THE MIGHTY ... has fallen
When the giant baobab came crashing down it sounded like a Boeing 747
LINDIWE Matlali is teaching kids to knit — not to be able to rustle up booties or blankets, but so that they can learn computer coding through casting on and spotting the difference between plain and purl stitches.
Matlali, the founder and CEO of Johannesburg-based Africa Teen Geeks, one of Africa’s largest nonprofit technology education organisations, said access to computers was one of the biggest challenges facing South African schools. She found that schools with computers did not necessarily have access to the internet and the computers were often old or did not work. IN its prime it made it to the front page of the Wall Street Journal and featured on the television show Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Thousands of tourists have come to see this natural wonder in Limpopo.
But in keeping with its majestic presence, the gigantic Sunland baobab in Modjadjiskloof bowed out with a mighty crash on April 13. In its glory days it was 22m tall, and with a circumference of 47m it had the widest girth of any tree in South Africa. Now it is half its original size.
The spectacular collapse brought heartache to fruit farmers Doug and Heather van Heerden who have cared for the colossus since buying Sunland, their 110ha farm, in 1989.
“It sounded like a Boeing 747 starting in the garden for five minutes before there was a mighty crash. My little house shook and it woke everyone up,” said Heather.
In 1993 the couple built a pub and wine cellar inside the tree which, according to some estimates, is 6 000 years old. The drinking hole attracted visitors from all over the world and once hosted a party for 60 people. Now the tree bar has lost its roof.
It is not the first time a part of the baobab has broken off. In August last year, a third of its trunk collapsed.
“Doug and I are absolutely devastated by the collapse of this ancient, beautiful legend. Never ever did we imagine that it would fall in our lifetime,” Heather told the Sunday Times this week.
They believe the tree toppled because of old age.
At least seven out of 10 of Africa’s largest baobabs have collapsed. Last year the Chapmans baobab in Botswana, considered a national monument, crashed to the ground.
Baobabs are protected by the National Forest Act and the Sunland baobab is listed as a champion tree by the Department of Forestry.
The trees are protected because of their size, age, and aesthetic, cultural, historic and tourism value.
Despite the collapse of part of the tree, Heather believes the legacy of the Sunland baobab will endure.
“We’re hoping that it will grow again. Although this champion tree is a shadow of its former self, it is still magical and awe-inspiring,” she said.
Although this tree is a shadow of its former self, it is still magical and awe-inspiring