Possible Clues:

• Former state given nominal independence by South Africa in 1976, part of the Eastern Cape province since 1994
• Umtata was the capital of this Bantustan state in South Africa
• Doctor is taken across river in part of Eastern Cape
• Ian treks out to part of the Eastern Cape
• Largest of the Bantu homelands in South Africa
• Old apartheid state: did race relations look fine ultimately in it, on reflection?
• Former Bantu homeland in South Africa
• Homeland for South Africans no longer - rank site abandoned
• A tinker's set out from former homeland