Zulus on wine estate’s stoep
A group of former Zululanders visited the wine cellars at the Longridge wine estate near Stellenbosch.
FEARS in the Western Cape about foreign invaders setting up a squatter camp at the Longridge wine estate at the foothills of the Helderberg Mountains between Stellenbosch and Somerset West, were quickly allayed when recce reports confirmed it was merely a group of ex-Zululanders storming the wine cellars and restaurant to celebrate their roots in fine style.
This they did by imbibing plentiful fruits of the vine and haute cuisine to release the inner self in aid of unrestrained reminiscing about the good old times in Zululand – and to educate the isolated Hex River Mountain colony that Zululand is not a little foreign country somewhere in Africa, but indeed part of Zumaville.
Like all ‘revolutionary’ movements, the now annual ‘running of the impis’ event started modestly small in 2009 when well-known Empangeni couple Johan and Cecile de Villiers invited two couples for a get-together.
In no time this escalated to an officially recorded ex-Zululand regiment of 150 now residing in the mountainous valleys rejected by the Voortrekkers – of whom 48 enlisted for this year’s brunch raid.
People came from towns all over the Western Cape, amongst others Velddrif, Ceres, Hermanus, Paarl, Wellington, Stellenbosch, Somerset West, the Strand and of course Cape Town.
As usual, Lambert Jacobs was the MC and after sharing some news about old friends ‘back home’, those present could each relate their own history about their stay in Zululand.
