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Johannesburg – Condemnation of former president FW de Klerk’s comment on apartheid has escalated, with ex-president Thabo Mbeki, the ANC and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation entering the fray. The Tutu Foundation on Sunday called on De Klerk to retract his comment that apartheid was never a crime against humanity. Click here to Book …
Johannesburg – Condemnation of former president FW de Klerk’s comment on apartheid has escalated, with ex-president Thabo Mbeki, the ANC and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation entering the fray.
The Tutu Foundation on Sunday called on De Klerk to retract his comment that apartheid was never a crime against humanity.
A man wanted for murder and attempted murder in the Eastern Cape was arrested after a police officer recognised his mugshot while reading a newspaper. A photograph of the 22-year-old, wanted in connection with an incident that happened in January at Gelvandale in Nelson Mandela Bay, was circulated to the media and online on Tuesday. …
A man wanted for murder and attempted murder in the Eastern Cape was arrested after a police officer recognised his mugshot while reading a newspaper.
A photograph of the 22-year-old, wanted in connection with an incident that happened in January at Gelvandale in Nelson Mandela Bay, was circulated to the media and online on Tuesday.
Two days later, warrant officer Gegory Pitt from the Cradock commercial crime task team recognised the wanted man from the newspaper article.
“The investigating officer was contacted and the information confirmed. Pitt immediately mobilised the Cradock cluster operational command centre and Craddock K9 unit,” said police spokesperson Col Priscilla Naidu.
“The team then penetrated a house in Michausdal in Craddock and found the wanted suspect. The warrant for his arrest was executed and he was arrested and detained on charges of murder and attempted murder.”
The man is expected to appear in the Port Elizabeth magistrate’s court soon.
Mount Road cluster commander Maj-Gen Thembisile Patekile said the arrest should serve as a warning to “criminals who think that they can escape arrest”.
Traditional Braaibroodjies. It’s best to braai your broodjies after all the meat has been grilled. This way, the bread soaks up the fat on the grill for extra flavour and a non-stick coating. Photo: Elanie Lombard Ah, the braaibroodjie: a perfect combination of cheesy gooeyness, crunchy toastiness paired with the beloved taste of smoke, sweet-and-sour …
Traditional Braaibroodjies. It’s best to braai your broodjies after all the meat has been grilled. This way, the bread soaks up the fat on the grill for extra flavour and a non-stick coating. Photo: Elanie Lombard
South Africans have a broodjie – a sandwich toasted on the braai grid – for every occasion. For summertime braaiing, we have the classic onion, cheese and tomato braaibroodjie. For school, our moms make us skoolbroodjies. For holidays, there are re-warmed, savoury mince jaffles and for road trips, nothing beats a room temperature padkosbroodjie washed down with a cup of sweet Cremora coffee from a flask.
Eating padkos is synonymous with going on holiday in South Africa. Driving up from Port Elizabeth to Cradock along the N10 this past holiday, this was evident once again. Dotted along the side of the road were fancy couples hanging out of their SUV boots, Volkswagen minibuses carrying grannies, kids and dogs, tired taxi drivers and crumpled passengers, all stretching legs and grabbing a bite to steady them for the road ahead.
Whether you stop at one of those old off-ramps with the little concrete tables to enjoy your bounty, or bask in the scent of sandwiches in the comfort of your car, padkos is what holiday tastes (and smells) like.
Padkos has evolved. Roadside snackers are no longer bound to leftovers and homemade concoctions. Farm stalls along most of SA’s roads act as gourmet padkos pitstops, and there’s even a good case to be made for a fresh bucket of KFC chicken with rolls, given that you share it with your fellow passengers…
One thing is certain; padkos is not padkos without that broodjie to make it a meal.
For my family, padkos remains glorified leftovers and is not complete without hard-boiled eggs, cold mielies from the previous night’s braai, frikkadels and the all-important padkosbroodjie.
