karoo

Complete Programme: Cradock to Host Third Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival (9 to 11 August)

 
The third annual Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival takes place from 9 to 11 August in the Eastern Cape town of Cradock. LitNet has released details of the programme which features such notable participants as Etienne van Heerden, EKM Dido, Stephen Gray, Clinton V du Plessis and Elwyn Jenkins. To book for the festival contact Die Tuishuise or Lisa Ker on 048 881 1650 or e-mail info@tuishuise.co.za.

Now in its third successful year, the Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival will run from 9 to11 August 2012 in Cradock. There will be a special emphasis on women to coincide with National Women’s Day on Thursday, 9 August. Headline authors launching books will include the likes of Etienne van Heerden, Stephen Gray, Clinton V du Plessis and Aubrey Jones. Excursions, a highlight of the festival, will include a trip to the Mountain Zebra National Park.

The first outing of the festival, the Spirit of Schreiner Festival, which celebrated the life and work of the noted late Victorian and Edwardian writer, social commentator and feminist Olive Schreiner, took place in Cradock in July 2010. Now the event has been broadened to all Karoo or Karoo-born writers and has been renamed the Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival, in honour of Schreiner and other writers from these vast plains.

A comprehensive programme has been organised for the 2012 event, which includes talks and discussions by noted South Africans.

• Complete press release: LitNet

 
Programme Highlights

Thursday 9 August

2:30 PM to 4:30 PM: Schreiner House Museum, R100 per person
Illustrated talk by Jeanette Eve on flora in Olive Schreiner’s writings and Hillary Lewis Soma on “Sisters Triumphant: how the spirit of two Schreiner sisters (Henrietta and Olive) triumphed over adversity”, and “Olive Schreiner, a Formidable Woman” by Lisba Vosloo (Film screening in Afrikaans).

6:00 for 6:30 PM: Victoria Manor, R75 per person
Karoo Sop and Dop Evening, featuring guest speakers EKM Dido, the first black woman to publish a book in Afrikaans, and Sigi Howes on the child author Iris Vaughan and her diary.

Friday 10 August

12:00 PM to 2:15 PM: Albert House, R100 per person
Clinton V du Plessis’s Flitse poetry launch, introduction by Melt Myburgh; Frans Boekkooi and Darryl Earl David on “Art Inspired by Literature”

7:00 PM: NG Church Hall, R150 per person
Guests meet at NG Church Hall for Literary Dinner, wine, food and book pairing; launch of Etienne van Heerden’s book Haai Karoo (he’ll be (interviewed by Tim Huisamen) and Aubrey Jones on his book Scott’s Forgotten Surgeon, Dr Reginald Koettlitz, polar explorer

Saturday 11 August

9:15 AM to 11:30 AM: Schreiner House Museum, R100 per person
Elwyn Jenkins talks about little houses and other children’s spaces in The Child’s Day by Olive Schreiner and The Chronicles of Peach Grove Farm by Nellie Fincher, and an illustrated talk by Chris and Julie Marais on “Moments that bind you to the Karoo”

1:00 PM to 4:30 PM: Victoria Manor, R100 per person
Stephen Gray book launch Taking Off with Olive Schreiner, followed by a LitNet Hot Topic chaired by LitNet’s Bibi Slippers: Cultural crossover, is it happening? Three trilingual writers: EKM Dido, Peter Mtuze, Russell Kaschula debate.

• Complete programme: LitNet

• Follow the Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival on Facebook

Book details

• ‘n Ander ek by EKM Dido
  EAN: 9781415200346
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

eBook options – Download now!

