At the Fireside Page 23

  Mogale bowed to the inevitable and sent his men to go and work on the diamond mines which were now opening up, levying a tax on their earnings till he had accumulated enough money to buy a farm near Thogomodimoe called Boschfontein.

  Incidentally, if you are driving towards Rustenburg on the N4 you will be able to see Wolhuterskop aka Thogomodimoe on the left-hand side of the road and the settlement of the Po on Boschfontein on the right. If you know where to look, you will find that the older Po people still go to the sacred place on special occasions, making offerings of coinage, snuff and various other items of value. You stand in its presence with your head bowed and talk in very quiet tones, for it still is a very sacred place which deserves to be treated with the respect it has earned through the centuries.

  Strange to say, this place of pagan worship is now owned by a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, but he deeply respects other people’s beliefs. It’s just another of South Africa’s many oddities.

  In any case, Mogale’s reluctant transaction still rankled in the breast of the Po people, so they decided to back the British, reasoning that if the British won they would be given their ancestral land back. Well, they guessed right in one sense – the British won, all right – but dead wrong in another, regarding the return of their land.

  There’s true irony for you. The Bafokeng back the losers and end up not only in possession of their ancestral lands but stinking rich into the bargain, while the Po back the winners and end up with nothing more than what they had. Such are the vagaries of war settlements. As some wise man once said, there is nothing sure in life except death and taxes, and he wasn’t so sure about death.

  The status quo remained until the Union in 1910 and then the advent of that stupendous bloodletting which was euphemistically known as ‘the Great War’ – that was the one that was going to end all war forever, just like Mogale’s people were going to get their land back from the victorious British.

  But it is noteworthy that when the war came people of colour laid aside their prejudices, their grievances, their loss of land, their lack of the franchise and the general marginalisation, and volunteered for active service in their thousands, with many dying in service of wounds, disease and accidents. In some circles their contribution is overlooked because somehow it does not sit well with some people, and others sneer that they only joined up for the regular wages. But a man whose sole aim is to earn a small wage does not do so with the courage and sheer endurance so many of these men displayed in the various hell-holes of France, Flanders, East Africa and Palestine; and it is a humbling thought.

  I do not want to go into detail about how those volunteers served their country or what they believed in, and neither do I want to go into the treatment they received after their return. You can find all that out for yourself – there is plenty of readily available material. I shall say just this: in my opinion it was nothing short of despicable. I am not so sure that my patriotism and commitment run so deep that I would volunteer to fall in the service of a country in which I have no franchise, and yet expects me to pay tax.

  Calling the Right Shots

  CALLING THE RIGHT SHOTS

  A while ago I spent about two weeks unable to pick up on anything but depressing news from all the media. Oilgate and various other business scandals, Smuts Ngonyana’s fishing expedition, hurricanes blasting their devastating path through Texas and Louisiana: just one damned thing after another. All I could find on the lighter side was a public apology from the musician Eric Burton of the band ‘The Animals’, who said he was sorry, but ‘there is no house in New Orleans!’

  I think the news that scared me the most were warnings about the global warming situation that the Arctic pack ice – which traditionally melts in the summer months and then re-forms during the winter – had now reached the stage where it was not re-forming half as much as it should.

  The experts call this the ‘tipping point’, meaning the moment when we start sliding ever faster downhill; in plain language, the point of no return. It is predicted that by 2070 there will be no Arctic ice during the summer months at all, so that hitherto unseen ground will be exposed.

  This is particularly bad news because the seawater will now become exposed to the energy of the sun and areas of water once covered by ice, and therefore screened from the sun, will start to heat up. This increased energy input will make ice-forming during winter even more problematic, and the overall result will be a change in global weather patterns which will be dramatic, to say the least.

  But I have found a little ray of hope amid all this doom and gloom: a set of circumstances I think we as South Africans need to be made aware of and feel very proud about.

