The article by Lin Sampson in the Sunday Times that detailed a limited perspective on Port St Johns was both widely read and endlessly talked about and debated.

The Lifestyle supplement in the Sunday Times is an award winning publication and rightly so, as it has, over many years maintained a balanced combination of insightful articles and content with well written, articulate and erudite delivery.

The piece on Port St Johns was well written, articulate and indeed erudite and flows inexorably on, something like our imposing Mzumvubu river here in PSJ which Sampson maligns for no reason at all.

It is difficult but not impossible to decipher the reason many people found the piece lazy, vindictive and not a little mendacious. It is an under researched and a highly specialised piece of sensationalism, an accusation the Sunday Times spent countless years trying to live down.

In short, it is an exquisitely written catalogue of negativity, a litany of missed opportunities to explore the Port St Johns that lurks just beneath that surface veneer of headline grabbing poverty, unemployment, lack of infrastructure, political opportunism and the plight of the average person simply trying to survive here in South Africa.

That surface veneer is not unique to Port St Johns as the entire country will throw up many examples that highlight the extremes of backlog that persist as the ANC government struggles to deliver on its promises to turn around decades of neglect by the old National party.

It almost reads like a script that was prepared before travelling to PSJ and all that was needed was sufficient negative facts to back it up with a facade of credibility, plausible to the majority that don’t know that another side exists in PSJ.

Something akin to what Carte Blanche did a couple of years ago when they came to town to investigate a supposed crime spree and found only isolated instances of opportunistic criminal activity against tourists and travellers. Yet they persisted in graphically depicting the idea of a Jozilike crime epidemic that they brought with them rather than reporting what they actually found on the ground.

The many travellers that venture into the Transkei, for the uninitiated an area wild and untamed and the subject of many legends and myths, and visit Port St Johns have many returnees and repeat offenders in their ranks, some that have returned again and again for years passing on the magic to children and grandchildren alike.

There are also many international travellers that arrive and discover a certain paradise that induces them to rearrange or even entirely cancel the rest of their travel. Of those that manage to leave, many return from as far as Finland, the Netherlands and the United States to revisit Port St Johns.

There is a wild, natural beauty here, a vast area of rural villages with people whose lives have not changed measurably for decades, living off the land like their predecessors did. Volunteer projects with sustainable village communities and schools thrive and help people bring back a measure of self belief.

Backpackers that work hand in hand with the communities in building and sustaining work opportunities for the locals. Surf schools, village gardens, adult education and business ventures all find a place here.

Coastal hikes, both on foot and horseback provide South African and international visitors with an opportunity to explore the rugged coastline, littered with shipwrecks, in tandem with a local guide and sleep over in local communities.

The recent cultural festival in town provided examples of drama, poetry, dance and music to convince even the most cynical neo-colonial of the ample and deep culture that exists here amongst the Amampondo and other tribes.

It would be easy, anywhere in the world to descend on a small town complete with a list of all the possible negatives to track down in order to paint a dismal picture of a dysfunctional, cowboy town.

To go about this without any attempt to provide a balanced score card and highlight any positives at all is not only grossly biased but almost fits an agenda that would not have been out of place under an old colonial approach to talking about the disparity between different communities.

It goes far enough to help perpetuate the old ‘us and them’ mentality that is something most of us are trying to put behind the country and move forward.

The power of the media is an obvious given and this piece by Sampson in a publication not only widely purchased and read but also disseminated via word of mouth long after the date of publication without any positive counterpoint is grossly unfair to Sunday Times readers as well as Port St Johns residents.

There are many different facts and perspectives on Port St Johns that did not qualify for the rigorous catalogue of negativity and the need to provide a more complete and rounded picture of this small town by their inclusion remains an omission on the part of the editors and publishers of the Sunday Times.

Even the people interviewed by Sampson are selectively portrayed in a manner that amplifies and reinforces her thesis that Port St Johns is nothing but a dead end town, peopled by drug addicts and dreamers perpetuating some sort of collective, coastal psychosis.

Ben Dekker was the original focus but he was not in town and could not paint a picture of his Port St Johns.

The one eyed and selectively biased nature of an Oliver Stone movie, constructed around his personal view of the world is the closest and most effective analogy this writer can find to the Port St Johns depicted in this myopic view.

For the record, this writer did indeed drop out to write a book and that book is on course for publication. Not all projects end in unfinished business.

Time does indeed move slowly out here, in fact days can drag while weeks fly by but that is no different to countless other small towns around the world with many long term residents that make a conscious and unencumbered decision to live that kind of life.

The seemingly deliberate perjuration by Sampson of the word dropout, almost making it synonymous with a wasted druggie, is a sensationalist technique worthy of a tabloid, an abject admission that she does not understand Port St Johns at all and has only one definition for the phrase dropping out.

The best quote illustrating the tabloid like sensationalism is the following.

“The hillsides are covered with small shacks, some painted pretty colours, but lack of infrastructure and no sanitation cause an avalanche of faecal material to run down the hillside and through the town.”

