In the 1980s, I found myself working in the Republic of Transkei long before it was reintegrated into post-1994 South Africa. It is the homeland of the Xhosa nation and lies between the Mtamvuna River in the north and the Great Kei River in the south.
Its eastern boundary is the Indian Ocean seaboard along a wild and untamed coast of rolling hills and long stretches of soft white sands.
Inland, the majestic Drakensberg mountains create a natural boundary with Lesotho to the north. The undulating landscape of grassland and ever-flowing rivers that wind their way from the mountains down to the sea offer ideal conditions for hydro-electric generation, and at the time of my visit there were four such stations in operation under the management of the Transkei Electricity Supply Corporation (Tesco).
The biggest of these was the Colley Wobbles Power Station, which was built on the Mbashe river, sixty kilometres south of Mthatha, and north-east of Dutywa where the rugged terrain of the Wild Coast creates a sixty-four-kilometre-long series of twists and turns that cut their way deep into a valley. From the air, the river resembles the intestines of a stomach, winding back and forth, and which gave rise to its interesting name.
Tesco used a helicopter to reach its generation and distribution network across the region because the roads were generally difficult at the best of times and virtually impassable during the rainy season.
I remember Tropical Storm Domoina in 1984 when it came in from Madagascar and through Mozambique, before hitting Natal (now Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Transkei and causing one-hundred-year floods with raging rivers that isolated hundreds of villages and displaced thousands of mostly rural people.
Every resource available to us, from civilian to military, was called upon, and we spent days and nights taking supplies out to people stranded on the high ground and saving people and livestock with every means at our disposal, including helicopters.
In the end it caused forty-two deaths and four hundred million rands worth of damage.
But back to my story. On one occasion, I was flown to the Colley Wobbles Power Station in the corporation’s helicopter on a routine mission. I no longer remember the pilot’s name, but he was very accomplished, having gained his flying skills in the Rhodesian Bush War. As we lifted off the station’s helipad, clouds of fog that are typical of the Eastern Cape in early spring, started to roll in. By the time we had lifted above the height of the Mbashe ravine, the fog had become quite thick, with visibility starting to become restricted.
The pilot told me he would fly us to the main road that linked Mthatha to Butterworth and track the telephone lines, which in those days were strung on wooden telegraph poles along the main road. We found the road and the telegraph lines, and the pilot swung north, keeping the helicopter just above the cables, which he used to navigate back to the city.
He picked up his mic and radioed the Mthatha control tower. The conversation went something like this.
Pilot: Oscar Bravo 1468 calling Mthatha control tower. Oscar Bravo 1468 calling Mthatha control tower. Come in, over.
The radio crackled. Mthatha control tower receiving Oscar Bravo 1468, over.
Pilot: Oscar Bravo 1468 to Mthatha control tower. We are inbound Mthatha at five degrees north, north-west; altitude seven hundred feet, visibility poor. ETA thirty minutes. What are the weather conditions like at Mthatha, over.
Now, it is my experience that the answer should have been a routine technical one in which information such as the temperature, wind speed, and direction and altitude of the clouds would be communicated.
However, on this occasion, there was an extended few minutes of silence before the radio crackled once again. Mthatha control tower to Oscar Bravo 1468, over.
Pilot: Oscar Bravo receiving. Go ahead, over.
Tower controller: It’s misty.
Pilot: No shit Sherlock.
I couldn’t help but deduce that the controller had found it necessary to step outside his all-glass control room at the top of the tower to take a look, before returning to his radio!