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Licenses - Fishing Permits
Wednesday, 9 May, 2007 - 11:31

LICENSES 

UPDATE December 2023: You can get a permit ONLINE. Go to https://www.fishing.dffe.gov.za/ords/r/epermit/permitwebapp/login and "create a new account".

Fishing, spearfishing, boating and crayfish licenses (amongst others) are available from any Post Office in South Africa.

CLOSED SEASONS 
Elf/Shad: 1 September -30 November

Galjoen: 15 October -last day February
Crayfish: 1 November - end February (bag limit is 8 crayfish per person/license.)

East Coast Rock Lobster (Crayfish) Regulations
1. Closed season: 1 November to the last day of February of the following year, both dates inclusive.

2. Minimum size: 65 mm - measured in a straight line from the point where the tail meets the body to the tip of the spine between the rock lobster’s eyes.

3. No person may collect more than eight east coast rock lobster per day.

4. No person may be in possession of or transport more than eight east coast rock lobster at any time.

5. No person shall engage in fishing, collecting or disturbing east coast rock lobster with the use of a vessel.

6. No person shall engage in fishing, collecting or disturbing any East Coast rock lobster with a trap other than:

6.1 a flat circular trap with no sides and which diameter does not exceed 30 cm;

or

6.2 by means of baited hooks.

For more information phone: (021) 402-3911 or consult the Amended Regulations (R24 of 14 January 2000) in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998

MARINE RECREATIONAL FISHING

GENERAL REGULATIONS
1. No person shall, except on authority of a recreational permit obtainable from the South African Postal Services, engage in recreational fishing.

2. No person shall sell, barter or trade any fish caught through recreational fishing.

3. No recreational fishing permit is transferable from one person to another.

4. A persona of a recreational permit shall not use any artificial breathing apparatus, other that a snorkel.

5. No person shall, engage in fishing, collect or disturb any fish by means of a gaff, club, flail, stick, stone or similar implement.

6. No person shall engage in fishing, except for octopus, cuttlefish or squid, by the jerking of a hook or jig in the sea jigging), with the intention of impaling the fish thereon.

7. No person shall engage in the fishing, collection or disturbing of any fish with a speargun in a tidal river or tidal lagoon.

8. No person shall use any cast net for fishing from sunset to sunrise.

9. No person shall disturb, catch, kill or be in possession of any dolphin or any part or product derived thereof.

10. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, disturb, catch or kill any whales at any time, or approach closer than 300 m to a whale.

11. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, attract by using bait or any other means, any great white shark, or catch, attempt to catch, kill or attempt to kill any great white shark, or purchase, sell or offer for sale any part or product derived thereof.

12. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, damage, uproot, collect or land or attempt to damage, uproot, collect or land any live or dead coral.

13. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, engage in fishing, collecting or disturbing any live or empty pansy shell.

14. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, engage in fishing, collecting or removing any aquatic plants, except for own use and in quantities not exceeding 10 kg aquatic plants, however, 1 kg dead shells or 50 kg shellgrit per day is permitted without a permit.

15. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, damage, pick, uproot, collect or land or attempt to damage, pick, uproot, collect or land any live or dead sea fans or sea pens.

16. No person shall, without a permit issued by the Director-General, culture any marine organisms.

17. No person shall, except with the authority of a permit, catch any fish or collect any aquatic plants for commercial purposes.

For more information phone: (021) 402-3911 or consult the Amended Regulations (R24 of 14 January 2000) in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998

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Ecology or Economy - Debunking a myth
Monday, 8 December, 2008 - 09:32

Open letter to the Press (Author unknown)

Dear Editor

The N2 ‘Wild Coast’ Toll Rd EIA appears to have resurrected a widespread and extremely short-sighted myth which is common in economic circles. This myth is that ecological losses are justified if they result in economic gains.
The N2 Toll Road EIA points out that the proposed highway will result in substantial damage to the environment, particularly the extension through the ‘Greenfields’ section which traverses the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism. It defends these negative environmental impacts by claiming that economic benefits will outweigh ecological losses. This myth has been widely perpetuated by a number of local media reports concerning the N2 project.

