Logo for Mandela Day, featuring the words 'NELSON MANDELA DAY' in bold text alongside a silhouette of Nelson Mandela with his arm raised in a fist, where the silhouette is filled with words related to his life and values.

It is in YOUR Hands

Event poster for a 'Day of Creativity and Gardening' at Green Curtains Educare in Ocean View on July 18, 2023, featuring details on how to donate time or materials for painting, gardening, and sewing.
Event poster for a Nelson Mandela Day project at the TMNP Marine Unit in Kommetjie, inviting volunteers to join a day of painting and gardening to create a space for Marine Rangers.
Mandela Day event flyer: Details for a community project on July 18, 2025, in Ocean View, including clean-ups, meal distribution, and partnering organizations.
Mandela Day 2026
Group photo at event

Mandela Day 2026 with the Bos Kinnes

This year, Guardians of the Deep teamed up with Mutheera’s Projects in support of the Bos Kinnes of Ocean View.
The goal?
To create a ‘Knowledge Garden’ where elders can share their indigenous knowledge of local plant species and their properties, whilst also having a calming, green space in which to decompress and regulate their emotions.

This collaboration had so many wonderful donations, that the BosKinnes shared the love and paid it forward to their neighbors by planting trees at various houses in their street to initiate a green wave of increased biodiversity. A Mandela Day of community, growth and coming together for the sole purpose of giving back 

Our deepest thanks go to the following organisations:
💚Harry Goemans Garden Centre who generously donated 30 incredible indigenous and medicinal plants, at the very last minute when donations were looking a bit slim
💚SANBI for their donation of the two Mandela Gold strelitzias in honour of Mandela Day, as well as a selection of other locally indigenous plant species
💚Shark Spotters for their generous donation of eleven trees that are now gracing many gardens along Pluto Road
💚Nature Connect for lending a helping hand as always
💚Cape Town Rocks for donating the adorable fairy houses and painted stones
💚The generosity of individuals who came and spent their time clearing space, potting plants, donating compost, pots, paint and more, serving food and being part of a most magical day.

If you would like to contribute to the Bos Kinnes Garden, please contact Mutheera Fortune. They still need big pots for the trees and planter boxes if possible. The mural painting also used up a lot of the paint that the Bos Kinnes use for their arts and crafts, so paintbrushes and paint are always welcome! 

Mandela Day 2025
Group of volunteers from South African National Parks posing with a vehicle and collected litter during a Mandela Day project.
Mandela Day 2025 with Marine Watch
 
This Mandela Day was one for the books! Guardians of the Deep NPC’s Marine Watch project took a massive step forward, which saw SANParks – Table Mountain National Park join Mutheera’s Project’s in Ocean View and assist them with some much needed waterproofing and painting of the Bos Kinnes Clubhouse, assembling tables for holiday clubs and for homework sessions with Mutheera’s Youth Club, cleaning up the beautiful Bokram and giving the brush a much needed cut. Their time was also spent prepping food for delivery around different sections of Ocean View.
 
Thank you to the following groups for their donations and participation:
SANParks – Table Mountain National Park BSP (Biodiversity Special Projects) – Working for Water and Working for Wetlands
TMNP Marine Unit
TMNP Central and South Section
SANParks Honorary Rangers (SHR) for their donation of food
Chapman’s Peak Hardware for their donation of paint, painting equipment and waterproofing
Guardians of the Deep NPC donated food, gas and electricity
 
It was wonderful to see the new relationships that began last Mandela Day (when Mutheera’s Projects joined our project at the SANParks TMNP Marine Unit offices), continue to grow with this reciprocal project. The Marine Watch Project aims to continue these kinds of positive interactions with communities fringing the TMNP and the people who have been charged with conserving our natural heritage.
 
If you would like to support this initiative, you can either donate towards the Project via the Guardians of the Deep NPC website (www.guardiansofthedeep.org.za), or by purchasing The Adventures of the Balaena Crew, which sees 10% of the sales price going towards the work being done by the TMNP Marine Unit. If you would like to support the work being done by Mutheera’s Projects, you can also do so via the Guardians of the Deep NPC website.
Mandela Day 2024
A group of people wearing life jackets riding on a rigid-hull inflatable boat (RIB) on the ocean, with Table Mountain visible in the distance

We adopted the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) Marine Unit as the recipients for our 2024 Mandela Day efforts.

