Hermanus lagoon pollution 600% over National health risk standards Feb 2011

* Overstrand Ward 11

READ AND WEEP!

KLEIN RIVER ESTUARY WATER TEST RESULTS

On 03.02.11 Stanford Jetty recorded 840 and the Yacht Club recorded 1150 Enterococcus /100ml

World Health Organisation states anything above 185/100ml is a high risk health hazard.

South Africa has the same standards.

(read further below pictures - taken 27 Feb 2011)

ENTEROCOCCUS

Enterococcus is a genus of lactic acid bacteria of the phylum Firmicutes. Enterococci are Gram-positive cocci that often occur in pairs (diplococci) or short chains and are difficult to distinguish from Streptococci on physical characteristics alone.^[1] Two species are common commensal organisms in the intestines of humans: E. faecalis (90-95%) and E. faecium (5-10%). There are rare clusters of infections with other species including E. casseliflavus, E. raffinosus.^[1]

WATER QUALITY

In bodies of water, the acceptable level of contamination is very low, for example in the state of Hawaii, with among the strictest tolerances in the United States, the limit for water off its beaches is 7 colony-forming units per 100 ml of water, above which the state may post warnings to stay out of the ocean. In 2004, Enterococcus spp. took the place of fecal coliform as the new federal standard for water quality at public beaches. It is believed to provide a higher correlation than fecal coliform with many of the human pathogens often found in city sewage.

^{Pictures showing algae blooms and decomposing algae evidence of excessive nitrate and phosphate run-off from agriculture up stream on the Klein River.}

Global Standard agreements

Internationally, the use of ‘single’ target values for microbiological indicator/s to classify recreational waters as either ‘safe’ or ‘unsafe’ is no longer considered appropriate. Rather, an approach of applying a range of target values for appropriate microbiological indicators, corresponding to different levels of risk, is used. This approach has been adopted by the World Health Organisation, New Zealand and the European Union. It supports the principle of informed personal choice and allows for setting achievable improvement targets for high-risk areas.185 (90 percentile)

Action (Red) Mode: single sample count > 280 enterococci/100 ml

· Increase sampling to daily (using 2nd sample to confirm problem)

· Consult sanitary inspection checklist to assist with problem identification

· Conduct a sanitary survey to confirm source of contamination and take action appropriate

mitigation measures

· Inform public through media/signage of health risk

NB: On 03.02.11 Stanford Jetty recorded 840 and the Yacht Club recorded 1150 Enterococci /100ml

Schulphoek site construction commences without ROD

Rabie and Viljoen creeping back onto site!

Building activity was seen to have commenced on Schulphoek property (18 Feb 2011) although no ROD has been approved. The ROD terminated on 1st September 2010 and instructions to commence a Public Partisipation Process (PPP) was issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs. For some reason the Overstrand Municipal manager saw fit to challenge the validity of the instruction (18 October 2010) Heaven knows why he should take on the mantle to defend the developer on this matter, particularly in view of the role of municipalities and their legal obligation, in terms of the Municipal Systems act (Chapter 4 16 - 22) to not only encourage but plan and implement public partisipation.

Schulphoek land sale in Hermanus illegal

Mount Pleasant and Zwelihle communities vow to take developers RABCAV (John Rabie and Leslie Viljoen) to court should they not return Schulphoek to the communities.

Legal opinion and senior council (Conradie, Van der Horst, Malherbe and Potgieter) are all of the opinion that the Overstrand Municipality sale of Schulphoek land to RABCAV is illegal.

Schulphoek is historic community land (Khoisan deep history) and previously zoned a 'colored' recreation area. The communities have ruled - it is not for sale and must be returned to its rightful owners.

Technically it is believed by the communities that the administrator should not be seen to perpetuate the unlawfulness of an approval that has expired and that the approved development is in conflict with the spirit and the letter of relevant provisions of previously approved SDF's and further and more especially since there is a planning imperative on the preservation of public open space networks.

Schulphoek is not for sale - never has been and never will be.

It is historic community land and a zoned recreational area. It is considered a traditional heritage area by the Mount Pleasant and Zwelithle communities.

The letter Helen Zille refused to answer

THE

BEYLEVELD

LEGACY

LETTER TO HELEN ZILLE

SENT BY HERMANUS RATE PAYERS ON THE 30 NOV 2010

Dear Mrs. Zille,

To quote Dr J. A. du Plessis, ‘Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’.