  It has to do with our shoreline fishing. There are three main protected marine areas along our shoreline: the De Hoop Marine Reserve, the Tsitsikamma National Park and the main one, the St Lucia Marine Reserve Sanctuary. The Oceanographic Research Institute had been monitoring the fish stocks within these no-fishing areas and had found that years of steadily increasing fishing pressure on shoreline fish stocks had resulted in an overall decline in what the scientists call the ‘catch per unit effort’ as well as the size of the fish caught. Areas adjacent to these protected areas were being fished out altogether.

  This was a major cause for concern and showed there was a definite need to improve the management of these resources since traditional methods such as setting minimum size and bag limits and proclaiming closed fishing seasons were obviously not obtaining the desired results.

  So in January of 2002 legislation was passed which banned the driving of vehicles on all beaches. I remember the anguished outcry from anglers who claimed that the legislation had nothing to do with fish stocks but was basically a load of rubbish inspired by ‘bunny-hugger’ sentiment.

  Talking about fishing and conservation, very few people are aware of the fact that various countries, including Japan, raped the coastline of Somalia of its entire marine stock. The local fisher folk, unable to feed their families or make a living, angrily returned to the sea as pirates! This is the part of the story that never gets told because it is conveniently swept under the proverbial carpet.

  But getting back to our situation, let’s look at whether that much-condemned ban on vehicles has had any effect. Since November 2001, the Oceanographic Research Institute, under the capable project management of Bruce Mann, has been using rigorous scientific methods to monitor the shoreline fish stocks, species and sizes, not only in all the marine-protected areas but also in areas where ‘demotorised’ anglers no longer go because they are too distant to reach on foot.

  The results are amazing. In the marine reserve areas the fish stock average is up by a whopping 40%, and this applies to the size of the fish as well (size is very important, the scientists point out, because a large female fish naturally produces far more roe while spawning than a smaller one). Here is another ‘tipping point’, but this time one that leans in the right direction for the obvious reason that the bigger we allow the fish to grow, the more efficient the re-stocking of an area becomes, and nature starts to get back on track.

  In addition, stocks are also very largely on the increase in the formerly fished-out areas adjacent to the reserves. As a result of this, the areas where anglers traditionally fish will have an enhanced population due to the natural overflow from the protected areas.

  More good news for our shoreline is that there has also been an increase in the number of recaptured tagged fish – the Oceanographic Research Institution undertakes six tagging field trips a year conducted by hand-picked, experienced shoreline fishermen. The entire catch on such a trip is carefully monitored and the larger ones of each species are tagged.

  I was amazed to hear that some species of fish are extremely area-specific, occurring sometimes in an area no longer than 100 metres, and are quite conscious of their area’s boundaries.

  To
go into detail about all the various species caught in the St Lucia area would take a lot more space than I have available, but suffice it to say that there are about 70 involved, ranging from bonefish down to zebra fish. As a direct result of all this work there is an increase in awareness and the realisation that we can and are doing something about our dwindling marine resources.

  Even fishing competition organisers are now using barbless hooks, and to minimise the traumatic effect on a fish that has been caught they do no more than measure it, apply a factor to the species and in that way record its weight. Then it goes right back into its natural habitat. This is certainly a long way indeed from the old methods, and as a matter of interest, saltwater fly fishing with barbless hooks is one of the fastest-growing outdoor sports, not only in South Africa but across the world.

  So much for the people who bemoaned the ban on taking vehicles onto the beaches. I notice that Moçambicans are starting to complain about South Africans who come and destroy their beaches with their 4 x 4s since there is no such ban in place in that part of the world. They should try it – the results here speak for themselves and isn’t it a little ray of hope on a horizon which seems generally gloomy these days?

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  Copyright Page

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Grateful thanks to the following for their collaboration regarding some of stories included in this volume: the late David Rawdon of Matjiesfontein, David Scholtz, Paul Kilmartin, Ken Gillings, General Carlo Gagiano, Robin Binckes and David Saks

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  © Text – Roger Webster, 2013

  Published in trade paperback in 2013 by

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