The agenda is not so much hidden as blatantly biased and one sided.

Zwelenqaba Senior Secondary School in Tafelahash in the old Transkei is the site of a Solar Lab project with laptops including internet connections powered by solar energy.

There are plans to extend the project and include other schools. The two satellite Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) involved in the program will be Bafazi JSS and Kwantshunqe JSS.

The old Transkei is home to many rural areas without electricity and the traditional route of extending the grid to include them takes money and time. Solar power can circumvent these obstacles and bring computers to young learners in these rural schools who are intent on achieving computer literacy when they leave school and seek work in the growing South African economy.

The Department of Education has stated its aim of computer literacy for all school leavers by 2012 and solar power could be the energy boost needed to achieve this aim.

   http://ekhayaict.com/wiki/index.php?title=Zwelenqaba_School_Project

http://ict4d.at/2008/08/27/interesting-projects-zwelenqaba/

Livestock and mudhuts were never recognised before for insurance purposes in the Transkei.  However, a venture through the combined efforts of Old Mutual (OM) group, Mutual & Federal (M&F) and Nedbank in partnership with empowerment company Wiphold, recently developed  insurance products that will cover mud houses as well as livestock.

This is great news for livestock and homeowners who will now be able to insure against crippling losses especially the livestock in an area where cattle rustling is a major problem.

This is a crucial development in the developing of the Transkei into a teritory that can grow business and feed its people, uplifting areas torn apart by poverty and unemployment. Sustainability is the key word here as this venture needs to gain momentum and sustain it.

A publicity campaign will be essential in educating the ordinary person about the importance of insuring against loss of livelihood. The situation will need to be monitored constantly to ensure that rural people are not taken for a ride by unscrupulous business people.

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4460000&fSectionId=552&fSetId=662

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=213770

The on again off again Environmental Impact Assessment of the toll road through the Wild Coast (Transkei) is set up to be completed this year. After much debate and accusations of assessments not done properly and critical environmental impacts left out, it seems that the process is almost there.

The proposed road will join East London and Durban across 564 km of toll road, upgrading the current route through the Transkei and linking with the N2 South Coast.

The biodiversity of the Transkei region has been a bone of contention right fromthe word go with the proposed road. It will damage some areas but it seems there will be compromise made to environmentally sensitive areas and the bottom line is that the road will reduce accidents and delays as well as bring more travellers and tourists.

http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article.php?a_id=134279

Recently the deceptively, sleepy little town of Port St Johns was rudely interrupted by cameras and action as a movie was shot in and around town entailing jobs for locals, full beds at all accomodation spots and increased sales in beer and food.

White Light is a movie about child soldiers in Uganda and the area around PSJ resembles very closely the terrain and hills in Uganda. Obviously PSJ as a movie making centre is not sustainable but if it happens once or twice a year the locals will be happy.

Port St Johns is ideal because of location and price but a little far from the big cities for transporting equipment and people. One can’t win ‘em all but two out of three ain’t bad.

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=205514

The most remarkable thing about Three Letter Plague, the book about Lusikisiki and the AIDS epidemic in the Transkei written by Jonny Steinberg, is not the politics around President Mbeki and his ongoing denial of AIDS. It’s not the struggle amid the shortages of almost everything needed in a health care system but rather the impact made by individuals who find ways and means to bypass obstacles in the health care system to make sure that people get care when they need it..

Pharmacy workers that get medicines through where it was thought impossible, lay persons that counsel and guide patients in the regular taking of their antiretrovirals and members of the rural communities that have tested and been found HIV positive who are living and counselling others despite a massive stigma and sometimes being ostracised from their communities.

Jonny Steinberg has captured a vivid picture of the Transkei and its hardships and desperate daily struggle just to survive. Add in AIDS and a government not willing to effectively rollout the medication that will save lives and there is a recipe for disaster and needless death.

The human spirit however is a curious phenomenon and this combustible situation has brought out some extremes in people with some taking their HIV positive test as a signal to help others and band together in groups thereby gaining strength in numbers.

The characters who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, in assisting to get people to clinics, making sure medicines arrive at the clinic and following up continuously with others who need to keep taking their antiretrovirals, are ordinary people living in extraordinary times.

They are real pioneers and ready to experiment when traditional methods used by the sangomas do not make an impact on the problem. There is a remarkable amount of rumour and unproven stories bandied about in the rural areas regarding the origins of AIDS, the idea that it only seems to affect black people as well as the shunning of those tested positive in case something should rub off when in contact with them.

In his book Steinberg has highlighted people born and raised in the rural villages, steeped in tribal traditions and ancient customs who have seen what this epidemic can do and also what antiretrovirals are capable of, namely saving lives and making HIV positive people able to function and contribute positively in society.

A paradigm shift is going to be needed if South Africa is going to weather this storm, not only the deaths but those that are left behind, especially the orphans.