Dr. du Plessis’s quotation came to mind when we were absolutely astounded to read the flagrant untruths, gross distortions, omissions and shallow and unjustifiable conclusions made in MEC Anton Bredell’s press statement delivered on 29^th September 2010 in Cape Town. ‘Rabcav Development Facilitation Agreement: Fernkloof Estate And Schulphoek Development: Overstrand Municipality. It has been suggested in recent press that this was a whitewash – do you and your administration not want to defend integrity and plain simple honesty in localgovernment? 
The Press is not going to let up on this disgraceful cover-up and in consequence, I am writing to ask you, even at this late stage, to intervene in the interests of social justice and honest governance. The integrity of Local Government or total lack thereof is the issue.

Referring to what Bredell said, let us state at the outset that we find it quite extraordinary that the Minister never replied to our correspondence, but chose to deal with it by brushing it aside, in a carefully crafted, evasive and inaccurate press statement.

Contrary to what was obliquely implied by the Minister, the Hermanus Ratepayers’ Association (HRA) received no communication from him or anyone from his department to attend a meeting in Hermanus on 9^thSeptember 2010, when a team from his department met with municipal officials & representatives from Rabcav. We neither received a timeous or proper invitation or agenda from the Overstrand Municipal Manager, Werner Zybrands. If either Bredell or Zybrands can produce mail to the contrary, let the world see it! The criticism of Bedell and Zybrands’ bad behaviour therefore seems justified.

Bredell confirms that the Overstrand Municipality sold the Fernkloof plots for R281.78 million (including VAT). He also, unbelievably confirms that this money went into Rabcav’s account! How can public funds be paid into a private partnerships account in 2006 and not be subject to any audit for four years? Who earned the interest? Bredell says that the Mayor and Municipal Manager confirmed that the Audited Financial Statements of the Municipality and Rabcav were forwarded to the Ratepayers Association on different occasions. We can state categorically that:

1) The OM Financial Statements as presented in the Annual Report have never reflected the financials relating to the R281.78 million Fernkloof land sale and development.

2) No Rabcav financial statements were ever forwarded to the HRA Ratepayers other than an Annexure ‘A’ Fernkloof Estate financial status dated June 2009 that appeared in Municipal documents - information that raises more questions than it answers.

3) The ratepayers’ statement that the Auditor General did not review the Fernkloof Financials therefore still stands.

4) Further, Bredell’s comments regarding external audits by the Auditor General on OM’s financial performance do not confirm that the AG ever saw the Rabcav accounting of public money they controlled!

5) Rabcav has produced their auditors, Mazaars, statement of the Fernkloof financials. This document may suffice for the accounts of a private partnership, but in no way can be considered adequate for a R281.78 million accounting of public monies.

As regards the proceeds of the sale of public land, despite all the contradictory figures that have been bandied about, Mazaars audit confirms that Rabcav received R86 million! The Municipality received R30 million in cash! The private Hermanus Golf Club got a R30.5 million upgrade. Bredell states that this was paid for by Rabcav. Yes, lies sounding truthful – out of public money.

Bredell makes the extraordinary statement that ‘in both developments no public funds were used’ and ‘it was at no risk to the municipality’.
Bredell says this with a straight face having confirmed that R281.78 million was paid into Rabcav’s account before the development went ahead! More lies sounding truthful! And incidentally, what about the clause in the facilitation agreement that covers the facilitator’s expenses in the event of a development not coming off? - see Schulphoek R1.25 million abortive cost payout to Rabcav!

The HRA contends that the Development Facilitation Agreement (DFA) expired in 2005. Bredell simply says, ‘the agreement did not expire and was valid until all the work in relation to the agreement was concluded! Not so; please read the agreement and take note of the legal opinion sent to the Municipal Manager in 2009 – an opinion prepared by three eminent jurists, an Appeal Court Judge, a senior member of the Cape Bar and a lawyer. Did Bredell see this opinion? We believe that if he had, he could never have come to the conclusion he announced in his atrocious press release.

Zybrand when asked if he had disclosed this to Bredell responded with the extraordinary statement that the correspondence was private. Do civil servants conduct private correspondence on matters of public concern?

We regard this as an extremely serious issue requiring your attention and comment.