It is beyond belief how such an outdated notion continues to be perpetuated in the twenty first century, when one considers the perilous state of the planet and incontrovertible evidence to the contrary by significant numbers of internationally accepted studies that show that environmental degradation invariably leads to decreasing social well-being and is economically costly.
In 1997 the United Nations, in its Human Development Report, said that poverty relief measures went hand in hand with reversing ‘environmental degradation’, securing ‘sustainable livelihoods’, improving employment prospects and creating ‘an enabling environment for small scale agriculture, microenterprises and the informal sector’.

In 2002, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development here in South Africa, Kofi Annan, then UN Secretary General, stated ‘…a path to prosperity that ravages the environment and leaves a majority of humankind behind in squalor will soon prove to be a dead-end road for everyone.”

The Millennium Assessment of 2005 showed that ‘the degradation of ecosystem services represents loss of a capital asset’ and furthermore that ‘loss of eco-systems services are seldom, if ever, brought into the balance sheet of GDP. When loss through unsustainable use is factored into GDP, many of the developing countries that show positive GDP growth are actually experiencing net loss of capital, with dire consequences for future growth.’

The UNEP 4th Global Environmental Outlook report of 2007 states, ‘development strategies often ignore the need to maintain the very ecosystem services on which long-term development goals depend…’. Both the UNDP and GEO4 state that poverty relief in many instances is interdependent upon reversing environmental degradation and nurturing sustainable livelihoods.
The 2007 South African National Framework on Sustainable Development argued for recognition of ‘non-negotiable ecological thresholds’ (NFSD, DEAT, 2007:21) that need to be reserved in order to maintain natural capital stocks over time. This ‘integrated approach’ emphasizes that the sustainable functioning of social and economic structures are dependent upon maintaining and working within the capacity of the environment to maintain and regenerate itself.

And most recently, WWF International’s 2008 Living Planet report states…..’Devastating though the financial credit crunch has been, it's nothing as compared to the ecological recession that we are facing…. The more than $2 trillion lost on stocks and shares is dwarfed by the up to $4.5 trillion worth of natural resources destroyed forever each year.’

Given our considerable and irrefutable scientific proof of the current parlous state of our planet it is difficult to know how the myth that supposed economic gains can supplement for lost ecosystem functioning keep being perpetuated. Our own South African Environmental Outlook report, published in 2007 by the DEAT, makes it abundantly clear that South Africa cannot be at all complacent when it comes to the state of our environment, if we are to have any hope of pursuing a sustainable path.

Here are perhaps a few reasons that this myth is still so widespread:
First, it serves the short term interests of business and political leaders who stand to gain short term private profits or ‘kudos’ from maintaining this illusion.
Second, it comes about because of a reductionist approach to development which divides social, economic and ecological functions into separate, unrelated ‘boxes’, instead of seeing that these are all completely inter-dependent with each other.
Third, it comes out of a widely-held belief that humans and human society are somehow ‘separate’ from nature and from natural systems, with no understanding that whatever happens to natural systems will ultimately affect what happens to humans.

Belief in this myth is leading us to the brink of catastrophic ecological collapse which threatens the foundations of modern civilization. Climate change, the collapse of vast sea fisheries, doubling of reactive nitrogen and tripling of phosphorous since 1960, mass conversion of biomes - primarily to agriculture, a 6th great extinction of species due to habitat loss, and declining genetic diversity are all symptoms of a belief in this myth. And now it is being used as justification to put the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism at risk by ill-conceived corporate driven infrastructure proposals in the form of the N2 Toll road ‘Wild Coast’ extension and the mining venture.

Surely it is time to debunk this myth once and for all for the unmitigated rubbish that it is, and advance development proposals that improve the capacity of our natural systems to deliver ‘natural capital’ in support of human society, and thus enhance benefits to society as a whole, rather than insisting on development strategies that degrade our life-supporting systems?

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dgkvztcd_95f7k2zxhj

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Hiking the Wild Coast
Thursday, 6 November, 2008 - 15:41

 

Really experience it:

Hike along the pristine stretch of coastline from Port St Johns to Coffee Bay, and stay along the way in traditional Xhosa huts.