• eBook: ‘n Ander ek by E KM Dido
  
  eBook type: ePub
  EAN: 9781415202913
  Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com

• Oewerbestaan by Melt Myburgh
  EAN: 9781869193690
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Haai Karoo by Etienne van Heerden
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780624056157
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Flitse by Clinton V du Plessis
  EAN: 9780620532310
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Scott’s Forgotten Surgeon: Dr Reginald Koettlitz, Polar Explorer by Aubrey A Jones
  EAN: 9781849950381
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• A Literary Guide to the Eastern Cape: Places and the Voices of Writers by Jeanette Eve
  EAN: 9781919930152
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Seedlings: English Children’s Reading and Writers in South Africa by Elwyn Jenkins
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781868886524
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Emma en Nella by EKM Dido
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781415201206
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

eBook options – Download now!

• eBook: Emma en Nella by EKM Dido
  
  eBook type: ePub
  EAN: 9781415202487
  Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com

Image courtesy LitNet

Cats: Events, Fiction, News, Non-fiction, South Africa
Tags: ‘n Ander ek, Afrikaans, Aubrey A Jones, Books LIVE, Clinton V du Plessis, Cradock, Darryl Earl David, Dr Reginald Koettlitz, Eastern Cape, Ekm Dido, Elwyn Jenkins, Emma En Nella, Etienne van Heerden, Events, Fiction, Flitse, Frans Boekkooi, Haai Karoo, Jeanette Eve, Literary Festival, Melt Myburgh, News, Non-fiction, Oewerbestaan, Olive Schreiner, Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival, Scott’s Forgotten Surgeon, Seedlings, Sigi Howes, South Africa
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Carnarvon – This Northern Cape town’s economy is like a small dam. Though the pebble you throw into it is small, the ripples will spread widely.

That’s what’s happening now thanks to this town’s starry splendour.

Carnarvon has only about 6 000 inhabitants, says Ellen Riley, a councillor of the Kareeberg municipality. It’s traditionally a farming community with around 200 sheep farmers in the environment and a large abattoir in the town.

But, she says, “Our darkness and silence and underdevelopment are our assets.”

Some eight years ago this drew scientists to develop the KAT-7 radio telescope some 80km outside town, on the other side of Klerefontein.

It is growing into the MeerKAT array, and ultimately the R20bn Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world’s biggest radio telescope and the biggest scientific project on earth, will be erected on the same site.

The people of Carnarvon explain that these projects are highly technical and unlikely to create thousands of jobs.

About 60% of the town’s inhabitants are unemployed, says municipal manager Zolile Dingile. Nevertheless the small “pebbles” are already creating economic ripples.

Lize-Maré Malan and her mother, Magrieta Botha, operate two guest houses and overnight rooms. Some engineers who are involved with the SKA are occupying these guest houses for the duration of their contracts – up to 17 months.

They also take more meals than do guests just passing through and thus there are bigger returns per bed.

Thanks to the SKA a third of the beds are semi-permanently booked, producing a nice steady income.

They say the SKA has its own guest houses on its site where it houses many of its own guests, but “they buy everything locally”.

Nicolette Fourie manages the Carnarvon hotel, which was started by her great-grandfather many years ago. Five of the hotel’s 13 rooms are occupied by contractors who are building the substation for the SKA.

And there is increasing interest in buying the hotel, Blikkies Bar and all.

Wilhelm Biermann, the local estate agent from Pam Golding Properties, says that thanks to the SKA the property market is certainly more protected from economic setbacks than that in other small Karoo towns.

This has resulted in more than five families moving to the town. This may not seem many, but to this village it makes a big difference, says Biermann.

In 1992 he himself bought a house for R75 000. Today a good house cannot be found in the town for less than R650 000 and an owner recently rejected an offer of R1m.

Biermann reckons property in the town is currently fully priced and says enquires about business opportunities are on the increase. “But,” he says, “Carnarvon is not about to become a city.”

According to Dingile, plans have already been approved for an SKA information centre for tourists wanting to see what all the fuss is about. Riley says the SKA will invest around R27m in the town for the project.

That and the new tarred road to Vosburg will bring the town many more tourist rands, believes Liz McKinnon, owner of the Lemon Tree coffee shop. The road will save those travelling between the north and the south more than 100km.

