Today the Tokai Manor House, just below Elephant’s Eye in the Tokai Forest, is a shadow of its former state, which evoked the area’s rich history, not only for locals, but for tourists and others with an interest in the area, such as ghost hunters.
The Tokai Baboon Action Group’s (TBAG) Gerry Hunt-Higgs often heads up to the forest to monitor baboon troops roaming the area.
“I have lived in Tokai for the past 45 years, and it galls me to see the ever-derelict state of our beautiful, beautiful buildings that hold a tremendous amount of history,” she told People’s Post.
Hunt-Higgs pointed to the manor’s exterior, in serious need of a new coat of paint and most of its features and thatched roof needing refurbishments to, including the iconic marble Roman bath once hailed as the principal feature of the estate.
“There used to be beautiful statues and pillars featured all around,” she said, “but today most of it is gone or broken down, all the marble tiles have been stripped and what’s left is overgrown with grass and weeds. The last I heard was that most of the beautiful oregon-pine wood interior had also been stripped and most of its trinkets – it all went missing.”
According to South African History Online the farm was originally granted to Johan Rauch in 1792. Within two months he had sold it on to Andries Teubes, who probably built its manor in 1795-96 of which the design is credited to French master architect Louis Michel Thibault.
Thibault was South Africa’s first architect who designed many of its finest buildings, such as the Granary, Groot Constantia, Koopmans-De Wet House, and The Drostdy in Graaff-Reinet. These are just a few of the best still standing.
“In the early 1800s the residence was owned by Petrus Michiel Eksteen,” CapeInfo.com reported. “He was a party-loving spendthrift who hosted the finest banquets. His parties were well-known and his cellars always well-stocked.”
It was during Eksteen’s time that the house became infamous among myths, legends and old folk’s lore, commonly known as the “Ghost of Tokai Manor”.
CapeInfo continued: “During one of Eksteen’s New Year’s Eve parties, his son Frederick accepted a wager from his father to ride his horse up the staircase and into the dining room. The guests watched expectantly as he mounted the steep steps of the Manor House on horseback. The horseman circled the dining room table, hooves clattering, spurred on by cheers and laughter from the revellers.”
While descending the exceptionally steep steps the horse tripped and both horse and rider fell. The young man broke his neck in the fall and lay dead alongside his horse at the bottom of the staircase.
It is said that the spectral horse and rider still canter through the forest and sometimes, especially on New Year’s Eve, they still try to repeat their foolhardy act.
However, Hunt-Higgs said she once was present at the manor during New Years eve, and did not hear the sounds such ghost stories illude to.
Last year on Tuesday 6 June, South African National Parks’ (SANParks) new CEO Hapiloe Sello shared encouraging news to stakeholders in Tokai that Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) was allocated an additional R35,9 million to go towards infrastructure maintenance over the next three years (“Mountain service gets needed cash injection”, People’s Post, 20 June 2023).
SANParks said of the R35,9 million, R28 million was allocated for the Tokai precinct, R3,9 million for roads, and R4 million for strategic fencing.
The R28 million, SANParks added, was needed for upgrading services – water, sewerage, power supply, communications and access “to have a viable tourism product” – for the Tokai Manor House and surrounds, including a picnic site and stables. The latter, SANParks said, would be put out on a concession (public-private partnership).
“It’s upsetting and embarrassing for SANParks that everything is in such a sad state of disrepair under their custodianship.”
