A JOURNEY OF Discoverys

In 1984 a young man with a full black beard was driving his clapped-out Merc 450SL ragtop down a dusty dirt road on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast. In the back was a cold box, filled with the sort of things that are useful when wooing. Beside him was the object of his intentions.

They drove up to a half-completed house and clambered up onto the flat roof, where the young man had set up two camp chairs. There, cold beer in hand and the sun setting in front of them, a young Kingsley turned to his bank manager and asked him for a hand in completing his house.

On the deck of Afrika House in Zinkwazi, Kinglsey Holgate recounted this tale with a sparkle in his eye. “My bank manager – and remember, these were the days when you actually had a personal relationship with your bank manager – wrote a cheque on the spot, and I could actually finish my house.

“That my house was in Zinkwazi happened by default. I had just sold my trading post in Zululand and needed somewhere to live. I asked around, and found a little A-frame bungalow to rent on the lagoon here in Zinkwazi, that same lagoon where the Ma Roberts carried us and an All-New Discovery today. And I just loved living here, so when a piece of ground came up for sale on the beach, I bought it.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to build a house on my land, but a lovely old Muslim