She says the recent heavy snow in the Victoria West environment caused people to take detours. “We had a taste of what it would be like once the road is tarred,” she says. Her turnover quadrupled on that specific Sunday.

The more the coffee drinkers visit Lemon Tree, the more the people she will be able to employ, says McKinnon.

The SKA’s contribution is not only in rands and cents. According to Hendrik Robyn, headmaster at Hoërskool Carnarvon, the SKA scientists took all the school’s teachers to Johannesburg to learn from schools there.

The scientists are especially willing to assist with teaching maths, science and languages and have donated a fully equipped computer centre with 42 computers and a monthly internet package to the school.

It’s difficult to attract maths teachers to Carnarvon, but the SKA has indicated that it is prepared to help with an honorarium, says Robyn.

Bursaries are also available for the children, he says, but it will involve a long process to produce achievers who qualify.

Currently the biggest challenge is to bring home to the Karoo children – who often come from difficult socioeconomic circumstances – that after-school and even postgraduate studies are really within their reach.

SKA spokesperson Pieter Snyman says the economic benefits of the SKA and its predecessors will gradually become evident in Carnarvon, but there will be many opportunities during the construction phase, in particular.

Last week the site was handed over to the contractor who will build an underground computer centre on the SKA site and at the end of the year the tender for constructing the dishes will be awarded.

He estimates that between 100 and 300 job opportunities will arise in the first construction phase.

The organisation already has a database with 400 names of residents who might be employed. He says that in two or three years’ time the real impact of the project will be much greater.

Workers busy raking gravel on a portion of the road between Carnarvon and Vosburg, which is being tarred. They say that because of the severe cold, the gravel loosened and this section needs to be re-tarred.

According to the chief contractor, Haw Inglis has to complete this project worth R183m by year-end.

The SKA:

– It would take almost 2m years to replay the data that the SKA collects in 24 hours on an iPad;

– The SKA’s central computer will have the processing capacity of about 100 million PCs;

– The fibre-optic cable used for the SKA could circle the earth twice;

– The SKA’s dishes will produce 10 times the current amount of internet traffic;

– The SKA’s supercomputer will execute 1 018 steps a second –  necessary to process all the data it will collect;

–  The SKA will be so sensitive that it will be able to pick up an airport radar on a plant 50 light years from earth.

Carnarvon’s telescope:

KAT-7 has already been built and consists of seven dishes. It’s a prototype for the MeerKAT and the first radio telescope in the world with dishes manufactured from composite material (fibreglass).

KAT-7 has already produced images and radio astronomers use its data in their research.

MeerKAT is a precursor to the SKA. It will consist of 64 dish antennae and eventually form a quarter of the first phase of the SKA. MeerKAT will be the most powerful radio telescope in the southern hemisphere.

SKA: Square Kilometre Array. It will be the biggest telescope and the biggest scientific project on earth.

It will consist of thousands of large antennae interlinked by fibre-optic cables. The biggest part of the SKA is being built on a site 80km outside Carnarvon in the Northern Cape, with a smaller portion in West Australia.

The total surface area of all the antennae together is one square kilometre. The construction of the R20bn project will take place in two stages. The first starts in 2016 and the second in 2024.

 – Sake24

– www.ska.ac.za

– For more business news in Afrikaans, visit www.sake24.com

Local News

Three people died of hypothermia in the Klein Karoo at the weekend, Western Cape developmental planning MEC Anton Bredell said on Wednesday.

18 July 2012
| Sapa

CAPE TOWN –  Icy temperatures caused by heavy snow led to the deaths of Jan Kaptein, 47, in Uniondale, and two women in Avontuur and De Rust.

Another woman, 28, who went missing in a river on an Oskraal farm, was presumed drowned.

Bredell said he was pleased by the detailed plan of the Eden district to prevent widespread flood damage and loss of life and property. The district breached two big river mouths to avert flooding.

Cape Town disaster teams returned on Wednesday after helping in mop-up operations.