Contact: Jimmy Selani, the Tour Guide from Mtumbane (PSJ) on 082 507 2256 (+27 international dialing code), or check their website for more info: www.wildcoasthikes.com.

Jimmy was voted South African Tourism's 'Best Emerging Guide of the Year 2004'. Charismatic and fluent in English, he's a fount of information on the area and its people - the perfect chaperone.

UPDATE: There is now an official website: www.wildcoasthikes.com

A walk on the wild side
By Fiona McIntosh (http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/article.php?page_id=2031)

Trekking between local settlements along the wave-bashed Wild Coast, Fiona McIntosh finds deserted beaches, shipwrecks and a very warm welcome.

Anyone for a beer?" inquired Jimmy, holding up a plastic carton. Even in the dim light of the mud hut the milky brew looked vile.

"Er, no chance of a Castle, then?" inquired Matthew nervously.

The barman pulled a young man from his 'seat' and hoiked out a big brown bottle. "It's not cold," warned Jimmy.

"That's OK - I'm English," Matthew assured him. "We drink our beer warm."

The shebeen - the local pub - was somewhat lacking in amenities: no fridge, beer crates for bar stools and a paraffin lamp flickering in the corner. But it was more than we'd been expecting. We were on a trail, out in the wilds in a hilltop village on South Africa's Eastern Cape, miles from the nearest road. Just to get a beer was a treat.

THE REALLY WILD SHOW
The Wild Coast, or Transkei, is one of the country's most remote and inaccessible stretches of seashore - and prime hiking country. It was an independent homeland until 1994 and is still a very separate, distinct part of South Africa, full of tradition and local colour. Nelson Mandela is its most famous son.

The scenery is spectacular. Empty white-sand beaches are separated by steep green hills, dramatic cliffs and rocky headlands while little villages - clusters of circular mud huts - dot the hillsides. A marked hiking trail once ran the length of the Transkei coast from the Umtamvuna River just south of Port Edward to the Kei River near East London. Sadly, most of the trail huts are derelict so only hardy, self-sufficient trekkers attempt the full 280km whack, but guided hikes are possible on most sections. I've hiked them all; the charm of the Wild Coast draws me back time and time again.

The best known - arguably the classic -Wild Coast hike is the Wild Coast Meander, a magnificent luxury hike along the flatter southern part of the coast staying in quaint seaside hotels. On the tougher five-day Drifter's Trail from Msikaba to Port St Johns there is no accommodation other than the superbly located hikers' huts, so you see barely a soul en route.

But if you sign up for a guided hike between Port St Johns and the Hole in the Wall with young black entrepreneur Jimmy Selani you're in for a special treat. Not only is this strenuous hike one of the finest coastal walks in the world but, staying in local villages, it's a chance to really immerse yourself in this unique region.

Jimmy first hit the headlines when he was awarded the title of South African Tourism's 'Best Emerging Guide of the Year 2004'. Charismatic and fluent in English, he's a fount of information on the area and its people - the perfect chaperone.

I found him quite by chance when I inquired about hiring a porter for a Wild Coast hike. Port St Johns Tourism suggested I go one better and take a guide as well, foregoing the hikers' huts for community accommodation. It was sound advice. We were greeted as long-lost friends at every stop, put up by our community hosts in clean rondavels (circular mud-huts), fed the local fare, introduced to flamboyant chiefs and sangomas (traditional healers) and invited to join in local celebrations.

HITTING THE TRAIL
Boots laced, and accompanied by a couple of valiant porters, we set off from Port St Johns, a sleepy, relaxed seaside town that hasn't quite emerged from the era of flower power and long-haired hippies. Jimmy took us on a tour of the local sites including the ramshackle Millennium Bar where, on a wooden deck perched out high above the crashing sea, he had ushered in 2001.

"This is the informal settlement, the shanty town of Port St Johns," he laughed, "but it's got the best views in the place."

We scrambled to the gorgeous coves of Second Beach then climbed up through the coastal forest of the Silaka Nature Reserve to a clifftop vantage point for an overview of the route - rounded promontories, sandy bays and crashing waves as far as the eye could see.

