Some months ago I wrote asking "where to the N2?" The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) is now at a point of decision and I ask "Why an N2 toll road?" November 20 - 21 the CSIR is organizing a "Wild Coast Development Strategy Workshop" in Umtata after which the Director General of DEAT, Dr. Crispian Olver, is expected to give his decision. Will he authorize the proposed N2 Toll Road, particularly the controversial section between Lusikisiki and Port Edward, traversing the proposed Pondoland Park along the pristine Wild Coast?
Certainly the engineering companies, the Wild Coast Consortium, are expecting the go ahead. They have already sunk foundations for the controversial bridges. Dr. Olver wrote that he is sure we can arrive at a win/win situation. The only win/win solution is to catch a vision of the development that should take place in this spectacular area, not what can. Humans have the power to do almost anything they want. But is it right? DEAT should be the watchdog to ensure it is.
Without a vision, the people perish. Without a vision for Pondoland, this impoverished but scenically spectacular part of South Africa will be destroyed. Can we arrive at a vision that brings development to the local people, not to outsiders? The bottom line is that the Pondos want development and employment. The choice is whether it will be long term development that will benefit them, or short term profit for outsiders.
The answer lies in:
- eco-tourist development,
- upgrading the use of the land, so that the local people can develop and make money from the spectacular scenery and coastline.
Look at the prospects:
Building a motorway will provide employment for a couple of years, but will forever destroy much of the eco-tourist potential and its potential to be declared a World Heritage Site.
Sand dune mining will create a100 jobs locally for 17 years.
Eco-tourism will create some thousands of jobs, with great potential for sustainable growth.
This is in a sea of hundreds of thousands of households scattered across the Pondoland country side.
The University of the Western Cape, through its "Sustainable Livelihoods in Southern Africa" programme recently completed a comprehensive study on land use and nutrition in this area. Their clear conclusion and recommendation is that development must be based on the improvement of land use. Mining will employ people in their tens and eco-tourism in their hundreds, but almost every family is involved in land use in this area. That involves hundreds of thousands of people.
That means that the government's backing and support must be to develop the resources, infrastructure and capacity of the local people.
So catch the vision:
Turn the R61 into the N2, to benefit the communities of Pondoland - including Bizana and Flagstaff - but it should not be an 80 metre-wide motorway. The R61 is on the water-shed, above the headwaters of both the Mtentu and Msikaba rivers, so will require no costly bridges.
Don't make it a toll road. Why should the poorest communities in South Africa have to pay R80 or R100 toll fees to get to Durban or East London? They will not benefit from the proposed toll road.
Where does the money come from if it is not to be a toll road?
Obvious: The government takes the nearly R2 billion it is being required to pay for two bridges - over the Mtentu and Msikaba gorges - to upgrade the local roads.
After improving the R61, tar the road from Bizana to Holy Cross, Qaukeni, Lusikiski. This will benefit the thousands living in that area, bring a tar road to Holy Cross Hospital now being rebuilt, and provide a fantastic scenic route for tourists.
Then you can tar sensitive, single width roads to tourist areas such as Mkambati Nature Reserve.
Money must be spent in support of the local people. I am fed up with the government spending money on tourist facilities, with the hope that a few crumbs will drop from the tourists' tables, instead of directly supporting local people by improving their infrastructure and bringing training to them. Some years ago a new gravel road was laid to Msikaba, for the benefit of the few campers who come in their 4x4's, while roads to hospitals in the Transkei remained in a near impassable state.
Everyday unskilled youth flock to the towns looking for work. Everywhere mechanics, electricians, plumbers, builders, carpenters are needed. Let the government spend its money on a establishing a technical college in Kokstad or Lusikisiki, and equip the people of Pondoland to help themselves.
Dr. Olver has said that DEAT is supporting a motorway for tourist development as people need to get to their destination within three hours. Unbelievable! They can get to the Wild Coast Casino, but many drive from Johannesburg or Cape Town and even come from London to get to the "Wild Coast"
Catch a vision of really developing the tourist potential of the Wild Coast. Build discreet single-width roads for tourists. Extend Mkambati Nature Reserve (6000 ha) by incorporating the former "Tracor" land (11000 ha).
Mkambati is an incredible place. Although only 10km along the coast between the Msikaba and Mtentu gorges, there are 23 waterfalls, with magnificent sheer cliffs, clear rock pools, indigenous forests and numerous endemic plants. It already teems with eland, wildebeest, hartebeest, zebra. I could make it a most exciting tourist destination with a ferry taking visitors across the Msikaba to a 4x4 waiting on the other side to take them to Waterfall Bluff, where the river cascades 100m straight into the sea, or people coming from Mbotyi to be taken by 4x4 to the Mkambati Falls, where again the water cascades straight into the sea - one of the few places in the world where you see these magnificent sites.
A motorway will only destroy this potential. Dr. Olver also argues that a motorway is needed to bring about a comprehensive plan of development along the Wild Coast - so that it does not develop like the Natal South coast - and to stop ad hoc and illicit cottage development.
Really? It will pave the way. Government departments are already notorious for failing to enforce environmental transgressions. Environmentally, he should know full well that invasive alien plants leap in when the soil is disturbed. Just imagine the invasion of alien plants when you bulldoze and dynamite an 80m wide swathe of motorway through the Pondoland centre of botanical endemism.