White bread is a must, as is a lettuce leaf to act as a barrier for tomato juices that might soak down into the bread, making it soggy. Rest assured that the lettuce leaf will be a little wilted by the time you eat your broodjie… and if you don’t bite it off clean, it might come sliding out of the sandwich and slap you on the chin.
It sounds unappealing but, for some reason, padkosbroodjies need that lettuce to work. It adds that familiar “padkos” flavour. It’s a flavour also found in the southern Americans’ favourite Wilted Lettuce Salad, where warm bacon fat and vinegar is used as a dressing over the leaves, wilting them to release a unique and desirable flavour.
I prefer the padkosbroodjies without tomato, however, for fear of the soggy bread. “In the old days, you ate what you were given,” my dad Wentzel recalls from the padkos stops of his childhood. “The children got tomato, onion and cheese broodjies and only the adults had homemade cold cuts on theirs. Leg of lamb from a previous Sunday’s roast or slices of corned beef or gammon, if we were travelling after Christmas.”
This is often the case. South Africans hardly ever miss a family Christmas even if it means travelling great distances on horrendous roads, sometimes in unreliable vehicles at the mercy of over-tired drivers. It explains why our roads are so busy during Easter and Christmas.
When you finally arrive at your destination, there’s another beloved broodjie that signals the official start to your holiday. Jan Braai reckons it’s “the most iconic item on the menu at any braai and probably the best meal in the world”. Ah, the braaibroodjie: a perfect combination of cheesy gooeyness, crunchy toastiness paired with the beloved taste of smoke, sweet-and-sour Mrs Balls chutney and tangy onion, for balance.
We love these two broodjies equally for the unique roles they fulfill, but did you know that the braaibroodjie and the padkosbroodjie is, in fact, the same thing? Yes, trust our ingenious food forerunners to not want to waste a crumb. Leftover padkosbroodjies were rid of their lettuce and thrown on the cold coals to crisp up. The gentle heat and smoke would mask any trace of sogginess and transform the old tomato, cheese and onion sandwiches to heavenly status.
Generational disputes over the use of chutney on a classic braaibroodjie wage on. Yet we all agree on one thing – “Braaibroodjies is draaibroodjies”… in other words, turned over on the grid – you need the most vigilant of braaiers to make the perfect braaibroodjies. They need to be turned constantly to ensure they’re crisp and golden on the outside, with gooey melted cheese on the inside.
It’s a standard on which relationships are built. In his hit song, Blaas jou Vuvuzela, Jack Parow asks a prospective girlfriend: “Voordat ek jou oopmond soen, sê my, kan jy braaibroodjies maak?” (Before I kiss you, tell me, can you make braaibroodjies?)
Our beloved broodjies can transport us back to childhood. One bite of a fresh peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich and you’re back in primary school, trading broodjies for marbles. The boarding school kids didn’t have much to wager; our go-to was brown bread with a thick layer of “dakverf” (roof paint) – our nickname for the luminous red mixed fruit jam we got.
On Mondays, however, the boarding school kids’ skoolbroodjies were award-winning. Everyone drooled over our roast lamb, cheese and chutney gourmet broodjies, or ones with peanut butter, honey and banana on French toast. Our favourite was my mom’s mince and cheese snackwiches. She had one day to send us off with skoolbroodjies, and she made it count.
Perhaps that’s the allure of the broodjie. Not the fancy toppings, but a simple act of care – and the refusal to waste any leftovers, of course.
Making someone a broodjie always means you care. A dry Marmite broodjie for when they’re ill, a skoolbroodjie for when they’re better. A padkosbroodjie to kick off the holiday, and to act as a last hurrah when returning home again.
My dad still measures every padkos stop to that of my great grandmother Ouma Tok, who perfected the padkos prototype. She packed linen serviettes and a tablecloth and set those roadside concrete tables like she was hosting the Queen. Keep calm and have a padkosbroodjie…
Things have changed… these days, we skip the formalities and dive right into the plastic containers and tinfoil parcels with abandon. But the effect remains the same; it’s a simple meal shared with excitement and familiarity in true South African roadside style.
