Like the rest of Cape Town, Mdantsane-born sand sculptor Michael Myekwa fell in love with a large southern elephant seal called Buffel that set up home on Fish Hoek beach for a month while moulting.
Myekwa, 36, who has the uncanny ability to perfectly replicate the Big Five from memory, tapped into Buffel mania, creating remarkably accurate life-size renditions of the moulting seal to the delight of onlookers who flocked to the beach to observe the 3m-long mammal.
“Thanks to Buffel I made up to R350 per day which is more that I ever make with other sand sculptures,” said Myekwa, who began his sand-sculpting career at Nahoon Beach more than a decade ago.
“When I built the Buffel sculpture right next to the real thing, people would look at the seal’s face and at my sculpture and see it was the same and they would take photos and give me donations.”
Buffel arrived at the beach weighing about 1,200kg, but was considerably sleeker when he swam back out to sea in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Having lived off his blubber while he moulted, Buffel shed kilogrammes along with excess skin, but gained celebrity status on social media and on the beach.
First tagged by the department of environmental affairs in 2014, the seal has landed at beaches including Hermanus, Betty’s Bay, Paternoster and Llandudno but originally comes from Marion Island.
Myekwa said he was intrigued when he first saw Buffel.
“I had never seen an elephant seal before. I had only seen smaller seals [Cape fur seals] at Hout Bay, but just by looking at Buffel I could see his face was different – he was much bigger and had a trunk – and a different tail.”
Since leaving East London, Myekwa worked his sandy magic in Port Elizabeth before taking up residence in the Western Cape.
“I would like to have stayed in East London, but people would not give donations after looking at my work. I would sit the whole day at the beach and get nothing. I think they thought I had time just to play with sand.”
His meticulously true to form sculptures of faces, animals and hands have earned him a social media following and his works feature on the Fans of Michael Myekwa Facebook page to great acclaim. Mainstream media has also picked up on his talent and he has been interviewed on television six times.
The self-taught artist, who uses a red plastic KFC spoon to curl tightly packed wet sand into beautiful but temporary public art, stumbled upon his talent by accident.
“In East London I used to play with my friends’ children at the beach by covering them with sand and I would carve soldier’s uniforms onto them and a lot of people wanted to take photos.
“So then I started carving the big five and once a month I would go to the beach to do that,” said Myekwa, who at the time was working as a taxi assistant.
“Then I was asked to do Nelson Mandela’s face at Summerstrand Beach in Port Elizabeth.”
A stint in Mossel Bay followed before he made his way to Cape Town eight years ago and wowed beachgoers with mighty rhinos, dancing dolphins and galloping horses. Amazingly, he said he does not refer to pictures when he works.
“I have never seen the big five in real life,” Myekwa said. “I used to watch 50/50 on TV and simply remember what they look like. So it was good to have Buffel right there when I was sculpting him.
“I miss him now that he is gone but Buffel had to go back to sea. My sculptures of him have also been washed away. I hope he comes back here again one day.”..