Some months ago I wrote about the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road to run from Libode to Port Edward (Where to the N2, January 24 to 30). The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is now at a point of making a decision and once again I ask why a toll road is necessary.
This weekend the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is organising a Wild Coast development strategy workshop in Umtata, after which the director general of the department, Dr Crispian Olver, is expected to give his decision. Will he authorise 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 and the Wild Coast Consortium are expecting the go-ahead. They have already sunk foundations for the controversial bridges. Olver wrote that he is sure we can arrive at a win-win situation. But 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? The department should be the watchdog to ensure it is.
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 amaMpondo want development and employment. The choice is whether this will be long-term development that will benefit them or short-term profit for outsiders.
The answer lies in the development of ecotourism and in upgrading the use of the land so that locals can develop and make money from the spectacular scenery and coastline.
The government must give support and backing to develop the resources, infrastructure and capacity of the local people.
Building a motorway will provide employment for a couple of years but will forever destroy many of the ecotourism possibilities and the area’s potential to be declared a World Heritage Site.
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-billion to R1,9-billion, we are reliably informed. We believe it is actually immoral to use taxpayer’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 to upgrade and build roads in the areas where people want them, not a road where a private company dictates.
I propose that they convert the R61 into the N2 to benefit the communities of Pondoland, including Bizana and Flagstaff, but it should not be an
80m-wide motorway. The R61 is 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 will the money come from if it is not to be a toll road? The government should reallocate the nearly R2-billion costs for the two bridges planned over the Mtentu and Msikaba gorges and use this money to upgrade the local roads.
After improving the R61, the next move would be to 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.
A sensitive, single width road could be tarred to tourist areas such as Mkambati Nature Reserve. The 6 000ha Mkambati Nature Reserve could be extended by incorporating 11 000ha of former Tracor”(Transkei agricultural corporation) land.
Mkambati is an incredible place. In the 10km stretch 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 and zebra. It could be developed into a most exciting tourist destination, with a ferry taking visitors across the Msikaba and a 4×4 waiting on the other side to take them to Waterfall Bluff where the river cascades 100m straight into the sea — one of the few places in the world where tourists can see these magnificent sights. A motorway will only destroy this potential.
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 KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, and to stop ad hoc and illicit cottage development.
On the contrary, a highway will simply pave the way for such development. Government departments are already notorious for failing to enforce environmental transgressions. Olver knows 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.
The department has said it is “dead against” the proposed Xolobeni titanium sand-dune mining project. 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 a strip of land 23km long and 1ž 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 for ever.
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: $75-billion, over the mine’s envisaged 17-year life span, employing 100 people. Who gets that money?
While the department might be against the mining, if it approves the N2 toll road, there will be far less excuse to oppose the mining that the Eastern Cape government is reported to be in favour of. The department should be very careful not to open the way for mining.
Instead of mining, we ask the Eastern Cape government and the department to set in process the declaration of Mkambati, or the whole of the proposed Pondoland park, as a World Heritage Site. It deserves it and will help in the development of this incredible area as an ecotourism centre.
The Right Reverend Geoffrey Davies is the Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Umzimvubu, which stretches along the coast from Port St Johns to Port Edward and to the Drakensberg in the north