Mrs. Zille, against this background, you will appreciate how ratepayers view the Schulphoek sale of 56 ha of prime coastal land with 1.7 km of coast for R5.3 million. It is justified as a buyout of the DFA with Rabcav! – a flawed expired agreement through which facilitators hugely enriched themselves at the expense of the community. The sale of Schulphoek took place in 2010, laws applicable make development up to 22m of the high water mark illegal – Bredell simply dismisses this by stating that the development plans were approved prior to the recent Integrated Coastal Management Act – but the sale was a fresh 2010 agreement and the DFA contract had expired!

But now we have a new and very unpleasant situation arising out of Bredell ruling that a Public Participation Process be conducted and Zybrands stating that this is not necessary because the developer conducted work on the site prior to the expiry of the ROD specifically on 27^th at end August 2010. The Community, including a Councilor has signed a document confirming that the Developer was not on site during August, but only arrived on site on 9^th September 2010, when they were chased away.

Only one version of events can be factual. Zybrands does not respond to correspondence in regard to the PPP.

Mrs. Zille, you have appointed Patricia de Lille as Minister of Social Justice. We assume that by this appointment you are signifying some belief in Social Justice – selling off community assets for a pittance to developers who make tens if not hundreds of millions out of these deals strikes us as wrong. Wrong, very wrong and unjust when the same municipality is borrowing R160 million for maintenance of roads, sewerage, water and electricity in the Overstrand area. Paying R30.5 million for a private golf course and then selling off 46 ha of coastal property that is adjacent to and used by the communities of Zwelihle and Mt Pleasant for a pittance of R5.3 million to a developer who will make R100 million or more out of the deal, does not seem right, does it? This is not social justice.

Thinking residents in greater Hermanus, and there are many, have lost respect for the local municipality and Council and the credibility of Western Cape Government has been severly damaged by your Minister’s whitewashing of our request for a review of these events.

Members of the HRA Excom are fully prepared to come to Cape Town to discuss this matter with you. Please confirm receipt of this letter.

Thanking you

Yours sincerely

Linda Griffiths

Chairperson: Hermanus Ratepayers’ Association

Overstrand Municipality's atrocious housing delivery record exposed

* Overstrand Ward 11

READ AND WEEP!

BACKGROUND TO THE HOUSING FIASCO

Reported in the Cape Times on Tuesday 11^th January 2011 Human Settlement Minister Toykio Sexwale’s department said the Western Cape was one of four provinces that risked having their low-cost housing grants cut because of “under-performance”

The four provinces had all fallen behind in housing delivery, and their annual allocations from the national budget could be diverted to provinces where spending was going according to plan, it said.

Sexwale’s department had forwarded R705 million to the Western Cape for the 2010/11 financial year, which ends in March.

Human Settlements director-general Thabane Zulu said: “There have been detailed discussions with all the provinces, as a result, they may have to forfeit a portion of their annual human settlements grant.”

Annually, the national department distributes about R14 billion in grants to the provinces.

However Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bongingkosi Madikizela said his department had spent R1.25 billion, or 64 percent of our budget, for the year,”

He said there would be no need to redirect the balance of the R705 million grant allocation back to the National Treasury!

The Western Cape has six regions, Metro, West Coast, Central Karoo, Winelands, Southern Cape and Overberg. This translates at over R100 million that each of these regions could have had to spend on their housing programmes for 2010/11 financial year.

THE D A LEAD OVERSTRAND MUNICIPALITY ILLICIT'S A SMOKESCREEN OF DA PROPAGANDA SPIN

Overstrand Mayor Theo Beyleveld, in Grand Aparteid style, announced a plan of upgrading of informal settlements in Zwelihle, which he says, will enjoy the highest priority in the Five-year Housing Strategy and Programme that Overstrand Municipality is currently busy preparing as part of its Integrated Development Plan.

Overstrand Mayor (since removed from the Mayor's office to the Council of Provinces in Cape Town) gave the assurance that development on the land adjacent to Swartdam Road and in three other areas in Zwelihle will (again) ‘be afforded highest priority’ and that a social compact (no less) will soon be established. He said that this is a direct result of the Schulphoek land sale and the ending of the RABCAV Development Facilitation Agreement that released the Swartdam Road land for housing projects.

BOLLOCKS!

The map below is evidence enough that these demacated areas have been available for the past ten years. Look now below what the Overstrand Municipality has built for the communities in the past five years!

Black Housing built under DA Municipality

in the Overstrand between 2006 – 2011

KLEINMOND 410

STANFORD 88

HAWSTON 182

TOTAL 680

As of May 2010, applicants on the housing waiting list in the Hermanus area alone totaled 4 523 applicants

In the kak . . . and passing the buck!

