News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Border altercation arrests walkers' trip

Posted: 22 Oct 2016 06:13 AM PDT

Two KZN adventurers, retracing the footsteps of John Ross’s 1827 journey to collect medicines, were temporarily arrested for, ironically, smuggling drugs across the border between Mozambique and SA.

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Durban - Two KwaZulu-Natal adventurers, retracing the footsteps of John Ross’s 1827 journey to collect medicines, were temporarily arrested for, ironically, smuggling drugs across the border between Mozambique and South Africa.

Legend has it that Ross walked from Durban to Maputo, as the two cities are now called, and back to fetch medicines back in 1827.

Now, 189 years later, a Mozambican soldier arrested adventurers Thommo Hart and Simphiwe Ngcobo when he found them off course near the Ponta do Ouro border.

“He thought we were drug smugglers,” Hart said, after being stopped at a route used by illegal border jumpers.

“We had been walking about 1km up and down sand dunes when suddenly a loud voice shouted at us.

“Simphiwe tried to talk to him in Zulu and tell him what we were doing and how we ended up on this path, but things only got worse.”

Eventually, a local came to their rescue and, in Portuguese, negotiated their freedom to proceed.

That seemed only a warm-up for the two as a series of arrests followed by “soldiers who popped out of nowhere” every couple of 100m.Finally they were handed over to a “commander”.

“We were escorted to a run-down office in a run-down old military building. There were three people, the commander, a woman in army uniform and what we think is the person in charge of the border post or the police.”

Much attention was given to a statement with their names written on it.

“In the background of the office was an old television set showing Goldie Hawn and Mel Gibson acting in a 1990s movie, dubbed into Portuguese.”

The two focused on the movie as the officials argued with one another about their two captives and took orders from Maputo, with Ngcobo trying to explain their mission.

Ngcobo is walking to raise funds for the Empilweni Physically Challenged Community Centre at kwaNdengezi, near Durban, and Hart is raising funds for the Pink Drive, a cancer charity, and attempting to break a barefoot running distance record.

Laughing

Once across the border, South African officials told them they all knew the short skinny commander on the Mozambique side and that he had “control issues”.

“We just laughed,”said Hart.

The two were grateful to receive permission to walk from Kosi Bay to Maphelane in the iSimangaliso National Park, making sure to make minimal impact on surroundings.

Hart explained the rules: “No penetration of dune forests, no damage to dune vegetation, no fishing, no collection of any marine life, removal of all waste and leave no trace of human engagement or activity in the wilderness area.”

One day, a lightning storm caught them off guard, forcing them to pitch their tent near Leven Point.

“There were two moments on this stretch that both of us will remember for ever.

“As the sun was setting behind a dune, there was a moment where the wind stopped and everything was silent except the waves crashing on the shore. In this moment, the light was perfect... a golden glaze across the wet sand and waves, while hundreds of crabs tried to avoid us.

“The dunes towering above us were lit on fire in a mixture of gold and red. On the horizon the full moon was creating a light blue effect across the sea.”

Hart said the other moment was at midnight when the full moon was at its brightest, lighting up the sand dunes in a light blue colour.

“It looked out of this world, as though we were on the moon itself.”

Their arrival at St Lucia as high tide reached its peak was “emotional”, Hart said.

“I had a hundred cuts on the soles of my feet and had a rock fall on to to my ankle, which is now swollen.”

Reflecting on their journey down the far northern KwaZulu-Natal stretch of coastline, Hart said he was now questioning why Ross - whose real name was Charles Maclean - walked down the beach.

“What were his reasons for deciding to walk along the beach, or did he just keep to the shorelines of the lakes inland? If his reason was to put less pressure on his bare feet, then surely he would have experienced the pain we experienced on the rocks.

“It would also have been a high risk in terms of (fresh) water resources.”

Hart wonders whether he had been influenced by Zulu king, Shaka who provided Ross with escorts and who, according to Hart, may have been “looking for a natural harbour to create his own port kingdom to trade ivory”.

Independent on Saturday

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55 dead after train derails in Cameroon

Posted: 22 Oct 2016 03:19 AM PDT

Fourteen people remained trapped under the wreck of a packed passenger train that derailed between Cameroon's two largest cities, killing at least 55 and injuring 575.

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Eseka, Cameroon - Fourteen people remained trapped on Friday under the wreckage of a packed passenger train that derailed en route between Cameroon's two largest cities, killing at least 55 and injuring 575, the government said in a communique read on state television.

The Camrail inter-city train was travelling from the capital, Yaounde, to the port city of Douala when the accident occurred near the train station in the town of Eseka, around 120km west of the capital.

“There was a loud noise. I looked back and the wagons behind us left the rails and started rolling over and over. There was a lot of smoke,” said a Reuters journalist travelling in a wagon near the front of the train.

Before its departure from Yaounde, he said that a railway employee said additional wagons had been added to the train to accommodate extra passengers, though it was unclear if that played a role in the accident.

The collapse of a section of the main highway between the capital and Douala had prompted increased numbers of passengers to undertake the journey by rail. The two incidents, which occurred on the same day, have now effectively cut the main transportation axis in the Central African country of over 22 million.

“There are the bodies of women, children. There are many,” said one employee of Camrail, which is operated by France's Bollore, speaking from the scene of the accident. He said three of his colleagues were among the victims.

Joel Bineli, a passenger on the derailed train, told Reuters he saw dismembered bodies on the tracks at the accident site.

Social media users posted photos taken at the scene of the accident which showed several wagons overturned on a slope beside the rail line.

“Rescue workers arrived and they are pulling bodies from the wagon. I've already counted around 40 bodies they've removed,” said Rachelle Paden, another passenger.

Camrail said it had sent teams to the site and the injured were being transported to a local hospital. Others were driven to Douala. It expressed its condolences to victims' families in a post on its official Facebook page.

A Bollore spokesman confirmed that an accident had occurred, but offered no further details.

Many rail lines in West and Central Africa have a reputation for poor maintenance and failing to respect safety norms. Derailments are relatively common.

Though Bollore is generally viewed as a reliable operator, it experienced another major incident last month when part of a bridge along a line it controls in Ivory Coast collapsed under the weight of a freight train.

Reuters

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