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Thursday. There’s a group of men armed with sharpened metal rods at Ulundi 19.
Ulundi 19 is where the R66 to Nongoma intersects with the R34 from the coast. Ulundi 19 is a popular hitchhiking spot for people trying to get to Vryheid. Strangely enough, it’s 19km from Ulundi, the seat of government of the KwaZulu Bantustan back in the day when the Grumpy Chief (that’s Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Mangosuthu Buthelezi to you) was chief minister, minster of economic affairs and, when he wasn’t too busy writing the world’s longest speech, minister of police. It’s also where ANC campaign vehicles were burnt on April 17 1994, just before the first democratic elections, by a group of men who were armed with, among other things, sharpened metal rods.
Fortunately, things have changed a bit since then. It’s also a few days before voting day, but this group of men with sharpened metal rods have a different agenda. They’re spearing the piles of plastic Coke bottles and KFC boxes that months – maybe even years – of hikers have left behind when they got their ride to Vryheid or Ulundi. The only thing that will be burnt today is the pile of rubbish they have collected.
Closer to Ulundi’s oldest township, Unit A, where everything was named after Shenge, Buthelezi’s clan name, during his years in charge, we hit a stop-and-go. The potholed surface is being replaced after decades. A bit ahead of us, a small fleet of cherry-pickers are at work, lifting technicians who are installing streetlights on a stretch of road that has been unlit since before my first trip to the town in 1986. Wires peep out of the inspection hatches; they’re not connected yet.
I climb out to stretch my legs. Past the cherry-pickers, I spot a crew of landscapers planting shrubs and flowers on the corner of Mangosuthu Buthelezi Highway and Princess Magogo Street. (Shenge named that one after his mum. Cute!) This corner has been a barren wasteland since time immemorial, and now it’s being landscaped six days before elections. What a coincidence.
I look upwards. Shenge is beaming down at me from this 3m-high IFP election banner. The man you can trust. It’s a lovely message. There’s only one problem: Shenge’s about 400 years old. Maybe even older if he played competitive football as a youngster. The cat on the poster’s got no wrinkles. Either Shenge’s head has been airbrushed to make him look younger, or somebody’s sprayed Botox on thousands of election posters, which must have been expensive.
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