The idea that the virus should be seen as a chronic illness rather than a death sentence is a step forward but its going to take some leadership in going forward and burying the uncertainty created by leaders that have encouraged a belief in better eating habits as a cure rather than a support system for antiretrovirals.

Rolling out antiretrovirals is only a start, maintaining the logistics and backup so that medicine is available when it is needed in order to sustain a life saving and life enhancing program will take strategic planning and sustained implementation. 

Here’s a great link to some answers Steinberg had to questions about AIDS and South Africa. 

   http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2321323,00.html

Another interesting link

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/books/review/Hochschild-t.html?ex=1360299600&en=6bddd3d1db82d897&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

 Yet another interesting link

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200802/20080226_steinberg.html

The old airstrip on top of Mount Thessiger is one of the must do trips while in Port St Johns. It still has small Cessnas and other light craft using the strip but the wind can be quite a challenge. Most of the time it’s full of cows and pats but the experience is awesome with the Berg towards the West on a clear day  and the ocean out to the East.

The word Transkei was used by the former National Party government to refer to the bantustan, located on the Wild Coast mostly between the Kei river in the South and the Umtamvuna in the North,  made nominally independent under apartheid. The word means “across the Kei” in IsiXhosa and existed before the National Party named the area.

It has long been a source of debate and conjures up memories of oppression for some and for others it brings to mind the idea that Transkei will be independent as the 10th province no longer falling under the Eastern Cape.

Here is a link to the debate.

http://blogs.dispatch.co.za/dispatchnow/2008/03/18/homeland-revisited/

This is a link to background on the name at Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transkei

Xolobeni lies on the Wild Coast near the Wild Coast Casino and the struggle to obtain permission to mine Titanium in the dunes along 22 km of coast line has been long and arduous.

With the Department of Minerals and Energy having delayed their announcement on whether the mining can go ahead, the verdict was due in January, the SA Human Rights Commission has summonsed the ministers of Minerals and Energy as well as Environment and Land Affairs to appear on Tuesday.

The process of granting permission has been marred by accusations of intimidation by pro mining groups against eco tourism ventures and those lobbying against mining.

The Environmental Impact studies have again come under scrutiny as The Department of Environment has submitted material detailing flaws in the process and questioned whether the Department of Minerals and Energy can sign off and give permission without the go ahead from Environment.

The stakes are high in this process as the Wild coast is home to beautiful and rare forms of biodiversity existing hand in hand with extremes of poverty and unemployment.

Whether the mining venture will deliver on promises of upliftment and just how bad the environmental damage will be are topics being debated furiously. The people of the Transkei have waited a long time for this decision and it seems the wait will go on much longer.

Some useful links with more info can be accessed her.

http://www.witness.co.za/?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=6567

http://www.swc.org.za/deat-objections-to-xolobeni-mining-proposal-on-wild-coast.htm

http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/general/0,2172,167847,00.html

http://blogs.dispatch.co.za/dispatchnow/2008/04/18/dune-mine-ministers-subpoenaed/

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=194044

Justification for granting the rights to the mining venture

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n16_29102008.html

Sicambeni village has one of the best views along the Wild Coast. The Mngazi river meets the ocean below and on a clear day the sea lies smooth with barely a ripple to signal the treacherous currents that have buried ships that ventured too close to shore.

In amongst the unemployment and poverty that is seemingly endemic to this stretch of South Africa, there is a vegetable garden built at MamaPats, in Sicambeni, with assistance from volunteers originating from all over the globe.

The area now under cultivation was disused and abandoned before and a major cleanup was necessary before any thoughts of cultivation could be activated.

Water was also a problem as when there is a shortage, it’s a dire shortage and when there is rain it’s usually gallons of it. One of the problems identified by the volunteers was the runoff when it rained, causing soil erosion and taking the topsoil into the river and out to sea.

A decision was made to dig a small dam to collect water for irrigation purposes during dry months, thereby reducing dependence on tap water and also contributing to building up the water table.

Every decision has been made by the community in consultations with all members and recently more land was released for further development by Amapondo Projects, which oversees the volunteer programs, in conjunction with the community.

The recent food riots around the world in countries that are mostly dependent on food handouts has led to the South African government looking seriously at food production in South Africa.

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel stated that poor people should be resuming subsistence agriculture that was a crucial part of the country’s heritage and cultivating as much land as possible.

This sage advice is the rationale behind the developments at Sicambeni village. Luke Boshier, Amapondo Projects co-ordinator, says, “People need to regain contact with the earth, planting and reaping their own food. There is too much land lying unused and not enough people learning once again how to live off the land just as their ancestors once did”.

The garden at MamaPats was started before the recent hikes in food prices leading to riots around the world but it is in line with a return to a closer relationship with the earth and the cycles of nature, growing food organically without destructive fertilisers, simply utilising natural by products to mix a nourishing compost at no cost.

This small vegetable patch on the hill overlooking the Wild Coast is a small beacon signalling to other subsistence farmers just what can be accomplished through community co-operation and sustained work, creating not just a vegetable patch but a sustainable and ongoing supply of nourishing food.