Over the last few days about 120 people were trapped because of the snow on seven farms in the central Karoo. All were evacuated by helicopter, including a mother and her newborn baby.

“Some farm roads have been reopened, but for 4×4 access only. More supplies arrived on Tuesday afternoon from Cape Town and this is in preparation for longer-term contingencies related to possible bad weather in the coming days,” Bredell said.

The SA Weather Service said earlier in the week that a cold front was likely to hit the western parts of the Western Cape on Friday.

Bredell said a meeting would be held on Thursday to put measures in place for “possible freezing weather incidents”.

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ATHOL Fugard’s most recent play, The Blue Iris, might not be as loaded as many of his other works, particularly his political plays, but it’s no less moving. Part love story, part tragedy and all drama, the play is set in Fugard’s beloved Karoo, which is brought to (dismal) life by the bleak and charred set design of Dicky Longhurst. Here we meet farmer Robert Hannay (Graham Weir) and his housekeeper, Rieta Plaasman (Lee-Ann van Rooi), eking out an existence in and around the burned ruins of the farmhouse.

Rieta, impatient with Robert as he sifts through the debris, urges him to load whatever he can salvage onto his bakkie and “just leave”. The farmer, however, wracked with grief and guilt following the death of his wife, Sally (Claire Berlein), shortly after the fire, argues he cannot go until he’s convinced she will rest in peace: he and Rieta have heard her calling his name night after night. Robert, in turn, urges Rieta to leave him and “move on” with her life. She won’t hear of it, evidence of her attachment to the older man.

The Blue Iris is a poignant tale of remorse, jealousy, adoration and revelation. Fugard’s characters are at once conflicted, layered and credible.

We learn that Sally — an English woman whose experience of Africa was limited to the genteel Cape Town suburb of Rondebosch before she married Robert and moved into the house he built for her in the Karoo — was at odds with life as a farmer’s wife in the semidesert. Rieta, solid, supportive and pragmatic, reveals a sinister side. And Robert, agitated and miserable, is troubled by his relationship with his late wife and is unaware of the depth of Rieta’s devotion.

Robert finds a painting of a blue iris by Sally. It was her favourite, he tells Rieta. They reminisce about the piece but Rieta is not convinced Sally was satisfied with it, having heard her say repeatedly she “didn’t get it right”. The painting becomes the catalyst that changes everything.

The Blue Iris is utterly absorbing and shows that, at 80, Fugard’s energy and aptitude for creating characters of depth and complexity are not waning.

Weir is a convincingly grieving widower. Berlein is powerful in her role of the tormented ghost of Sally. The performance of the night for me, though, was Van Rooi, whose depiction of the devoted Rieta is both tender and commanding. She’s stoic, practical and capable of humour, even in desperate times. But Rieta has a dark secret, which is eventually revealed with passion but no excessive melodrama.

• The Blue Iris is on at The Fugard in Cape Town until August 5 and at the Market Theatre in Joburg from August 20 to September 5. www.thefugard.com, www.markettheatre.co.za

Independent Newspapers

File picture – A pedestrian braves the cold, wet weather. Photo: Michael Walker

More cold and wet conditions are expected in the Cape this weekend, the SA Weather Service has warned.

Weather forecaster Puseletso Mofokeng said a cold front would hit the Western Cape on Friday.

“The cold front is not likely to bring snow or heavy rain and won’t be as strong as the previous one,” Mofokeng said.

On Tuesday, a woman and her three-day-old baby were rescued and airlifted from the snowy mountains in the Central Karoo, near Matjiesfontein, said Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, of the Cape Town’s disaster management centre.

They were taken to Beaufort West Hospital.

About 120 people were trapped and isolated by heavy snowfalls in the central Karoo, Solomons-Johannes said.

Seven men and two boys, aged 15 and 19, were also trapped by heavy snow on a farm near Beaufort West. They were all taken to hospital.

Solomons-Johannes said disaster teams in an SA Air Force helicopter would continue searching for people in distress.

