Pearl of Africa charms EC group Destroyers must depart

AFRICA has plenty to offer the adventurous tourist with wildlife experiences, magnificent scenery and a diversity of people to top the list for anyone seeking the unusual or the extraordinary.

Uganda is up with best if accounts by a group from these parts are anything to go by. They flew to Entebbe and spent 16 days touring, led by former East London radiologist and now farmer, Terry Counihan, and wife Wendy. With the couple were Graham and Joan Hart, Ann and Ray Stout, and Jenny Farr.

Recent history of Uganda is dominated by three individuals, starting with the crazed Idi Amin who seized power in a military coup in 1971 after deposing Milton Obote. Amin was in turn ousted by Obote who applied some of Amin’s brutal excesses, including human rights abuses, political repression, nepotism and corruption. As many as 800 000 people are estimated to have died in extrajudicial killings in the Amin and Obote years.

In 1986 Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Movement toppled Obote. Twenty years later, in 2006, he amended the constitution in order to run for a third term and is now in his fifth, concerns about fairness and transparency at the polls notwithstanding.

Museveni has however, been credited with restoring relative stability and economic prosperity. Certainly compared to the Amin and Obote days. But Terry says the memory of the pair lingers in the country.

Ugandans, however, accept their lot in life and the paucity of social services. They are economically active, industrious and enthusiastic about agriculture. “Farmers plant maize twice a year,” says Terry, “which is almost unheard of elsewhere in the world. In addition they grow crops like beans between the rows. A lot of sugar is produced, tea and coffee too.” Coffee, accounts for 27% of exports and is the biggest agricultural money spinner.

It may seem surprising that fishing is also big in a landlocked country, but Uganda has four of Africa’s Great Lakes on its borders, including the largest – Lake Victoria.

Most industry and commerce is related to agriculture. With ample fertile land and regular rainfall it is thought that Uganda could feed all of Africa if farmed commercially. A hectare of arable land can change hands for the equivalent of R30 000.

The touring South Africans said they were particularly struck by the stoical attitude of subsistence farmers in protecting their crops from marauding animals. “Days were warm to hot during our stay and there was a lot of rain. June and July are about the only dry months – but they stand guard over their fields day and night for six weeks or more to see that monkeys and birds don’t steal their food.”

Ugandans are very proud of their bicycles and motorbikes – boda bodas – which are the chief forms of transport. Three or more people on a motorbike with all their luggage is a norm. “Sometimes up to four or five people were riding one motorbike, or they were loaded with bananas. Bicycles, too, were reinforced to be able to carry loads. It was all very interesting.”

Economists say Uganda has great potential with tourism growing and new accommodation being built.

The day after landing at Entebbe airport the party visited nearby swamps where they saw shoebills. By the end of their trip they had 400 bird species on their lists. “Birding was difficult,” Terry said, “especially in forests with trees 40 metres high. We’d spend up to five hours in a morning scanning undergrowth. Over 200 new ‘ticks’ were identified.”

They spent two nights at most stopovers and covered 2 500km with their guide Harriet and also the driver of the 4-wheel drive diesel-powered Toyota Hi-Ace. Among places visited were Murchison Falls, Lake Albert, the Great Rift Valley and Queen Elizabeth National Park with its collection of inactive volcanoes and another five across the border in Rwanda.

It was in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Jenny Farr told me, that they were able to get up close and personal with a group of 17 gorillas including four babies, one only two days old.

Some days earlier Joan had slipped and injured her ankle badly. After hospital treatment she was lent a wheel-chair in which she was pushed around. But it had to be returned a little later so Joan was taken to see the gorillas in a wheelbarrow.

When interacting with gorillas it is important, apparently, not to look directly at the adults of the species. You must bow your head and avert your eyes to keep them calm.

But Joan was picked out by the mother gorilla who noticed her injury and brought her tiny baby over to show Joan. What a delightfully poignant moment. A highlight of the trip, I’m sure. I DO not wish to be a politician but I am at times compelled to comment on events in our country.

On the one hand the honourable deputy president is on a mission to save our economy. He is having sleepless nights seeking to ensure South Africa is not downgraded by ratings agencies.

On the other hand there is this man called the president who is not honourable but is playing personal political games with our economy.

When addressing rallies in his home province he downplays the impact of ratings agencies. He suggests their agenda is to collapse the government.

Yet we know South Africa is a corrupt country from the very top and is waiting to collapse. We also know that in defending President Jacob Zuma, the movement of the people which led the fight for the liberation is now narrating evil, in the same way the apartheid regime did.

And when you listen to the “debates” in parliament you just wish you could wake up the likes of Steve Tshwete and others. You wish you could bring back seasoned politicians who where able to think instead of the current crop who are simply told what to do and say.

We are also continuously fed lies by Luthuli House about how the branches are responding to current issues. I’m not sure which branches these are because there are no branches – rather certain individuals carrying certain agendas pursuing certain goals known only to themselves.

Not all the veterans are saying Zuma must resign but those wanting him to do so would have said so. Once governance fails things fall apart.

I’m not praying for the demise of the ANC but for the departure of those leading it into its grave.

Almost forgot, Gwede Mantashe are nominations open? Your leagues are already campaigning, if you had not noticed. — Z Tikana, East Peelton