The TMNP Marine Protected Area (MPA) is 1 000 km² of ocean and coastline. This MPA stretches from Mouille Point Lighthouse in Table Bay to Bailey’s Cottage near Muizenberg Beach in False Bay and includes a diverse array of marine habitats. Cape Point, the Great African Sea Forest, Boulders African penguin colony, a west coast rock lobster sanctuary and Duiker Island Cape fur seal colony fall within the boundaries of this incredibly biodiverse, protected refuge. There are six no-take zones within this controlled area and the TMNP Marine Unit are mandated to protect the entirety of this MPA along with the Robben Island MPA (an additional 680 km²) in Table Bay. These two MPAs are faced with illegal fishing and illegal overharvesting of west coast rock lobster and abalone making the Unit essential for conservation.

As part of the Mandela Day event, a group of local artists will be painting a mural of the TMNP MPA across the walls of the car park at their offices in Kommetjie. This mural will act as an educational tool for the Rangers to utilise when running their education programmes for local schools and community groups. On this site, we will also be transforming an ordinary room and backyard into a calm space for Marine Rangers to decompress between patrols and operations. This transformation will include painting the room and making it more welcoming through the addition of a carpet, a couch, curtains, cushions, books, and games. The backyard will have the current concrete slab extended, the fence fixed, a braai and prep table built and an ecobrick bench erected. We will also include planter boxes filled with indigenous species to brighten up and soften the view from the renovated breakroom.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done” ~ Nelson Mandela

Mandela Day 2023

Guardians of the Deep joined a number of dedicated people from the Cape Peninsula communities coming together to assist the staff and children of Green Curtains EduCare in Ocean View. Despite the rain, we managed to plant a food garden, paint murals on classroom doors, sew mattress covers and forge new relationships over some delicious food and warm beverages.

The support of these individuals, who gave selflessly of their time, enabled us to spend the day spoiling the deserving children and their dedicated teachers, whilst reflecting on Nelson Mandela’s legacy and continuing to strive for a compassionate connection between our local communities through social welfare and connection.

A huge thank you to:

  • The Orrie Family for all of the beautiful fabric donated towards making the 32 mattress covers
  • Ovenbaked in Fish Hoek for their generous discount on their delicious pizza, which enabled us to provide fuel for the hard-working volunteers and EduCare staff
  • Food Lovers Market Long Beach Mall for donating R 2000 to the cooking efforts of Mutheera’s Projects and for spoiling the Green Curtains EduCare team
  • Cape Dutch Gardens for donating plants and fertiliser to the food garden
  • Peninsula Business Solutions for donating the paint, paint equipment, pizzas, a laminator, a spade and a rake
  • Mica Hardware for the discount given on the paint and paint equipment
  • Lucy and Jane from Sitting Duck Studios for their gorgeous Serengeti door mural
  • Maryann for donating compost, bonemeal and spinach
  • Mervin and Maryann for transforming an empty, weed-tangled plot of land in to a beautiful garden
  • Mutheera Rademeyer and the Forever Young Senior’s Club for cooking lunch for the Green Curtains EduCare children and for donating chips and lollipops
2023 Gallery
A volunteer standing in a garden area surrounded by various plants, small trees, and gardening tools, prepared as part of a Mandela Day project
A volunteer wearing a Guardians of the Deep t-shirt and gardening gloves, emptying a bag of compost into the soil as part of a gardening project.
A volunteer kneeling in a garden bed, planting flowers and tending to a young tree as part of a Mandela Day project.
A newly planted garden bed featuring a young tree, small green plants, and yellow flowers in the soil, prepared as part of a Mandela Day project.
Two women wearing aprons painting and detailing a wooden door decorated with hand-painted illustrations of African wildlife, including an elephant and zebra.
A volunteer painting a detailed, whimsical mural on a wooden door, featuring a tall green beanstalk leading to a small house at the top.
A close-up of a hand-painted wooden door panel featuring a whimsical illustration of an anthill with ants and a tortoise, surrounded by green leafy vines.
Two women wearing craft aprons smiling and standing on either side of a hand-painted wooden door decorated with African wildlife illustrations.
A hand-painted wooden door panel decorated with illustrations of African wildlife, including elephants, a bird, a zebra, a buffalo, and a tortoise, surrounded by green leafy vines.