If you have wandered near Cape Town station, you might recognise the people this story is about. The Sakmanne, or Sackcloth People, can be seen on the pavements almost everyday selling indigenous plants and herbs to passersby.

Clad in hessian, they look like rastas, but are actually an offcut of the Rastafarian culture. Having renounced material possessions they have the same bloodline as the Khoisan of ancient days. They forage the mountain for vegetation which they both live off and sell. True to form, they smoke dagga, but this is paired with prayers of thank and praise to the natural earth.

The herbal remedies they sell for from R20 to R60 and include buchu, mountain garlic and red carrot to treat conditions ranging from cancer to high blood pressure.

Zebelon, 24, says:

The Sackman is a holy man [that] is connected with God. We don’t eat eggs, no meat, no fish or anything that is from blood. Everything we eat comes out of creation and we make our own bread.

Having been a part of the culture all his life, Zebelon has no surname, no ID and no birth certificate, like most other members of the group. They are strict vegetarians and do not drink alcohol. But, as with other cults or sects, they speak in a rehearsed rhetoric:

We don’t deal with IDs because we are not from Babylon. You can fool some of the people but not all of the people, you see, so the government wants to fool people, they don’t want us to be free.

While similar groups exists throughout South Africa, the Cape Town one boasts about 100 members. Money made from the sales of the plants go to fruit and vegetables not found on the mountain, as well as vegetarian cuisine from local food markets.

They dwell on Table Mountain and, as the chairman of the Khoi and San Active Awareness Group (KSAAG), Bradley van Sitters, said:

The Sackcloth is a total devotion to nature, to the point where we are denouncing Western clothes and accepted norms.

There is a complete breakaway from the normal standards of living. [Theirs] is a long history with a biblical connotation.

He acknowledged that despite the Sackcloths’ attempts to completely remove themselves from mainstream society, they are forced to interact with the city and its people to survive.

It is a very interesting situation where there is a give and take with the city. It is a love-hate relationship. On one hand they are now conforming to the city but only as a means of survival. They are bringing their produce from the mountain to the city because it is congested with people. The calling is to heal people and offer the public another alternative.

The group’s knowledge of indigenous plants had been passed down through generations of the Khoi and San people:

There is a deep historical link between the Sackcloth, and some of the Rastafarian community, to the Khoisan. They are nature-bound and centre around nature. This knowledge has been passed down and the Sackcloth keep it alive.

However, the future of the Sackcloth depend on themselves:

I think the biggest threat to the Sackcloth, other than the system, is them themselves. If they maintain the fundamental basics of the Sackcloth then they have got a long future. If they start compromising and doing things not within the accepted guidelines, then they will weaken the concept of the Sackcloth.

In terms of the Environmental Management Act of 2003, nobody is allowed to live in a national park or harvest plant material in a national park.

They are not allowed to live on the mountain and if we become aware that there are groups living on the mountain the necessary steps will have to be taken in terms of our legal mandate as set out by the Environmental Management Act.

Unfortunately, there is no room for people like the Sakmanne to live in our society unless a blind eye is turned. I really hope this article only brings positive awareness to their lifestyle and doesn’t get them forced from their way of life.

Pictures: Ruvan Boshoff