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Sun Mabengeza

Taking permaculture to communities

Sun Mabengeza in his permaculture garden © Thom Pierce 2023

Sun’s passion for permaculture comes from his love for the earth, growing food and sharing it with his neighbours. But mostly his passion is for teaching others that you can grow your own food with very little physical work, if you have the space and know what you are doing. He claims that he can teach you everything you need to know in one hour. 


It has always been in Sun’s blood to move around, to not get too attached to one place or specific items. He moves fluidly between Port Elizabeth, Polokwane and Johannesburg. This nomadic lifestyle complements his philosophy of shared spaces and the freedom to grow food wherever it can be produced. 


The journey into permaculture started in 2006 when Sun formed a guerrilla gardening crew called the Ambush Garden Collective. They would create wild gardens in dump sites and other forbidden spaces as an awareness campaign, highlighting the importance of greening spaces and living sustainably.  


As a  member of the Bez Valley Agriculture Cooperative, Sun now runs a Permaculture garden called NDAWO ENTLE EZELE Uthando NaturalGrowing Heritage Site and Living Plants Museum. Here he grows a number of different edible wild plants, which he sells to the public from a small shop on site. But his real passion is education. From the garden, he hosts events, festivals and school visits with the intention of demonstrating how easy it is to live in a more sustainable, environmentally conscious manner. 


The gardens are a zero-waste environmental learning space that also provides the possibility for homeless people and job seekers to learn, grow, eat and create their own small businesses.



CREATED FOR positive activism © 2025

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