The road from Mthatha to Shawbury Mission and the beautiful Tsitsa Falls follows the eastern edge of the former Transkei capital through towards Qumbu. If you don’t pay attention you may miss the sign a few metres after you cross the Tsitsa bridge, directing you rightward to the old mission of Shawbury.
A Methodist mission founded in 1839 and named after missionary pioneer Rev William Shaw, it has since 1880 been home to a secondary school for girls. Among its alumnae are Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Nontsikelelo Biko. Not too far from the mission via a rocky gravel road are the majestic Tsitsa Falls.
The falls stand at the centre of a multibillion-rand hydropower, bulkwater and tourism project, the Umzimvubu Multipurpose Project, which is considered “catalytic” in the long-term One Plan of the OR Tambo District under the district development model. The falls are also home to beautiful but concerningly vacant and underutilised chalets and villas — a reminder of how inchoate and at times fragmented, even the well-intentioned of our policies of rural and agrarian change can be.
On the road to the Shawbury junction on the N2 from Mthatha to Qumbu we were confronted with large yellow metal equipment, contractors, construction workers and trucks ferrying rocks and rubble. This project, undertaken by national roads agency Sanral, was stalled last September by militant and unemployed youth of Mbutho village demanding jobs. The youth also raised issues about access roads in their own villages, which were in a deep state of disrepair.
Correctly, the youth had recognised alongside their call for jobs, that while “catalytic”, the advanced technology deployed to construct new lanes for the road from Mthatha to eThekwini would do nothing for their poorly repaired gravel access roads, which should connect to the economically critical artery that is the N2.
Limited materials
The blood flow of the local village economies in this area is determined by the pressure and force with which its products and people can move between these villages and regional centres such as Mthatha and smaller towns such as Qumbu and KwaBhaca. But it also determines the pace, frequency and scale of the inward flow of tourists, products and investment into scenic places such as Tsitsa Falls, and historic sites such as Shawbury.
These access roads are maintained by Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers with limited materials, supervision or support to enable them to go beyond filling potholes in gravel with sand, and are faced with limited pathways to earning and learning opportunities.
The Tsitsa Falls precinct is also the site of an EPWP project that may benefit from a better combination of heavy machinery and labour to flatten the windy gravel road, which now requires an off-road vehicle. A Johannesburg-based actor and filmmaker we met when we finally drove past Shawbury to get to the Tsitsa Falls suggested he wanted to use the area as a film set, but decried the bad roads and bureaucratic process to access support for productions, which can yield local spin-offs.
Catalytic projects
The identified catalytic projects would certainly benefit the area, and public employment projects such as the EPWP present an economic lifeline for the many households in the Shawbury area that are reliant on grants. What is worthy of discussion is how the N2 and Umzimvubu projects can speed up the “economic reactions” that are crucial to providing a semblance of life to many of these distressed areas.
The Tsitsa Falls and river, flowing strongly after recent rains, may be the source of not just the water and power we all need, but an embryonic lab for an integrated socioeconomic intervention.
What if the large graders and heavy machinery we see on the Sanral road were to go deeper into the hinterland to work on the access roads to our treasured sites and tourist attractions, to catalyse economic activity and employment where none existed before?
• Cawe, a development economist, is MD of Xesibe Holdings and hosts MetroFMTalk on Metro FM.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.