“An unknown number of farmworkers and their families are cut off from the outside world in the region,” he said.

He urged people to donate items such as tinned food, wood, paraffin and blankets.

Heavy rains also affected people in the Murraysburg region.

Snowfall in the region and other areas at the weekend caused road closures, trapping motorists in certain towns.

Although most of the roads were reopened, two passes remained closed, said Ashref Ismail of the Road Traffic Management Corporation.

The road between Oudtshoorn and Prince Albert will remain closed until further notice because of snow, and the Molteno Pass, which connects Beaufort West to Loxton in the Northern Cape, was also closed.

“Traffic would be affected on the N2 at Sir Lowry’s Pass, towards Grabouw, as debris caused by the rockfall had still not been cleared from the road. The rocks are still posing a challenge. Motorists are urged to exercise extreme caution,” Ismail said.

The rockfall at Sir Lowry’s Pass on Sunday damaged two cars. Twelve people, including six children, sustained scratches and bruises.

At the weekend, the chill is expected to spread to the Eastern Cape and most of the Northern Cape, bringing with it cold to very cold conditions.

By Sunday, the southern Free State, Lesotho, and parts of KwaZulu-Natal would also feel a nip in the air.

To contribute to disaster relief, call 021 597 6004.

nontando.mposo@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Three people died of hypothermia in the Klein Karoo at the weekend, Western Cape developmental planning MEC Anton Bredell said on Wednesday.

Icy temperatures caused by heavy snow led to the deaths of Jan Kaptein (47) in Uniondale, and two women in Avontuur and De Rust.

Another woman (28) who went missing in a river on an Oskraal farm, was presumed drowned.

Bredell said he was pleased by the detailed plan of the Eden district to prevent widespread flood damage and loss of life and property. The district breached two big river mouths to avert flooding.

Cape Town disaster teams returned on Wednesday after helping in mop-up operations.

Over the last few days about 120 people were trapped because of the snow on seven farms in the central Karoo. All were evacuated by helicopter, including a mother and her newborn baby.

“Some farm roads have been reopened, but for 4×4 access only. More supplies arrived on Tuesday afternoon from Cape Town and this is in preparation for longer-term contingencies related to possible bad weather in the coming days,” Bredell said.

The SA Weather Service said earlier in the week that a cold front was likely to hit the western parts of the Western Cape on Friday.

Bredell said a meeting would be held on Thursday to put measures in place for “possible freezing weather incidents”.

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wonga.com: fast little loans

A task team report on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas in the Karoo will now be released in August.

Answering questions during Thursday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, Cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi apologised for the delay, as the report should have been presented in July.

South Africa’s large untapped shale gas resources — estimated to be the world’s fifth-largest at 485-trillion cubic feet — under the ecologically sensitive Karoo cannot be explored to determine economic viability without using hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a controversial gas extraction method.

Mr Manyi said of the report: “The main problem is the recess that the Cabinet was on and this has impacted the release of the report,” he said.

The Cabinet, the government’s highest decision-making body, had a month-long recess and Mr Manyi said that during this time the ministers had attended to other matters.

He said: “An expectation had been created that the report would be released in July. However, the recess got in the way. The minister has assured me that the report would be released in the first cycle during August.”

Three companies — Shell SA, Bundu Oil Gas and Falcon Oil Gas — have applied for permission to explore the ecologically sensitive Karoo region to test the viability of fracking for the gas deposits.

In April last year, the Cabinet placed a moratorium on shale gas extraction until a multidisciplinary task team had completed its report on the issue.

vecchiattop@bdfm.co.za

Angela van Nes

About 120 people are still trapped and isolated by heavy snowfalls in the central Karoo. Photo: Angela van Nes

Related Stories

• Friends trapped in snow for 20 hours
• WCape manages flooding and snow
• Gallery: Snow in Beaufort West       
  

Emergency supplies to more than 120 people trapped by snow in Beaufort West have been flown out by the air force after a weekend of extreme weather.

