YULGROW FROM `STOUT SKOOL’ TO FANCY GARDENS

Nonhlanhla Kambule-Makgati

Zakhele Yulbrain Radebe.

ZAKHELE `Yulbrain’ Radebe (43), the Orlando East born-and-bred landscaper of note named after bald-headed big screen film star of movies including Solomon and Sheba, Flight from Asia and Tarras Bulba, among others, the late Yul Brynner, has been responsible for turning ordinary home gardens into eye-catching backdrops in and around Soweto for a period of 23 years.

A typical hardcore Kasi boy and gardener, `Yulbrain’ acquired his green-fingered-skills while at a facility formerly known in township lingo as `stout skool’, or `school for the wayward’, rehabilitation centres that have since become a thing of the past, following their scrapping by the apartheid regime.

“I was the youngest and naughtiest of three children, which resulted in being separated from my family and sent off to Van Ryn Rehabilitation School, now known as a Correctional Service in Benoni. When I was 11 years, I was dispatched to Tsotsoloso Legae Larona, on the outskirts of Pretoria, for the next 10 years. This is where my passion for landscaping was developed and refined,” recalls `Yulbrain’.

Radebe measures before planting.

Walking down the memory-lane, his big eyes grow even bigger as he sits upright, taking a deep puff from the cigarette in one, while extending the other, and addresses me in township tsotsi-taal: “Suster, ingadi akusi yi-career or into engiyifundela. E`stout skool’ mawuzithola use ngadini kusuke kuyi punishment for attempting to escape, fighting, bullying or stealing, and I was always on the wrong side of the by-laws. That landed me at the garden most of the time, and I had since developed the love of meditating while working with the soil”.

Zakhele Radebe attributes his love for gardening, and more, to his mother Nomasonto Elsie Radebe - may her soul rest in peace. “I thank my late mother for being patient with me and for the memorable maternal love she gave me unconditionally. I was absent from classes, practicing `isipharaphara egadweni’, as a train staff- rider from Ikwezi to Jozi, from Pretoria to Vereeniging and even Potgietersrus, now known as Mokopane. I even got arrested for shoplifting a pair of North Star canvas shoes (takkies) at High Gate Mall.

“My mother - the poor woman - was called, and had to pay for those takkies, and I was released on warning by the store manager. I was only 11 years, and wild,” chuckles Radebe.

Spinash, Green Pepper and Lettuce garden.

`Yulbrain’ is quick to get the cat out of the bag, regarding how he landed at `stout skool, there-after. “Following my arrest, I had learned my lesson and was remorseful, as I approached my late mother, informing her that I wanted to change schools. I was then a pupil at the local Zifuneleni Primary School and doing Standard Four.

“I was bunking classes, and when I eventually left school, little did I know that my mother had an advance plan in mind of taking me to `stout skool’. Today I am happy that she did. There, my life was shaped to a landscaper I am.”

“Gardening is my lifestyle that gives me peace-of- as I meditate and keeps me closer to God, so much that just a single day without gardening to me is like the day without sunshine. I have given a face-lift to scores of homes from Orlando East to Mofolo Village. I have planted and cultivated vegetable gardens in Qoboshiyane Primary School in Diepkloof Zone One, plots at Walkerville, Mondeor, Kibler Park, Observatory, Boksburg and many other residential areas.”

`Yulbrain’ has, since then turned his passion into business, first by registering his own company called `Yulgrow Orlando East’, which deals with cleaning and gardening services, and other landscape-related activities, and was legally approved and recognised at the beginning of June 2019.

Habanero Chili freshly grown.

“I believe people must eat fresh vegetables from their backyard gardens. It does not matter how small the space for gardening is, for there are always ways of planting, such as using flower-pots or ordinary buckets, as well as even old car tyres.”

Radebe boasts of clients whose gardens he services from time to time. “Plants, like people, also need water, food and warmth in winter. As a result, it is my pleasure to be at your service as far as your gardening needs are concerned.”

In addition, Zakhele Radebe is a tailor, a skill he learnt from his late mother Elsie, who in 1993 founded Pat Polza Clothing Manufacturer, which she named for her three children Patricia, Paul and Zakhele, with offices at Midway Shopping Complex, in Soweto.

Spinach garden.

To date Radebe still subscribes to the philosophy enshrined in the background document penned by the late Nomasonto Elsie Radebe, which reads as follows:

“You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality. Despite all the insurmountable, Pat Polza will appreciate to be given a chance in any significant assistance be it small or big to make the vision became a practical reality, particular to join the mainstream economy of our country.”

For your garden-related services, cleaning and painting please contact Zakhele `Yulbrain’ Radebe on 063 873 3278, at all hours.