ABOVE: A fragment of what remains of the Kommetjievlakte west of King William's Town with Dimbaza in the background. Photo: Tony Dold. BELOW: Kommetjies and earthworm castings near Thamara village, south-west of King William's Town. Photo: Robert McKenzie.

/King William’s Town and south of the Pirie Mountains, between Debe Nek and King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape, lies the undulating flats known locally as eDebe. Here too flows the Idebe River, a tributary of the Keiskamma River. It is likely that these place names are derived from the Xhosa word ‘indebe’, meaning a calabash, cup or ladle, in reference to the round depressions or ‘kommetjies’ that occur on the Kommetjievlakte. ‘Kommetjie’ is an Afrikaans word that also means a cup or small basin. Usually a kommetjie, like an indebe, is used as a drinking vessel, but the meanings of both terms have been transferred to a geological sense denoting a shallow depression in the earth, a feature peculiar to the Kommetjievlakte.The original extent of these flats is unknown and much of the landscape has been transformed by human settlement. Historical records suggest that it extended from Debe Nek eastwards to King William’s Town and as far as the Nahoon River in East London. Apparently the hollows were much smaller near the coast and reportedly provided good grazing for livestock. To the south, the Kommetjievlakte ends near the village of Thamara. The present-day landscape consists of open grassland subject to communal and commercial grazing, and numerous human settlements. No part of the Kommetjievlakte is formally protected, although the portion within the Bhisho Airport boundary is protected from uncontrolled communal activities.