Three people froze to death and a woman is missing, presumed drowned, after the weather mayhem across the province.

Emergency services are determined to prevent more deaths, human or animal.

No extreme weather is expected for the next few days, but temperatures will remain low.

Heavy snowfalls in the north of the province and high rainfall in the Southern Cape at the weekend effectively cut the province off from the rest of the country, leaving thousands of people and freight trucks stranded by snow and rain.

An air force helicopter left the Ysterplaat air force base loaded with emergency food, blankets and wood on Monday. Also on board was a paramedic.

The City of Cape Town sent a team of people, supplies and vehicles to Beaufort West to further assist with emergency rescue operations.

Colin Deiner, provincial chief director for disaster management and fire brigade services, said on Monday that if municipalities had not done winter preparedness operations, the snow and floods would have created more havoc, which would have led to a provincial disaster being declared.

Deiner said the Touws and Groot Brak rivers in the Eden district had been opened in anticipation of high rainfall. As a result, the water “had somewhere to go”.

At the weekend, a 55-year-old man died in Uniondale, an 86-year-old man in Avontuur and a woman in Middleplass, De Rust. They all froze to death. The body of a 28-year-old woman, presumed drowned, has still not been recovered.

By late afternoon on Monday, traffic on the N1 to and from Beaufort West was back to normal, said provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa.

Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell said there were about 120 people on seven farms who were cut off.

He said it had been agreed, after an assessment meeting on Monday morning, that relief was a matter of urgency and that much-needed supplies should be sent to Beaufort West.

“The SANDF has been activated to assist in providing emergency relief, medical evacuation and transporting of emergency supplies to the Beaufort West Disaster Management Centre,” Bredell said. The well-being of the animals will be addressed once the affected people have been issued with emergency supplies. There is feed available on certain farms in the area that will be distributed.”

lynnette.johns@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

www.SEJKOT.com, roman.sejkot@tis

New Prague Dance Festival 2009

Something will be brewing this week in the heart of the Klein Karoo. You may want to be on the lookout for the Montagu Music, Art, Dance and Drama Festival (MMADD) as it’s hitting the town of Montagu tomorrow.

Now it may be cold out, but what better way to warm up the winter blues than with a festival line-up that not only can be enjoyed but participated in, too?

All aspects of art from music, photography, dance and literature to poetry and drama are on offer. Latin and ballroom dancing, choirs and ensembles are some of the highlights. Primarily a youth arts festival, it draws talent from Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Mossel Bay and George.

An annual event started in 1995 by local teachers and volunteers, the fest works closely with the Rural Arts Development programme (RAD) and is an opportunity for talented youth in the rural communities to have a performance platform and a chance to network with artists and professionals from all over the province.

Running for the past 17 years, last year saw the festival host almost 1 000 participants from 31 schools in primary, high school and tertiary education institutions.

“There’s the KKNK and the Grahamstown Festival which mostly cater for adults, but here’s one focusing mainly on the youth. It’s to enable performing and visual artists and give them a platform to showcase their talent. Each child is adjudicated and receives a certificate of entry,” says festival director Helen Gooderson.

A first for the festival this year is the hosting of international competitors Zeynep Okcu Ballet School from Turkey. “The Turkish participants will also be doing workshops with our local projects and ballet dancers,” says Gooderson.

Trophies will be awarded in various categories and additional prizes include a master class with Emile Minnie with the winning choir; a drama master class with Godfrey Johnson for the school with the Best Drama entry; a Through the Lens workshop for the photography winner and tickets to watch a production by Cape Town Opera, the National Ballet of Cuba at Artscape Opera House and the musical Kat and the Kings at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town.

• MMADD Festival starts tomorrow and ends on July 28. For more info on the programme, visit the Montagu Youth Arts Festival Facebook page at www.facebook.com/groups/montaguyouthfest/ Tickets cost R10 for adults and R5 for kids in the afternoons, and R20 for adults and R10 for kids in the evenings.