Discovering the Grandeur and Beauty of South Africa That I Missed While Working There

By Shiomi Kadoya / Japan News Staff Writer

17:52 JST, January 20, 2025

From lush green prairies to rocky mountains and sheer cliffs that fall into the blue ocean, South Africa is full of natural beauty, enhanced by a vibrant and colorful culture of an ethnically diverse population. It took me a second visit to finally experience its abundant attractions for myself.

Over a decade ago, I was based in the largest city, Johannesburg, as The Yomiuri Shimbun’s Africa correspondent. Covering the then-47 sub-Saharan African countries, I frequented conflict zones and countries undergoing post-war reconstruction, giving me little chance to travel within South Africa. So I recently returned to do just that.

After spending time with old acquaintances in the city I called home for more than three years, a local friend and I drove up to Kruger National Park in the northeast for a safari holiday. It was the end of December, mid-summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The sky was blue with white clouds dropping shadows on the green rolling hills that seemed to continue all the way to the horizon. The drive itself was delightful, except for the occasional poorly maintained road full of potholes, a reminder of the economic and political difficulties the country still faces more than 30 years after the end of apartheid.

Kruger is the largest national park in South Africa, covering an area of about 19,500 square kilometers and home to nearly 150 mammal species and over 500 varieties of birds. We spent three days in the park, going on game drives full of drama. We were lucky to see all of the animals that make up what is known in the safari business as the Big Five — lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhino.

On one drive, our vehicle followed a group of elephants, which led to a sighting of an elusive leopard resting in a tree. We saw a group of lions napping after a successful hunt, as well as two male giraffes banging their long necks against each other in a fight for dominance.

There was an abundance of impalas — the “McDonalds of the bush,” according to our guide, as their vast numbers make for an easy meal for predators. The medium-sized antelopes even have hind markings that resemble the sign of the burger chain. We also saw a hornless rhino. The guide said that rhinos in the park are being dehorned in an effort to prevent poaching, which remains a problem despite such efforts. It was sad to see the majestic animal without its symbol.

Just like every other tourist, or so it seemed, we followed Kruger by flying to Cape Town on the southwestern coast where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. My main goal was to reach the Cape of Good Hope, which since childhood I had always wanted to visit. The cape was first sighted by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 and named the Cape of Storms for the area’s rough weather. It would be a Portuguese king who would later rename it as the Cape of Good Hope. That name, to an innocent child, carried a romantic note of the Age of Discovery, despite the era’s unwelcome outcome of colonization.

We joined a well-organized bus tour that departed from Cape Town at 8:20 a.m. While walking to the pickup point in the city center, we were amazed by how clean and safe the streets were, thanks to numerous cleaners contracted by the city who worked from early in the morning, as well as security guards posted on almost every corner. The city seemed to be serious about welcoming visitors as tourism is its main industry. My friend, a Johannesburg native, said she used to think of Cape Town as “too European,” but that she was now impressed with the way the city was operating.

After driving about 1½ hours on a scenic seaside route, our bus arrived at Cape Point in the Cape of Good Hope nature reserve, which is part of the Cape Floral Region, a World Heritage Site. We hiked up to the old lighthouse, completed in 1859 at the highest point of Cape Point 238 meters above sea level, then joined a group for a 45-minute trail walk to the Cape of Good Hope. The trail winds along dry and windy cliffs, with stunning views of the serene landscape and vast ocean.

The trail ended at a rocky peak, where I could almost see the point where the blue ocean meets the sky. At the bottom, right by the sea, was a signboard stating “Cape of Good Hope” and “The most south-western point of the African Continent.” I was thrilled to finally stand at the historic point that connected Europe, Africa and Asia.

Black-owned winery

The next day, as the final stop of my trip, we visited a boutique winery in the valley of Franschhoek, about an hour’s drive from Cape Town. South Africa is a major wine producing country with nearly 2,690 wineries, according to the online wine platform WineTourism.com. Out of Western Cape province’s many famed wineries, I chose Klein Goederust because it is 100% black-owned, while South Africa’s wine industry is still dominated by people of European decent.

One thing I noticed during my travels was the absence of the phrase “rainbow nation” in public discourse. The phrase was coined by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and used by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech as the nation’s first democratically elected president in 1994. When I was living in the country in the late 2000s, it was promoted to symbolize post-apartheid South Africa as a country in which diverse ethnic groups lived in harmony.

This time around, I was told that people were disillusioned by continued economic disparity and structural inequality, which was apparent even during my short visit to Cape Town. While the iconic coastal city’s property prices shoot up with investments pouring in from all over the world, a former black township near the airport was still an amalgamation of shacks.

Against such a backdrop, I found the ongoing success story of Klein Goederust inspiring. The original Klein Goederust winery was established in 1905, and its current owner Paul Siguqa, whose mother was a wine farm laborer during the apartheid era, acquired the property in 2019. His childhood friend and an experienced winemaker, Rodney Zimba, joined him as a business partner.

The estate was said to have been in a state of dilapidation when purchased, but it is now beautifully refurbished, with the bright white walls of the original farm building-turned-wine-tasting-facility shining in the lush green vineyard. A superb wine-tasting experience and traditional South African lunch buffet with lamb on the spit awaits guests in the garden, which is full of colorful flowers and large trees with a view of the steep mountains in the background.

Although Siguqa was away on holiday, staff members enthusiastically shared the story of the Siguqa family. Siguqa’s mother, Nomaroma Siguqa, was determined that none of her children would become a farm laborer like her, and she made sure they were well educated. Such determination led her son to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. She passed away last year, but her legacy lives on in the winery’s brand of Methode Cap Classique sparkling wine, which is named “Nomaroma.”

“Nomaroma really had a love and passion for making wine,” said Verna-lee Zimba, a 23-year-old employee and the daughter of Rodney Zimba. “We loved her. We will always remember her.”

As part of a generation born into democracy, Zimba is full of hope and optimism. “We are the ones that are going to take over, and we are quite passionate. We want to make the business grow much much bigger.”

She poured me a glass of the winery’s signature MCC, Nomaroma. A sip of the golden bubbly reminded me of the enchanting smile I saw in her portrait hanging on the wall at the building’s entrance.