Heart & Mind

From serving as a national planning commissioner in the Presidency to producing South Africa’s first cashmere, Vuyo Mahlati is a multifaceted woman. And while she exhibits an incredibly diverse skill set, her focus has been singular – to drive social change.

- Kate Sidley 

In the smart boardroom of Dr Vuyo Mahlati’s Rosebank office in Johannesburg, we’re talking about goats. Specifically, the imbuzi goats that are indigenous to the Eastern Cape and other parts of the country, and that have historically been kept for ritual purposes and for their meat. Now, they’ve become a source of income for rural people, thanks to Vuyo’s company, Ivili Loboya, which has produced South Africa’s first cashmere by processing the soft, fine inner hair of the coats of these goats.

Ivili Loboya recently launched its Dedani collection, a line of clothes made of cashmere harvested from these goats, and spun, woven and processed in rural Eastern Cape using natural dyes.

These natural dyes were sourced from leaves, fruits, bark and flowers to create the collection’s palette of earthy tones, such as ochre, bone, nut, marula and wild peach. The fabrics are visual evocations of nature, as well as spiritual and ancestral imagery.

This venture is the culmination of some of Vuyo’s many interests, her history and influences: growing up in the Eastern Cape, her mother who was a shepherdess and cultivated Vuyo’s interest in farming, her passion for employment creation and empowerment, her creativity and her studies in the field of development economics. Fundamentally, all her choices have been governed by one thing: to drive social change.