Volunteer driven by pet’s death
TAXI driver turned animal rights crusader Dorah Mgandela would probably have never become an Eastern Cape SPCA volunteer if superstitious neighbours had not decapitated her cat and thrown the pieces into her yard.
“I loved our ginger cat Sanamo so much, it even used sleep in bed with me at night,” she explained.
“My life changed when my neighbours thought it was evil and killed it.”
Hit hard by the senseless 2008 killing, the 40-year-old immediately went to the King William’s Town SPCA and volunteered to help them out when she was not driving taxis.
“I realised animals could not speak for themselves and decided to try do something about it.”
Her empathy towards animals soon impressed local SPCA officials and she was offered a permanent job cleaning kennels and doing other menial tasks around the pound.
“I was so happy, I stopped driving taxi straight away to work with animals.”
Mgandela was such a natural, she was offered a key post soon after she started and is still the only black woman NSPCA field officer in South Africa.
Although she no longer has any cats at home, the family has two dogs they rescued from the local SPCA.
“I still love cats, luckily I have got lots of them at the office now.”
Helping out in Katberg with colleagues from the Mthatha and Queenstown SPCA, Mgandela normally spends her days travelling miles around the King William’s Town district ensuring that animals are not being mistreated and educating people how to better care for them.
According to Strachan, Mgandela is so dedicated to animals that she even helps them after hours.
“She even stops passing cars to see if livestock is being transported properly.”— davidm@dispatch.