Artist Profile – Zandile Ngubane

Zandile Ngubane was born in Hlutankungu, south of Durban, she spent her childhood in uMlazi before moving to Siyanda in 1999. It was there that she discovered a community of wire weavers whose work sparked her interest. A neighbour taught her the basics of hard-wire weaving, introducing her to a craft that would become an important part of her life.

Before learning to weave, Zandile earned an income by braiding people’s hair, a skill she continues to use today to supplement her earnings. Working with her hands has always been central to her life. While she found the basics of hard-wire weaving easy to learn, mastering decorative patterns and designs was a much greater challenge. Through patience, practice, and determination, she developed her skills and continued refining her work overtime.

She began making and selling her hard-wire bowls and trays when she was 26 years old, using the income to support herself and raise her children. In her earlier years as a craftswoman, she sold her work through well-known Durban craft spaces including the BAT Centre and the African Art Centre, gaining early recognition for her pieces.

She especially enjoys experimenting with different shapes and patterns, finding satisfaction in watching each piece take form. She is particularly fond of her trays, noting that they are highly functional and can be used for serving food and refreshments.

Today, Zandile creates both hard-wire bowls and trays. She says it takes around three days to complete a tray when she is fully focused, while the round bowls are more complex and can take up to seven days to finish. These timeframes reflect the level of detail, concentration, and care required in each piece.

An experience that shaped Zandile’s life is the passing of her mother, Zandile and her siblings found themselves without a permanent home of their own and struggled with instability while living with relatives. Eventually, the siblings had to separate and find different places to stay, with her sister moving in with their mother’s friend. These experiences left a lasting impact on her and shaped one of her deepest life goals.

When she later moved to Siyanda, she and her daughter began a new chapter together, and over time she worked toward creating stability for them. Eventually, she made the decision to build a modest one-room home in Ntuzuma, where she now lives with her daughter and two grandchildren.

This experience continues to motivate her today. More than anything, Zandile’s greatest aspiration is to build a secure home for her children and grandchildren, no matter how small, so that they will always have a place that belongs to them.

The income from her hard-wire trays has played a central role in this journey. Zandile describes her work with Woza Moya as especially meaningful, saying it has helped improve her life at a stage where she is focused on building for her children and grandchildren.

Through her craft, she was able to raise her daughter and support her through school all the way to matric. This achievement remains one of her greatest sources of pride, her daughter also hopes to study at a tertiary level, and Zandile is determined to support her in achieving this goal.

More than twenty years after she first learned to weave, Zandile remains deeply committed to working with her hands. She describes this as something she truly loves, and she also expresses a desire to expand her creative skills in the future by learning sewing. She describes her love for the craft as deeply personal, explaining that it allows her to sit at home and focus on her work without being distracted by things that do not benefit her. For her, weaving is not only a source of income, but also a way of maintaining discipline, stability, and purpose in her daily life.

Her journey—from braiding hair and raising her children in uMlazi, to learning from a neighbour in Siyanda, to becoming a skilled artisan supporting her family through her craft—is a testament to perseverance, creativity, and the power of community knowledge.