A local community builder, who is affectionately known as the Mother Theresa of Limpopo, Ms Beka Ntsanwisi, is to be honoured by Pres Thabo Mbeki.

She will receive the Order of the Baobab on April 22, during an event at the Union Buildings for "her selfless and outstanding contributions towards youth development and bringing progress to the most remote villages of the province, helping the poor and the needy all over the country."

Through her Monday night gospel programme, she is able to reach out to the very needy and people are able to inform her about their poverty and also about the sick. Through the programme, she approaches the business community for help and always wins the hearts and minds of those who help the needy throughout the province.

Ntsanwisi, who has cancer, has done a lot for this province and the country. Amongst others, she helped the Mozambican community in Giyani to bury a Mozambican who was in a government mortuary in Khensani Hospital for six months, helped the community of Shigalo transport the corpse of a poor woman from Nelspruit and with the burial after the community failed to raise funds for it. She has also built two houses in Mariveni and Dan villages for poor women where the RDP and flood relief projects failed to assist the very needy and also organized and raised R300 000 for the kidney operation that Cannon Mnisi dearly needed.

This selfless person has received countless awards, including the coveted Shoprite|Checkers community builder of the year 2005. She also scooped the Jet Community Builder of the year 2005 regionally and nationally. She competed against representatives from Swaziland, Namibia, and Mozambique. She also won the BMF Limpopo Women of Excellence award from 2002 to 2006.

She won the Premier’s award in 2006 and the Limpopo Achievers Award, amongst others. She also has two books which have been prescribed in the Limpopo province.

Asked how she felt about this highest honour, she said she was very humbled. "When you do things that you are passionate about, you do not even realize that people are watching you. It is only during this time that you feel acknowledged," she said. Ntsanwisi said she felt very humbled because the award she was going to receive was from the highest office in the country.

"Being acknowledged by your own president is an added spark that propels one to work even harder," she said.