* Overstrand Ward 11

Overstrand municipality gets pedantic over pollution

and continues to drag its feet.

TEST RESULTS

NOW CHECK FOR YOURSELF THE HEALTH RISK

AND SUITABILITY FOR RECREATIONAL USE

* You dont need to be a Rocket Scientist to see that the Stanford slipway has exceeded the 'minumum requirement' (and 'unexceptable') category for Enterococci and E. coli by over 400% and 100% respectively and there are no health safety warning signs anywhere to be found on the river in Stanford.

For further test results which are well hidden for some reason (we call it OBSCURANTISM)

go to the 'funded' site www.overstrandestuaries.co.za

Here’s how to get there. Once on the Home Page

of the Overstand Estuary site

1. Then Click on Klein

2. Then Click on Data

3. Then Click on Water Quality

4. Scroll down

VOILA!

You wont find salient tags and navigation on this site - like POLLUTION / SEWERAGE MANAGEMENT / BUILDING APPLICATIONS / SET BACK POLICY

This would be far too provocative (and revealing)

Correspondence from Bea Whittaker of Stanford

Unfortunately the latest results on the website for the discharge from the sewerage works stops in Nov 2010, so it one cannot determine whether the problem lies there. Maybe we can get this info and see if it correlates with the alarming Jan and Feb 2011 increase in counts at the slipway - which may be indicative of a problem at the sewerage works.

If this does not correlate, it means that there must be a problem in and/or around the Mill Stream, as the difference between King Street and the slipway is just too high for about 300m difference in river distance. The only way we can then determine the cause of the problem is to take water samples somewhere along the Mill stream - most probably (1) at Queen Victoria Street, downstream of where the leiwater enters the stream and (2) somewhere along Vlei Street, upstream of the leiwater). This must be done in addition to the sampling of the return flow being discharged at the sewerage works itself. This will then be able to tell us if there are maybe are point sources of pollution other than the sewerage works.

The question also arises whether the monthly BOCMA results are used by the municipality as a red flag to immediately check for a problem at the sewerage works. Maybe this could be answered at the next Ward Committee meeting?

Regards

Bea

THANKS BEA, VERY SOBER COMMENT!

HISTORIC JUDGEMENT AWARDS PUNITIVE COSTS AGAINST WRAYPEX

In recent years, the environmental sector has seen the rise of attempts to deter and threaten protest and participation in environmental governance by interested and affected parties (I&APs). These include threats of injury to the person and or property of environmental activists, as well as actual and threatened civil litigation against environmental activists and civil society organisations in order to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition, known as SLAPP suits (“strategic litigation against public participation”)

Wraypex v Rhenosterspruit Conservancy Members

On 1 November 2010, the trial of Wraypex Developers versus four members of the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy started in the Pretoria High Court. This case, a defamation suit brought by the developers of a luxury golf estate, Wraypex, against four environmental activists, Mervyn Gaylard, Helen Duigan, Lise Essberger and Arthur Barnes, started more than four years ago. The litigation arose out of their opposition to a now completed 330 house luxury estate, a Gary Player designed golf course and hotel development, Blair Atholl, near Johannesburg. The estate borders on the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy (www.rhenosterspruit.co.za) as well as the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site.

It was claimed by Wraypex in court papers that the four activists wrongfully and with intention to injure the developer, published false and malicious statements that it had not complied with the legal requirements for the development, that it had not submitted a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, that there had been no public participation and that Wraypex had attempted to bribe officials. As a result it claimed that its good name and reputation were damaged and that the approval of the development had been delayed as a result.

The defendants, however, claimed that the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy had opposed the development on the basis that it created a precedent for township and residential development in a greenbelt area.

On 6 December 2010, Judge Stanley Sapire handed down judgement in favour of the defendants, thereby defeating the developer’s claim. On 9 February 2011, the judge handed down a punitive costs order against Wraypex. Costs were awarded on an attorney and client scale, which is significantly more than the ordinary costs awarded against an unsuccessful plaintiff. According to a media release from the Rhenosterspruit Conservancy, Judge Sapire cited “the belligerent style of Wraypex’s attorney’s letters which were calculated to intimidate and create enmity”, “the extravagant amount claimed by Wraypex” and the timing of the institution of the actions against the Conservancy members (when Wraypex had already obtained approval for the establishment of the township) as reasons for his decision.