DEAT has said it is "dead against" the Xolobeni mining. So it should be. An Australian mining company wants to come in to pillage our minerals in a manner that would not be allowed in Australia. For 23km, for 11/2 km inland, they will turn the coast upside down, using scarce water to pump and filter for the minerals wanted. Every drop of water will be needed. The pristine coastline will be destroyed forever. What about the lagoons? Already it is reported that our fish reserves are depleted by 90%. And now we will destroy the fish breeding grounds! Certainly it will bring in lots of money: US$ 75 billion, over the seventeen years of the mine, employing 100 people. Who gets that money?
While DEAT might be against the mining, if it approves the N2 Toll Road, there will be far less excuse to oppose the mining which the East Cape Government is reported to be in favour of. So don't open the way for the mining! Apart from which, Durban is much closer and already on a motorway. That the ore should go to East London for processing is clearly a political decision.
Instead of mining, we ask East Cape government and DEAT to set in process the declaration of Mkambati, or the whole of the proposed Pondoland Park, a World Heritage Site. It deserves it and will help in the development of this incredible area as an eco-tourist centre.
A leading British consulting engineer commented that the WCC N2 toll road proposal "stinks". I wrote to Dr. Olver pointing out that the toll road proposal is illogical and full of contradictions, as follows.
Upgrading the N2
The worst section of the N2 is from King William's Town past Peddie to Grahamstown, but this not being included in the Toll Road proposal. Why? Since it is proposed that the ore from Xolobeni is to go to East London, the Wild Coast Engineering Consortium is not interested in taking the road further, where the greatest need is.
Trucking ore to East London will require, from a conservative calculation, 80 trucks a day. This will presumably make the road financially viable. I doubt that it will be otherwise, so in spite of the protestations of the National Roads Agency, the N2 does seem to be connected to mining.
East London?
Why should the smelter be located in East London? According to the prospectus of the mining company, Mineral Commodities, Durban, East London and Port Elizabeth were considered. In spite of stating "Currently, port facilities in East London are designed to handle maize and would need to be adapted in order to handle heavier specific gravity products" and that "East London is not a preferred port of call for vessels on the South African coast, and vessel owners place a surcharge of US$30,000 per call on that port" East London has been chosen over Durban, which is much nearer and already has a motorway. Obviously there is a political decision here.
Government paying the costs?
The present N2 between Kokstad and Kei cuttings is being extensively improved and upgraded. The government has already spent a considerable amount upgrading the Kei cuttings. Is this new upgraded road then to be handed over to a private company to charge us toll fees?
Likewise, the bridges over the Mntentu and Msikaba gorges: The Wild Coast Consortium has told the government that the project is not financially viable unless the government pays for the bridges - anything from R1.5 to R1.9 billion, we are reliably informed. We believe it actually immoral to use tax payer's money so that a private company can then charge us toll fees. If the government is going to spend R1.9 billion, then use it in upgrading and building roads in the areas the people want, not a road a private company dictates.
Bypasses
A further illogicality is that there is no plan to bypass Umtata, Idutywa and Butterworth - already severe bottle-necks. What happens when you put 80 large trucks a day through Umtata - further chaos.
We recognise that from both an engineering and financial calculation, the proposed corridor through the "greenfields" section is the best route. But that takes into no account its impact on the local communities, the natural environment or the long term tourist potential.
Why are we so opposed to this route through the greenfields section? Even if DEAT insists that care must be taken not to disturb the natural habitat in building a motorway that will require a an 80-metre wide swathe, people will inevitable follow the road. When they do arrive, will need firewood and grazing and land for crops, and that will be to the destruction of this incredibly sensitive botanical region.
Furthermore, the greenfields section is the least populated part of Pondoland and the road will bypass and cut off areas needing roads such as Bizana, Holy Cross and Flagstaff.
The alternative option is available: There is increasing money to be made out of ecotourism. Develop the tourist potential.
Environmental considerations
This really is an incredibly important area environmentally, both botanically and naturally. It desperately needs to be kept intact for our children. With the quite disastrous biodiversity loss taking place on our planet, we have to do everything in our power to preserve the biodiversity of our world. We look to DEAT to ensure biodiversity hotspots are kept away from the destructive forces of ill-planned and ill-thought out roads and mines.
The Vulture Colony
I said to Dr. Olver that I wished I could take him to the vulture colony on the Msikaba Gorge. You come over the ridge and look down into the gorge 500 metres below, with 40 vultures wheeling overhead. It is one of the most spectacular sites imaginable. To build a bridge a few kilometres away would be a travesty. In fact, I go so far as saying it would be a crime against God!
If the already endangered Cape Vultures abandon their colony because of this motorway, we should take the government to court to sue them for the cost of the bridges! I am not making threats. I am only trying to underline the importance of this incredible feature at Mkambati, on the Msikaba gorge. That vulture colony is priceless. Somehow, in this modern world, we have to say that our natural heritage has a price beyond calculation. Eco-tourism will pay for it. A motorway will only destroy it.
Geoff Davies
Bishop of the Diocese of Umzimvubu
The documentary on Paul Dutton will be shown this Sunday - Dec. 7th and their programme on Pondoland will be aired on Dec. 14th.
