The Pondoland Wild Coast is one of the most spectacular coasts in the world, featuring deep kloofs, vulture colonies, waterfalls cascading straight into the sea, as well as the better-known lagoons and white sandy bays. By any standards it should be declared a World Heritage site.
So what will be the effects of the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road, planned to cut a swathe of new highway from Libode, south of Umtata, to Port Edward?
An extensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) undertaken by Bohlweki Environmental consultants will answer this question when the report is laid before the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism at the end of this month.
The problem is that the route had already been laid out and the EIA was restricted to the “proposed corridor”, running along the edge of the expected Pondoland National Park, an area rich in endemic plants, biodiversity and spectacular scenery.
The EIA could not suggest alternative routes, which would be environmentally and socially more desirable, and could only conclude that the present route would have a severe environmental effect on the highly sensitive ecosystem of the Pondoland coast.
No matter how many conditions are imposed on the engineers, building to national road standards will inevitably have an extreme effect on the environment, including massive earthworks, an invasion of alien plants and major social implications.
The road consortium and the government claim the toll road will bring development and ecotourism to this most impoverished part of South Africa. But who will benefit? Engineering companies, merchant banks and the trucking industry all stand to derive huge benefits; the people of Pondoland will benefit very little.
Public meetings were held and though the newspaper announcements were minuscule and grassroots participation was non-existent, the EIA was thorough and is nearing completion.
The trouble is that the whole process is fundamentally flawed.
It transgresses basic development principles, which would support projects requested by the local people. This road benefits the engineers but bypasses and isolates the present centres of Pondoland.
The critically sensitive “greenfields” section from Libode to the Mtamvuna river at Port Edward, is restricted to a “proposed corridor”.
We are told that the proposed route cuts 85km off the road from Durban to East London, but that does not apply to traffic from Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg and Kokstad. The road will hammer the towns of Bizana, Flagstaff and Kokstad by routeing traffic away from these centres.
If the government is sincerely committed to creating employment and helping the people of the Eastern Cape, it should promote projects that develop people rather than concrete structures.
First develop the people and equip them with skills, and they will then bring development to their communities. Instead of putting money into concrete, educate and train the people.
Turn the two newly built teacher training colleges standing empty at Umzimkulu and Lusikisiki into technical colleges. There are thousands of unemployed and unemployable young people in the Eastern Cape and there is a desperate need for people with technical skills, such as carpenters, builders, electricians and mechanics.
Thank goodness the University of Transkei will continue to operate in Umtata. That is a start. In Kokstad we asked for a technical college, but got a C-Max prison.
The government should support projects that benefit the local people and communities directly.
Much work is being done to upgrade gravel access roads in the former Transkei and — at last — the road to Holy Cross hospital between Flagstaff and Mkambati is being tarred. This is of enormous benefit to the local people.
We need to stop pandering to the tourist industry, the big engineering companies and the merchant banks in the hope that a few crumbs will fall from the tables of the rich to the local people.
Enable the local people to develop themselves and you will be amazed by the results.
With imagination and careful planning the Wild Coast can be a place of wonder and inspiration for generations to come. But it could also be destroyed within two years.
To develop ecotourism, build discrete, sensitive roads — as in Scotland — not the massive, destructive toll-road highways that are needed only for the already over-subsidised trucking industry.
Why is the government so concerned about the trucking industry? Is the Department of Minerals and Energy hell-bent on mining along the Wild Coast? Is there a hidden agenda to mine titanium on the Wild Coast and truck it to Coega, another economic and development disaster in the making?
President Thabo Mbeki and Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa know the beauty of the Wild Coast. Let them know that there are far more sustainable development projects possible for the people of the Eastern Cape.
A massive highway in this prime tourism area will certainly kill the goose that lays the golden ecotourist egg.
The Right Reverend Geoffrey Davies is the Anglican bishop of Kokstad