River infection from human sewerage contaminated water

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Author has leg amputated following freak river infection from human sewerage contaminated water

Times correspondent in South Africa, author and frequent reviewer of books in the London Review of Books, Bill Johnson, was in hospital in Durban after becoming infected with a life-threatening bacterium, which required the emergency amputation of his left leg at the knee and partial amputation of fingers. He was infected with 14 strains of narcotising fasciitis when he cut his foot on a rock while swimming in a lagoon in a region of the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, described by his wife, the Russian-born historian, Professor Irina Filatova, as "paradise".

The source of contamination in the water is reliably believed to be untreated sewage which seeped into the river feeding into the lagoon at Trafalgar, close to Johnson's and Filatova's holiday home, from an impoverished squatter camp upstream. The lagoon, in which he had swum very frequently in the past, forms part of the Mpenjati Nature Reserve. Swimming in the lagoon has since been banned.

Emergency email consultation with Professor Gus McGrouther, professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Manchester, enabled amputation of an infected hand to be avoided.

The sanitary quality of many rivers in KwaZulu-Natal is reliably known to have declined drastically over the past few years. Human sewage is reported to be pouring directly into the river feeding the lagoon at Trafalgar, in which Johnson was infected, with no treatment whatsoever.
Diary - Bill Johnson

In early March, while staying at our holiday cottage in Trafalgar on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, I went swimming, as has been my habit for many years, in the idyllic Mpenjathi lagoon. The lagoon looks pretty much the way it did when Vasco da Gama first saw it; the lower south coast and Trafalgar in particular are unspoiled – we frequently get duikers as well as monkeys in our garden.


As I neared the shore I hit my foot painfully on a submerged rock; a quick inspection showed that several toes were bleeding. I waded ashore, got home quickly and showered. The bleeding soon stopped but the next day my whole foot was sore. I tried to ignore it but matters rapidly got worse and soon I was running a fever and felt so ill I was giddy and unsteady on my feet. Eventually I decided I had to see a doctor, but things were so bad that I fell repeatedly while trying to get to the car and had to half-crawl across the garage to get in. How I managed to drive the 12 kilometres to Port Edward remains a mystery – I was lurching all over the road. Arriving at the offices of Dr Chetty, whose board advertises him as a dokotela (Zulu for ‘doctor’) trained in Mysore, I found several other patients ahead of me but stumbled over to the receptionist’s desk and explained that I was seriously ill.

Dr Chetty was wonderful. He immediately laid me on a table, gave me a drip, and in no time at all an ambulance had been arranged to take me to Margate Hospital. It turned out later – a great stroke of luck – that Dr Chetty had once before seen a patient suffering from what I had: necrotising fasciitis, caused by flesh-eating bacteria which rapidly invade and poison the body (the other man had died, as is normal with this disease). Almost certainly the reason the lagoon was polluted with such a deadly organism was to do with the dumping of raw sewage by communities living upriver.

Only months later was I able to Google necrotising fasciitis and find a long list of famous people who died from the disease, usually within 24 or 48 hours of contracting it. The medics at Margate muttered something about amputation but I was too far gone to say more than ‘whatever it takes.’ My conscious memory stops there – I was too ill and too sedated to participate in the drama that followed.

My wife, Irina, was teaching at Moscow’s new School of Economics when she heard the news and straight away flew back to Durban. She rang Margate from the airport and asked whether I was still alive. ‘He is critical,’ they said. She explained that it would take her 90 minutes to drive to the hospital: would I still be alive then? ‘He may – or may not be. He’s very, very critical.’ They had amputated the toes on my left foot and then, when the leg continued to swell, amputated my leg at the knee. But the poison had already invaded other parts of my body and all my systems – kidneys, lungs, heart etc – began to switch off. Multiple organ failure: that is, I began to die – that’s what dying is. I came close to fulfilling one of Woody Allen’s ambitions: ‘I don’t mind dying,’ he once said, ‘I just don’t want to be there when it happens.’

My blood pressure kept shrinking to levels where it was thought I must die at any moment. To counter the septicaemia I was shot full of antibiotics and to prevent my blood pressure falling too far I was given adrenalin. When Irina arrived my chances of survival were less than 30 per cent. I rallied twice, only for crises to follow each time. My brother and children flew in and there were anguished discussions about where I should be buried.

