On the road exploring new ways of seeing our broken but beautiful country

Getting behind the wheel on the roads of South Africa is a good way to recalibrate, feel the pulse of the people and see the positive qualities of our democracy, in between the potholes.

Like most South Africans lucky enough to have a car, I love a good road trip. So, a while ago, when my husband and I set off to the Kruger National Park, I couldn’t have been happier. The N4 is a pristine highway, and once we turned off to Lydenburg, excitement grew as we got closer to our holiday.

Within minutes, the regional R37 changed. Potholes had turned to dongas, cratered by manganese and coal trucks heading to Mpumalanga’s power stations and the ports. For years, I’ve studied and reported the decimation of Transnet by State Capture. It’s on the roads where the costs are written. And what a travesty: Lydenburg is ruined, and while the municipality tries to divert the destructive kings of the road, it’s futile. I panicked in a low-profile sedan and attempted to negotiate the dongas. The trucks bear down on the roads and can take out anything in their paths. Deadly accidents are common with private emergency cars stationed permanently in the town.

We turned back, heading home through the pretty tourist and fishing town of Dullstroom, where a public-private partnership has returned the pothole parade to a measure of use-ability.

State Capture has pockmarked our beautiful country in so many ways — the roads tell the story, and the small towns, too. As a journalist at the independent start-up Daily Maverick, those of us who have them use our own cars. My car had proven inadequate for the task. So I wondered if I would become a stay-in-Johannesburg reporter, trying to tell the stories of our country as our road networks fall ruin to a government big on talk and small on infrastructure maintenance. We’re not a monied media company with security, benefits or cars, but we do our work with bootstraps, heart and commitment.

The Daily Maverick’s election road trip is checking national infrastructure. This is a municipal road in Bethlehem in the Free State. (Photo: Ferial Haffajee)

The partnership with Ford South Africa, which has enabled better and wider election coverage, with the loan of off-road machines taking us to the nooks and crannies of South Africa, has been a true gift. I know very little about cars but have fallen for the Ford Everest Wildtrak.

When Ford dropped off the car, I was nervous to get behind the wheel because I’d never had an SUV. “Just drive,” said the managing editor, Anso Thom, who has a bakkie. And I did. It’s easy to drive and powerful enough to make even the bosses of Joburg roads, the Faraday Taxi Association (FTA) drivers, give way. (My husband tells me that’s the V6 engine. I’ve never had a car with a V6 engine, and the vroom is lovely.)

If you drive in the city, you’ll know that’s a mean feat. Not even traffic lights stop the guys with the FTA stickers. Our city roads are not yet Mpumalanga, but we’re getting there fast. It’s a donga democracy with Johannesburg Water digging to fix burst pipes so often that they don’t even close the holes anymore.

Sunrise outside Kakamas on 13 April 2024.(Photo: Victoria O’Regan)

As a city reporter, the Everest is also helping me report better in the city region of Gauteng, where the election will be intensely fought, along with KwaZulu-Natal. I’ve been to the Eastern Free State and will return to Mangaung. Those reports are forthcoming. What having a reliable car that negotiates the ruin of small-town roads and the potholes of the regional roads network has meant is the space to learn the nuance of our beautiful but troubled country. I wasn’t worrying about safety or if the car would make it, but I focused on the story. The console is like having a proper-sized screen, so navigating is more accessible, and the use-ability is good. The car has such solid road-holding that I haven’t yet had to use the four-wheel drive function. It has given me driving pleasure, which I’d lost as our roads turned to dust.

Getting out and about has returned the essential dimension of balance or you can get acerbic about the ongoing abuses foisted on us citizens. A lot in our country is well-maintained, like the Golden Gate Highlands National Park, where the autumn hues of russet, orange and gold, the peaks and loops proved a splendour I hadn’t fully experienced in a car.

There’s something about travelling higher into the Maluti Mountains and ogling at the Drakensberg range in the distance.

The Ford Everest Wildtrak in Bethlehem in the Free State. The Daily Maverick’s election road trip is checking national infrastructure. This is a municipal road in Bethlehem in the Free State. (Photo: Ferial Haffajee)

We went to see what’s left of Estina dairy farm, the ground zero for State Capture where the Guptas first attacked our country and witnessed how collapsing municipalities suck the marrow from farming towns like Bethlehem and Vrede. Our elections road trip series started with these reports by Rebecca Davis and Victoria O’Regan from the Northern Cape on Pomfret and Hotazel.

As a journalist, I enjoy covering elections because, outside of the rhetoric and the power aggrandisement, I take the pulse of the people. There are always surprises. What I’ve found, once again, is that South Africans are more resilient and wiser than politicians think. These qualities, along with our solid institutions and civil society, will get us through this shape-shifting election that may surprise us on the upside.

I’ve also decided to trade in my car to buy a Ford Everest Wildtrak and get out much more — to tell the story of all our cities exhaustively ahead of the local government elections and continue to be inspired by the beauty, smarts, and kindness of this beautiful land. DM