Before long we were accompanied by a gaggle of scruffy kids. "Where you come from?" they giggled as they jogged to keep pace. "London," we responded, to blank looks. Jimmy translated into his native Xhosa but the wide-eyed expressions that greeted his clarification told me we might as well have said "from Mars". The boys walked with us to the village, brazenly striding in as the other kids scurried away.
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The sight of the broken wreckage of ships in the spray and on the wave-cut platform just offshore was haunting
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We were shown to our home for the night -a spotlessly clean rondavel where, after a welcome shower, we spread out our sleeping bags then sat outside alongside elegant women smoking long pipes, listening to the sounds of the crashing sea and trying to master a few words of Xhosa. Cheeky kids poked their heads out from the kitchen while our hostesses - babies strapped to their backs with bright kikois (sarongs) - smiled as they cooked our dinner, the traditional staple of pap, meat and sauce. Life is simple here, but the people, though desperately poor, are proud and strong. The grace, humility and sense of fun that we associate with Mandela are widespread in his homeland.

BOATS & BEER
Heading off the next morning, we passed the wreck of the Aster, which went aground at Sharks' Point near Mpande, then the Forresbank, a British freighter that caught fire and ran aground in 1958. Not much of either remains, but the sight of the broken wreckage in the spray and on the wave-cut platform was haunting.

"The area is called the Wild Coast after its treacherous waters," Jimmy explained. "It's littered with wrecks. These ones are so close to shore that they've been scavenged."

It wasn't just the waves that we feared. Later that day we came to a wide estuary where Jimmy told us to take off our shoes and wade across. The cold, tannin-stained water was a tonic for our weary feet, and we heard the evocative 'cry of Africa' as a fish eagle soared overhead. But as we trod gingerly across, Nigel, the clown in the party, sneaked up behind his wife and grabbed her by her ankle. As she screamed and raced for the bank he reminded us that sharks hang out in the estuaries. Thanks Nige. At the larger estuaries young men ferried us across in rickety old boats - equally terrifying.

After a night in the shebeen we were delighted to be staying close to a local backpackers' lodge, The Kraal. A mini fortress with commanding views over the crashing ocean and a cool bar decorated with driftwood, flotsam and shells, it has the feel of a surfers' haunt. Its cold beer was a welcome break from warm Castle.

OUT OF THIS WORLD
As we summitted a hill the next morning, the amazing views as much as the exertion taking our breath away, a youth stuck his head out of an isolated rondavel, white clay covering his face and naked torso. Jimmy explained that he was Abakhwetha, an initiate who was undergoing the rite of passage from boyhood to manhood.

This traditional practice, involving circumcision, education and survival in a hostile environment, is still an important part of life in this area of the world.

We learned more about life on this productive coastline later in the day as we sat on the rocks with gaggles of women who'd been harvesting molluscs and redbait on the low tide. We slurped down fresh oysters as they laughed at their images on our digital camera screens.

But for most of the trail we hiked silently, enjoying the bright red aloes, the great sweeping bends, mudflats and mangroves of the rivers and the sense of space. We photographed our favourite Wild Coast sight (cattle and goats promenading on the beach), stopped to swim when the fancy took us, and rummaged for shells and pieces of Chinese porcelain when Jimmy pointed out likely treasure troves. In short, we slowed down to Wild Coast pace.

As we neared the end of the trail the glorious sands of Coffee Bay and the dramatic rock arch of the Hole in the Wall came into view. It had been a real adventure and - as the waves crashed on - we rued the fact that it was time to re-enter the real world.

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The Times' Ben Travato takes on the sand...
Monday, 8 September, 2008 - 09:11

7 September 2008

Rt Hon Madame Buyelwa Sonjica
Minister of Minerals and Energy
Private Bag X59
Pretoria 0001

Dear Minister,

Congratulations on your decision to allow the Australians to mine the Wild Coast. As a child, my parents would force me to accompany them on camping trips to Mtentu estuary. I look back on those times with hatred in my heart. I always seemed to have sand up my nose and a bluebottle down my bathing costume. The sun was too hot and the water too cold. Once a crab almost took off my foot, and I remember looking at the estuary and thinking that one day someone will come along and destroy you. And I will laugh.

Now, after all these years, I finally get to have my laugh. Thank you for that. You are a magnificent woman and I wouldn’t hesitate to marry you if we both weren’t married already.