My surgeon, Dr Otto, and his colleagues at Margate undoubtedly saved my life. Yet I needed not only a ventilator and a dialysis machine, but also a hyperbaric chamber, which Margate didn’t have, so Irina decided to move me to St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban. I deteriorated further, and my left leg was amputated above the knee. To make things worse, the overdose of adrenalin, though it had saved my heart, had badly damaged the fingers of both hands – on my left hand three fingertips are blackened with dry gangrene and have lost all feeling – and the toes of my right foot. I also had bedsores on my head and bottom. Doctor friends warned Irina not to get her hopes up – the odds against my survival were still daunting.

I drifted in and out of consciousness a number of times but my first memory is of waking up in St Augustine’s intensive care unit in the first week of April with tubes controlling all my functions, unable to talk, and learning for the first time that I was missing a leg. Irina tells me that when it was explained to me that my leg had gone, I cried, but I have no memory of that. The regular morphine injections gave me the most terrifying and sophisticated nightmares I have ever experienced. Irina, my daughter and brother were all there and I communicated by tracing a spidery scrawl on a pad – my muscles had atrophied so much that I lacked the strength to write a sentence or lift an arm over my head.

Irina was at my bedside all hours of the day and night. I could never have recovered without her. Gradually things got a little better and some of the tubes came out, and then, one wonderful day, the dialysis was over. Better still, I moved out of the ICU – but then had to return because of persistent nausea and vomiting. Happily, this didn’t last long. I began to do more and more physio and exercise to rebuild my muscles; I followed the news and was able to learn about the progress of the book I had just published. Despite or possibly because of my complete inability to do any of the usual promotional work, the book was selling well and there were many nice reviews. That made a real difference.

After two more months in hospital I was basically evicted by my insurance company, Discovery Health, which refused to continue to pay for me to be there, though I was far from ready to leave. It was a gloomy business realising how threadbare my care policy was, as huge medical bills poured in of which they paid only a fraction. Discovery wanted me to go to a ‘step-down facility’ (which no one at the hospital had ever heard of) in a high-crime area. We decided that if we were thrown out it would be better to go back to the beach cottage at Trafalgar and take our chances.

In the meantime it was sobering to read of the ANC’s proposed new National Health Insurance scheme, which would forcibly conflate the public and private health sectors. Under ANC management the public sector has deteriorated very nearly to the point of collapse, with incompetent political placemen appointed as hospital managers, shortages of everything and, often, appallingly high mortality rates – all of it aggravated by a tidal wave of Aids victims that has pushed most other things aside. Doctors’ organisations have warned that the NHI scheme would be unworkable, that it would end access to First World healthcare for everybody and would lead to a huge new emigration of medical personnel. I am hardly an unqualified fan of the way private health works here, but I need no reminding that without access to First World hospital care I would have died. Should the NHI plan go ahead not only would most doctors emigrate but so too would many of the seven million South Africans of all races who currently depend on private health insurance as patients. What would be left of the economy if these seven million go is a subject worthy of a morphine nightmare.

So now I’m back at Trafalgar, paying for a private nurse and physio, exercising like crazy and getting steadily stronger. Some people make nice remarks about my positive attitude but actually I owe everything to Irina. For the rest I feel like Theseus, sent to fight the Minotaur in the labyrinth. That is, I’m in an intolerable situation and the only way out – learning how to walk with a prosthesis, to drive and be self-sufficient again – is to keep a tight hold on Ariadne’s thread and follow where it leads. That means working meticulously at the physio and teaching myself to do things like type this article with my gangrenous fingers.

I look out from my bed at the Indian Ocean, which is the purest blue and pullulates with whale spouts, dolphins and the approaching signs of the annual sardine run, when shoals 30 or 40 kilometres long, billions upon billions of fish, move up the coast, allowing every imaginable predator a feast day. Everyone celebrates the sardine run as a sort of popular carnival, but of course like so many great natural events it’s built on the deaths of millions of creatures. Sometimes, as I gaze at the sea, I think about dying and how I nearly managed it, several times over. It seems incongruous given the gorgeous sunshine, the surf and the tropical vegetation – until you realise that it was in exactly these conditions that I cut my foot in the first place. I survived by a fluke; there’s no merit to it, though doctor friends try to make me feel good by telling me how strong I am and what a fight I put up. ‘Author Loses Leg in Lagoon’: my children saved the newspaper hoarding for me, its sheer banality a warning too. But mainly as I look at the waves I feel, ‘so far, so good.’ I spend no time at all regretting my left leg. It’s just so good to be alive.