Save Soil Ambassador, Tseke Nkadimeng, a South African businessman and entrepreneur, age 45, has taken it upon himself to activate support from the citizenry to turn the tide for the wellbeing of our society and future generations.
Tseke will be reaching his momentous 10 000 km walk over 8 months on 1st April. This in collaboration with the global Save Soil Movement to raise awareness amongst fellow South Africans about our seriously depleted soil health.
Tseke has already completed over 233 days of arduous walking, having completed over 8350 km starting from his hometown, Dullstroom in Mpumalanga passing through Barberton, Nongoma, Durban, Bloemfontein, East London, Middleburg, Cape Town, Karoo, Polokwane, heading to Johannesburg for his grand finale event.
Once Tseke enters Gauteng, he would have traversed all 9 provinces of South Africa and touched all 4 borders of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe & Eswatini. Tseke has had national news coverage on both ENCA & SABC, been interviewed by many newspapers and radio stations and had awareness drives with several schools, universities, municipalities, companies, mines and government offices.
The United Nations states that we have only 60 years of soil left and already 52% of agricultural soil is degraded globally. This means that we here in South Africa could start experiencing the effects of food scarcity and soil extinction within the next 10-15 years.
Soil, the basis of life on this planet, is globally in danger of desertification. Desertification is characterised by soil having insufficient organic content (animal and plant matter). In Africa, the average organic content in agricultural land is scarily well below 1%. We need a minimum of 3% – 6% to call agricultural soil healthy (enough to keep microbes in soil on a survival diet). Lack of organic content in soil results in lack of nutrition in food, thereby resulting in malnutrition.
Moreover, desertification means soil will produce less food over time, resulting in famines and forced migration. South Africa is also facing extreme weather effects from lack of water to floods. Soil rich in organic content and managed well can absorb rainfall better, preventing both flash flooding and drought. Soil rich in organic content retains water and can slowly release these over time keeping plants hydrated where there is low rainfall, and keeping rivers flowing for longer. Increasing organic content in soil reduces water required for irrigation significantly.
The aim of this global Save Soil movement, is to support citizens in finding out more about this impending soil crisis, and also supporting them in raising their voices to express their desire for something to be done about it. Save Soil has already received massive support globally by the United Nations and many influencers. There also exists a UN Commission to Combat Desertification. Save Soil was addressed at the COP15 & COP27 conference last year. Raising organic content in soils nationally could greatly improve agricultural, economic, emotional and physical wellbeing of all citizens in South Africa.
Save Soil is calling upon everyone to help stop this imminent soil extinction crisis and protect our future. Its aim is to inspire at least 3.5 billion people (60% of the world’s electorate) to support environmentally-conscious governance decisions and drive national policy change to save our soil from desertification.
Tseke’s walk has been inspired by the Save Soil founder, Sadhguru, who completed a 100 day, 30 000km lone motorcycle ride across Europe and Asia from March to June this year.
So far, over 80 countries have pledged support, however we need all 193 countries including South Africa to join.
For more information visit SaveSoil.Org where you can also join as an #Earth Buddy.
Follow Tseke’s 10 000 km journey on social media.
https://www.facebook.com/WalkingtoSaveSoil
https://www.instagram.com/savesoilwalk/
https://twitter.com/HeadlinesMzans
Martin Myers 
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