IF YOU READ ABOUT AN UNUSUAL EVENT AND IT MAKES YOU SAY: "WH-A-A-A-T, I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" CHANCES ARE IT HAPPENED IN THE EASTERN CAPE: WHERE THE UNUSUAL IS THE NORM, AS THIS BLOG SETS OUT TO PROVE

OCTOBER, 2014: DASSIE IN THE DOCK Dassies, also known as rock-rabbits, abound in the Eastern Cape and we've all heard about criminals being on the run and other 'hare'-raising stories from our courts, but I couldn't believe what I was reading when I saw the headline "Dassie on the run in the high court". And it didn't happen in a rural court as you might expect, it happened in the High Court, Port Elizabeth, right in the middle of the city! The poor animal was first spotted under a car in the carpark but after being flushed out, ran into the building and took refuge in one of the courts where a defence advocate, Khaya Saziwa, caught the dassie using his jacket and released it in a nearby park. Kind-hearted Khaya commented that as he had grown up in Transkei he had been used to catching dassies. The nearest relative is the elephant. Just as well it wasn't an elephant that Khaya had to catch! LIFE'S A DRAG There've been a number of cigarette heists in an around East London of late. First it was reported that there had been 6 heists within the space of two weeks. A couple of days later the number of heists was up to 10 and they were suspected to be the work of a syndicate. Clearly they had a serious nicotine addiction but a week later their luck ran out when they pulled off their 12th heist which ended up in a wild chase and a shootout and a suspect was arrested. The life of a policeman can sometimes be a fag but hopefully the other members of the syndicate will soon be smoked out. SOMETHING'S BURNING There's a serial 'carsonist' on the loose in East London. A 'carsonist' in case you're wondering is someone who likes to set motor cars alight. Whoever the so-called "firebug' is, he's been at it since at 1997 with incidents in Baysville, Quigney, Bunkers Hill, Selborne, Vincent, Stirling and Nahoon. He's struck again twice in the past week but doesn't seem to have a liking for any particular type of vehicle. First it was a VW Polo and the latest was an Audi. The 'carsonist's' modus operandi is always the same, he strikes in the early hours of the morning and ignites a bag of petrol-soaked seasand under the vehicle. So if you own an Uno Fire, you should be especially careful. RIP A controversy has erupted over the burial place of the spirit of the Xhosa warrior and prophet Makhanda Nxele who was famous for his unsuccessful attack on Grahamstown in 1819. He drowned the following year trying to escape from imprisonment on Robben Island and his body was never recovered so last year his descendants arranged for a symbolic burial of his spirit at his family home near Berlin. But now different groups of Makhanda's descendants are unhappy about the location of the grave and are also asking questions about the R1,35m that was supposed to have been spent on the project. Questions about the money are all very well, but if a spirit is buried is it necessarily confined to that place? Isn't the essence of a spirit that it is intangible and is all places and everywhere at once? Just asking. BAGGING THE DEAL How many black bags (the things we put our refuse in) can one buy for R17m? That's a question I found myself asking myself when I read about yet more fishy business surrounding an R17m tender issued by the Buffalo City Municipality to a certain Masiqhame Trading. The tender was awarded on 29 June 2012 and an order for R1,1m bags was processed the same day before the supplier had even accepted. How's that for efficiency?! SUCH GENEROSITY Bunkers Hill, East London, is prime real estate. In 1998 the Municipality sold a piece of public open space to someone, we aren't told who, for R55 000 (a giveaway price even then) provided it was developed either as a botanical garden or bird park with public access. Now it's been decided to lift the restriction and that the unnamed beneficiary can build an apartment block on the property with the municipality waiving its right to buy the property back at the original price! MUD,GLORIOUS MUD Mining illegally for gold and diamonds I can understand, but mining illegally for mud....?! That's something else. And sabunga, as I know it, is the very worst kind of mud. It has its uses such as to repair and resurface dirt roads but when it gets wet it's lethal. The illegal sabunga mining is happening just off Settlers Way, East London, and is threatening to cause a road collapse. The municipality is promising to "undertake an awareness drive pertaining to consequences of illegal mining of road layer works while undertaking a parallel exercise of replacing and compacting the sections and the layer works which have been illegally mined." FLAGGING BEACH FORTUNES Gonubie's beach has lost its "Blue Flag" status because the municipality forget to apply for it to be renewed, or so it is said. Perhaps it was a case of them knowing that the beach would most likely not qualify given the current tatty state of its amenities. In the meantime, the Nahoon Beach has been "red-flagged" because of sewerage contamination. One of the sources of pollution is the Ihlanza River, known locally, for obvious reasons, as the "Turdy". But the contamination only really affects the beach on 80 days of the year, so it's fine to swim there for at least 5 days a week. Very reassuring. MARJORIE'S NEW HOME The job of a local museum is to keep old things which are a reminder of a place and its people. The EL museum is best known for its coelacanth display but there would never have been a coelacanth without Marjorie Courtney-Latimer who worked at the museum from 1931 until her retirement. It was thanks to her that the strange, "living fossil" of a fish was identified bringing fame to East London and to Dr JLB Smith of Rhodes University. So how come all of Marjorie's personal papers and memorabilia are now to be found in the private museum of Jeff Sansom at Thomas River near Stutterheim and not in the East London Museum where they surely belong? That's because after Marjorie died 10 years ago and her Vincent home was being cleared out, the Museum obviously took no interest in the material and it was about to be thrown away. Fortunately Jeff was alerted to it and it's now part of his personal collection and available for all to see in his Thomas River Museum. It's not exactly where the material should be but Thomas River is the place where Marjorie's father was once the station master and where she lived as a child. And, most importantly, it's where she's now properly appreciated.