Thirty years into democracy, Daily Maverick spoke to three anti-apartheid activists about how they found their way to the land from Umkhonto weSizwe, the United Democratic Front and the ANC-linked Marxist Worker Tendency. This is Part Two - Réjane Woodroffe.

"We are a lot more optimistic about South Africa [than people in big cities]. Here in rural areas, communities, because they have borne the brunt of struggles, are resilient. They have realised, you have to keep going. We have seen change happens when you just keep going."

Some 15 years ago, Réjane Woodroffe permanently swapped the global investment sector, including US banker Merrill Lynch, for Nqileni in one of the remoter and poorest parts of the Eastern Cape's former Transkei homeland. It was a decision that came after several years of splitting time between boardrooms and the Wild Coast following the 2024 establishment of the community-owned and run Bulungula Eco Lodge.

In 2007 she became a founding member and director of Bulungula Incubator, a not-for-profit organisation in support of community-owned and led projects. These include pre-schools, clinics, a radio station that reaches 78 nearby villages, Bulungula College high school (since 2016) and food security initiatives.

The trigger for this integrated rural development drive came in 2006 when a third of the babies in the Nqileni area died of diarrhoea because of a lack of access to clean drinking water and proper sanitation. Or as Woodroffe says, "I was getting to...