Cala, Eastern Cape

A Town in the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality, part of the Chris Hani District Municipality. With a population of around 15,000 inhabitants. The Village is located on the Tsomo River, 28 km South West of Elliot. The name is Xhosa for ‘adjacent to’, referring to its situation West of the Drakensberg, (it runs adjacent from North and South!). There are several Colonial Buildings and a very dilapidated, Victorian Jail. This small Town was influenced by the political and racial conflicts that have afflicted South Africa’s past! During 1985, there was an incident similar to that of the ‘Cradock Four’ murders. Batandwa Ndondo was expelled from the University of Transkei where he played a leading role in the Student Representative Council, organising a commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre. The reason given for his expulsion was that he ‘incited students to be involved in political activities’. On 24 September 1985 Ndondo was arrested at his home in Cala and later that day, shot and killed by security forces. Batandwa Ndondo’s death awakened the political consciousness of the community. His legacy lives on in Cala and in South Africa. In 1998- the Matanzima Secondary School, on the outskirts of Cala, set up by the Methodist Church, was renamed the Batandwa Ndondo Senior Secondary School. The Town’s Buildings indeed bear witness to a past typical of many of these Eastern Cape frontier Towns!