I see in the papers that the bunny-hugging lentil munchers are after your blood. How dare they? This country has more nature than it knows what to do with and I, for one, would far rather visit a titanium strip mine than a stupid lagoon and a bunch of dumb trees. After being forced to waste two years of your life as minister of water affairs and forestry, I am not surprised that you feel the same as I do.

I understand that for the Australians to get to the titanium, they are going to have to flatten the coastal dunes. This is wonderful news. In my opinion, there is nothing more useless than a sand dune. It just sits there, year after year, contributing nothing to the national economy. A bit like the local people, I suppose.

The Xolobeni Mineral Sands Project — which should win you a Nobel prize — will offer the natives the opportunity to earn an honest living.

Being a sensitive nation keenly aware of its social responsibilities, the Australians will doubtlessly reward the indigenous tribes by providing them with all the benefits that an international mining company brings to an area. Obviously, there will be free programmes to deal with alcohol abuse, and penicillin jabs for those who contract syphilis. But there will also be schools, hospitals, gymnasiums, sports fields, golf estates, equestrian centres, bottle stores, brothels and theme parks for the kids to enjoy when dad takes his annual day off from the mine.

I was relieved to hear that you granted the licence to our antipodean comrades without consulting the people who live along this unproductive stretch of coastline. Peasants will talk until the cows come home, but it all falls apart once you bring out the paperwork. Twenty years ago, my father asked a local headman if we could camp on his land, and the village elders are still considering his request.

You are a cabinet minister and you do not need anyone’s permission to do anything. Don’t worry about that meddling lawyer, Richard Spoor, and his spurious claims that the mining licence is illegal. You have already pointed out at a public meeting that he is a white man and nothing more needs to be said. His credibility is in tatters.

SA would not be where it is today without people who understand the value of exploitation.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Trovato

(http://www.thetimes.co.za/Careers/Article.aspx?id=837204)

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Xhosa Calendar
Saturday, 9 June, 2007 - 11:45

The Xhosa months of the year are poetically named after stars and seasonal plants of Southern Africa. The Xhosa year traditionally began in June and ended in May, when Canopus, the brightest star visible in the Southern Hemisphere, signalled the time for harvesting. In urban areas today, anglicised versions of the months are used, especially by the younger generation. But in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape – the old names still stand.

  • January - EyoMqungu (month of the Tambuki Grass)
  • February - EyoMdumba (month of the swelling grain)
  • March - EyoKwindla (month of the first fruits)
  • April - uTshaz'iimpuzi (month of the withering pumpkins)
  • May - EyeCanzibe (month of Canopus)
  • June - EyeSilimela (month of the Pleiades)
  • July - EyeKhala (month of the aloes)
  • August - EyeThupha (month of the buds)
  • September - EyoMsintsi (month of the coast coral tree)
  • October - EyeDwarha (month of the tall yellow daisies)
  • November - EyeNkanga (month of the small yellow daisies)
  • December - EyoMnga - (month of the acacia§ thorn tree)

§ Update: December was listed incorrectly as the month of the mimosa thorn tree. But as mimosa is not indigenous to South Africa, and only would have arrived here a few hundred years ago from South America; December should actually be the "month of the acacia thorn tree". Oxford English-Xhosa Dictionary backs this up. 

~Jeff - Oct '16

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The Wild Coast Gold Rush
Wednesday, 30 May, 2007 - 13:06

Pioneer Lodge, the first cottage at Hole in the Wall, has a sign on it saying 1894. Rumor has it that it was only during WWII that any others were built; as the Resorts Board created incentives for people (allies) to locate there during the War to keep lookout for German U-Boats rumored to be receiving stores and fuel along the Wild Coast - near Hole in the Wall and Coffee Bay, specifically.

So around that time generous individual plots of land were leased on a 3 year quitrent system, and under certain provisos granted by the Headman of the area, to the respective holiday home owners.

Now the question as to why these holiday resorts were treated differently to everywhere else along the coast of South Africa (since long before 1948, and right up till the present) remains a very good one. Where no land claim disputes exist - for example - why shouldn't the cottage owners simply have retrospective rights to full title-deed? Possession is still 9/10 of the law in the greater scheme of things, and most of the Wild Coast beach resorts were never previously inhabited - only visited occasionally by wandering Strandlopers.

