Perspective: Africa (June 2016) Perspective: Africa (June 2016) | Page 13

Perspective: Africa - June 2016

Paradise Undermined

The second of a four-part sampling from a book on the raging development
conflict on the Pondoland Wild Coast, in the Eastern Cape province
of South Africa.
Words by John

GI Clarke
Photographs by Cheryl Alexander, Wild Awake Images

In Part One, we met Sinegugu
‘Nkomba’ Zukulu paddling up the
Mtentu River Estuary and learned
about a unique Tree of Life –
Jubeopsis Caffra - that only grows in
a tightly constrained natural habitat,
now threatened by global climate
change.
Yet there is a much more immediate
and proximate threat to the survival of the Nkomba palm, and the
well-being of the Amadiba Coastal
Residents.

other natural wonders to behold.
Four other smaller rivers Sikombe,
Xolobeni, Mnyameni and Mphalane
end in tranquil coastal estuaries,
and between them large expanses
of red desert-like dunes present a
stark, apparently barren contrast
to the verdant water scenes. Over
thousands of years, the sequential
effect of, firstly, receding sea levels
(due to pre-historic climate change)
and secondly, strong winds had
blown away lighter sands to expose
an assortment of stones that appear
to the untrained eye to be inconsequential rocks and stones. In fact,
upon closer inspection the stones cry

Between the 22 km stretch of
coastline between the Mtentu and
Mzamba River gorges there are
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