In 2001, following the call of his ancestors, Ntate Ephraim Mabena began to clear the mountain behind his house, made of enormous piles of trash. Seventeen years later, the Mothong African Heritage Trust is an environmental haven that is the pride of Mamelodi. But while it has the endorsement of the national government and three universities, the local municipality is blocking further investment. Will the ancestors come once more to Ntate Mabena's aid?

I. The call

It was the same dream, it came again and again, and it only stopped when Ntate Ephraim Mabena agreed to do what his departed grandfather asked.

The first time it came, in 2001, he was famous in these parts for other things. Back then, he was known as the founder of the local kickboxing and karate club, the man to go to if you wanted to keep your son or daughter off the streets. Others knew him as the driving force behind the Mamelodi Fencing Club, which in the late 1990s made a clean sweep of the medals at the national junior championships. A defier of the body's limits, Mabena had also made a name for himself...