But instead, since reincorporation in 1994, the Wild Coast has been held firmly in a stasis with a moratorium against any developments within 1000m from the high water mark.

Prior to that, in fact, there were 10 long years of destabilization within the Transkei: from 1984 on, when a student protest (over the right to congregate) ended in teargas and rubber bullets - and approximately 380 assorted "dissidents", mainly from the University of Transkei, were rounded up and kept incarcerated at various prisons around the Transkei for over 18 months .

Coup attempt followed coup after the Matanzima brothers' era of puppet-string leadership finally ended in 1987- mercifully along with the over 3 year long "state of emergency" with it's curfew and all the arbitrary arrests. Finally things stabilized somewhat under the benign military dictatorship of Bantu Holomisa - but during the prelude to reincorporation into South Africa - from '88 onwards - the Transkei became even more of a hothouse of political activity than before and tourists were well advised to stay away. Also, though he denies it publicly, Bantu Bonke was openly hosting APLA and MK cadres in the homeland[1].

After 1994 - Reincorporation, with the subsequent integration attempt of the soldiers from the Transkei into the SANDF, plus the liquidation of many parastatals such as Capital Radio and Transkei Airways, combined with the moving of most government departments to Bisho proved disastrous for the Transkeian people. Formerly thriving organizations retrenched staff and downsized desperately in an attempt to survive as the local economy was diminished by more than half it's workforce virtually overnight. Many however - including several liquor-stores, which are believed to usually thrive in a depression - closed their doors permanently.

It's always struck me as sadly ironic how cruelly the tide of destiny turned on the homeland that gave birth to so many sons of the struggle - especially our legendary icon of political freedom, Nelson Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela. It appears now almost as if some care is being taken to erase all evidence of the existence of the Transkei in history regardless of other factors, such as Shaka and Hintsa for example, which contributed to the creation of the Transkei well before the Nats thought up apartheid. So the Transkei should not be mistaken for a geo-political area that came into being only out of the polities of the National Party after 1948. It's status in fact as the Xhosa heartland antedates the consequent bantustan association by over a century.

1] homeland: | ˈhōmˌland | (noun) a person's or a people's native land : historical any of ten partially self-governing areas in South Africa designated for particular indigenous African peoples under the former policy of apartheid.

George Bush Jr. (in the New Millenium's lexicon) has practically verbalized the noun into something which - coupled with security - strikes a fearful chord not entirely dissimilar to "de vaderland uber alles."

In stark counterpoint the Home Lands have more recently been immortalized into popular culture thanx to Busta Rhymes' classic remix of Rastaman Chant.

Take it back to the Home Land
Where the holy sacred and pure is at
Na'mean?

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Nongqawuse
Thursday, 12 April, 2007 - 21:46

1856 was a bad year for the Xhosa nation of the Wild Coast.

Their lands had been taken by the British, drought had withered their crops, and their prized cattle were dwindling under a mysterious disease.

The people were facing a hard winter when hope came in the shape of a young girl called Nongqawuse, the niece of a prophet. Nongqawuse claimed that the spirits of the ancestors had spoken to her from a pool in the Gxara River.

If the people would only kill all their cattle and burn their crops, a day would come when new cattle and crops would arise along with an army of the ancestors who would drive the whites into the sea.

The "vision" took hold among the desperate people, who followed her orders.

By February 1957 more than 200 000 cattle had been slaughtered and left to rot. All the summer crops had been burnt.

The allotted day dawned and nothing happened. The weakened population began to starve and within a few months more than a third of the entire Xhosa people had died of starvation and disease.

It was easy for the British to take over the remnants of the tattered Xhosa kingdom and imprison the chiefs for their role in this ??genocide??.

Nongqawuse was taken to Robben Island for her own safety but her people were broken.

The 1856 cattle killing has receded into legend and its tragic manifestation is Nongqawuse's pool, which can still be seen on guided tours from the resort of Qolora Mouth on the Strandloper Coast.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nongqawuse for more info.

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