Port St Johns Stories

The Selous Scouts in Port St Johns The region known as Transkei in South Africa , gained self rule in 1963; and became a semi autonomous area. Then in 1976, it became an independent homeland. The Republic of Transkei. Inserting Banana before Republic is optional, but recommended. There was nothing independent about Transkei ; it was financially controlled by South Africa , who poured a million Rands into it on a daily basis. And one million was a lot of money then. South African taxpayers (read: whites – blacks didn’t pay much tax, if any), footed this enormous bill every day. Angola , and one in Mozambique , and….)   on the government coffers, the economy didn’t collapse. The Port St Johns aitstrip in the military base on Mount Thesiger Without complaining, after all, who said anything against the President? And it just goes to show how hard working South Africans are – with this enormous drain (actually, one of many, there were other ‘independent homela...

The Little Red Aeroplane The view south from Mthumbane Township, Port St Johns It had another wonderful Wild Coast weekend. Beautiful hot weather, good friends, fun things had happened. It was Sunday afternoon, Sunday brunches and lunches were over, people were relaxed, some taking afternoon naps, others catching the last bit of sun. Others had gone for constitutionals, walking along assorted beaches. One local was birdwatching, and was disturbed by a low flying helicopter. Idly she trained her binoculars on the helicopter as she watched it fly over First Beach and then disappear out of sight. She had no conscious memory of having memorized its ZA – number. A phone call came through to a local resident – a plane had just been seen crashing in to the sea, not far from shore. The description was ‘ a little red plane flying south’. Well, this was Sunday afternoon, the caller was known to enjoy a good many beers, and well, this sounded like he’d had one too many. ...