Vuyo Myoli believes that people must co-exist with bees in harmony as people’s lives depend on bees. He said besides the sweet honey that people eat, bees are also there for pollination of plants that will allow the plants to bear fruits.
“Somebody burnt my bees, two hives full of bees were burnt to the ground in July this year. I think it is because people do not understand the importance of bees,” he said.
Myoli said he was a small-scale farmer but he couldn’t get viable land so he ended up in the beekeeping business. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he joined a program called the Flame Programme where he trained and became a certified beekeeper. He then started his own beekeeping business called BeezMove.
Myoli now works with horticulturist Sheila Besten(48) as they spread awareness around kasi about the importance of bees.
“We are moving forward to empower young girls and youth, in general, to show them that there is vast opportunity in agriculture. Things like beekeeping are something that is done by white commercial farmers mostly and it is something that you don’t see in townships and we intend to show people that they can also do it,” she said.
She also added the importance of bees in agriculture food production.
“For us to have vegetables and fruits we must have bees around us. Bees are not the only creatures that do pollination but they do a lot of work, besides pollination, they end up giving us honey,” she added.
Myoli said people must know that bees are not angry creatures that are after stinging them.
“We cannot be enemies to bees, just embrace them because we need them for our own survival as human beings. Bees don’t just sting you when you do nothing. People nowadays tend to be enemies of bees and we are sometimes scared of them. When a person sees a bee they run away but the moment you run you scare them then they sting at your body. The trick is always to be calm,” said Myoli.