In the Transkei

Last Thursday, the 14th of August, saw me, Pinkie and Vuyo hitting the road again. This time we were travelling to the heart of the Transkei, Mt Frere. We left East London just after mid day with Pinkie at the wheel. Thirty minutes later, we had crossed the Kei river and we were passing through the Kei cuttings, where the Kei mountains were cut in order to create space for a road to be fashioned out. When going into the Transkei from East London, you ascend the Kei cuttings. When coming back, you obviously descend the mountains. I do not know which of the two is the lesser of the two evils. Many motor vehicle accidents have occurred in the Kei cuttings and a lot of lives have been lost. Just to illustrate, if you have been to Chipata in Zambia from Lusaka using the 'Great' East Road, there is a place called 'manenekela' where you ascend some mountain range and the ascent is quite steep such that you may feel dizzy if you look down in the valley below. Well, the Kei cuttings are ten times worse.


By 14:30 hrs, we  had reached a small town called Butterworth. Commercial activities in Butterworth are centred along the road, and we had to crawl at a snails pace out of Butterworth given the congestion, both human and motorised traffic, along the main road. 15:00rs saw as in a small town called Idyutwa with the same lay out as Butterworth. Idyutwa's claim to fame is that Thabo Mbeki's village, South Africa's second post 1994 President, was located somewhere within its boundaries. After Idyutwa, we were now in the heart of the Transkei headed for Mthatha. Just before Mthatha is Qunu where Tata Mandela's beautiful house is located along the main road. Soon, we were in Mthatha and stopped over just outside Mthatha at Shell City to freshen up and have some snacks. For those not in in the know, Shell City is not a city in the conventional sense but a place where there is a restaurant, a filling station and well maintained ablution blocks. All this comes at a price. For instance, the price of a pie can be as high as R18 when you can get the same pie at R13 in other places. I made a mental note to stay clear of any Shell City in future. We crawled out of Mthatha in the same way we had crawled out of Butterworth and Idyutwa. The sun was setting and darkness was enveloping us by the time we were completely out of Mthatha. Mthatha was the capital of the Transkei when Bantustans were created by the National Party government. It reminded me of a town called Kitwe in Zambia.


We reached Mt Frere, our destination, around 19:30 hrs. We did not know where our lodge was located and we had to ask round to find it. It had some name which clearly informed us that we should have no illusions about its standards and that it just had the most basic necessities. It was called '2nd World Bed and Breakfast'. I hit the sack after eating my hearty home prepared meal and guava juice.


The following morning, we headed to Mt Frere Advice Centre, one of the six NGOs in my Vodacom Change the World project.