg street market, to sell their bowls, woven from telephone wire.   The woman spoke only Zulu.

Scrap wire was obtained from the telephone company, who at that time were selling all their scrap to Italy.   The following week in a small car full of wire & a zulu woman weaver, she drove to the village some 380 kl, from Johannesburg.
She has been working with them ever since.

The Call-box in the trading store was the main means of communication.   Trips in a taxi to bring baskets to Jhb and restock on wire,were the means of transport.
Cell phones , Taxi and Road transport are now used.

Previously, Deirdre Moser has worked  with  hand dyed/woven Mohair Fabric from Swaziland.     Prior to working with the people from Kwa zulu, she  was in partnership in importing hand dyed/woven Silks from Thailand.