Next time you have leftover padkosbroodjies, try them on the braai. You can use this Universal Broodjie recipe for padkos, braai or snackwiching:
8 slices of store-bought white bread
Mrs Balls chutney, smeared to taste on 4 of the slices
Mayonnaise, smeared to taste on the remaining 4 of the slices
8 slices good-quality white Cheddar
3 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced thinly
2 red onions, sliced thinly
8 iceberg lettuce leaves
White pepper
Salt
Butter the bread slices to all corners before adding chutney and mayo to opposing slices. Stack the chutney slices with cheese, onion, tomato. Salt and pepper generously. Add lettuce and close the sandwich with the mayo slice. Cover with tin foil and keep refrigerated before hitting the road.
If braaiing or snackwiching the leftovers, add butter to the outsides of the bread and remove the lettuce before applying heat. DM
Herotel, which brought free Wi-FI to the city of Tshwane, is now targeting to bring affordable internet to all South Africans. To fast track its vision of Everyone Connected, the company founded by Alan Knott-Craig Jr is consolidating its fibre assets and wireless internet service provider brands under the Herotel name, with a fresh national …
Herotel, which brought free Wi-FI to the city of Tshwane, is now targeting to bring affordable internet to all South Africans.
To fast track its vision of Everyone Connected, the company founded by Alan Knott-Craig Jr is consolidating its fibre assets and wireless internet service provider brands under the Herotel name, with a fresh national trademark.
Founded in 2014 with the stated goal of providing a single national fibre and wireless broadband provider that can better service South Africa’s growing internet connectivity needs, Herotel currently services around 83 000 home and business internet users.
Operating in over 400 towns, Herotel claims are at the forefront of building, selling and maintaining its own next-generation fibre and fixed-wireless networks across the country, which requires servicing areas that many other industry players have not been able to reach.
“We are very happy to let our competitors fight it out in Sandton and Sea Point while we quietly build fibre and wireless networks in the more underserviced areas,” Herotel CEO, Van Zyl Botha, says.
Herotel has conquered larger towns like Potchefstroom, Worcester, Port Elizabeth, Klerksdorp, and East London, as well as rural towns that others would never consider, like Queenstown, Cradock, Lichtenburg, and Wolmaransstad.
“Our operators all live in the towns we connect, so if your home internet is down it is also down at our staff’s homes. We are woven into the communities we connect and will continue to invest into and serve them to the best of our abilities,” explains Botha.
“We believe that our current scale will allow us to play a meaningful role in correcting the connectivity imbalances that currently exist in these areas,” he said.
“As we grow, we are open to further acquisitions that bring new geographic areas or fresh skills into the group. Ultimately, our aim is to offer unrivalled customer satisfaction to our home and business clients, who rely on us for their video, data and voice solutions and services.”
While the consolidation and rebranding phase of Herotel’s vision is now well underway, Van Zyl ensures everyone that this is just the beginning.
“We at Herotel are in this for the long run. To prove this commitment, we will continue to roll out fibre and fixed-wireless networks in very remote areas, while also heavily investing long-term capital into establishing fibre infrastructure in the denser towns across South Africa.
“Ultimately, we remain devoted to playing a significant role in providing all South Africans with excellent, affordable internet.
Over the last five years, Herotel has been quietly acquiring over 40 owner-operated businesses, which until now remained trading under their original brands, says Botha.
“The plan has always been to unite these companies into a single national entity, which can then use its scale to bring about meaningful change to an industry that desperately needs a shake-up.”
As part of its acquisition campaign, Herotel also focused on software platforms, voice providers, and fibre networks.
“By putting all these pieces together, it brings us closer to our vision: Everyone connected. It is the next step in our journey to bring excellent, affordable internet to all.”
THE message sent by the axing of the national anthem from the Indigenous All Stars game stretches far beyond rugby league and even sport itself. And it’s this simple: Australia needs a new anthem, one that embraces the nation we have become and are trying to be rather than the one we were four decades …
THE message sent by the axing of the national anthem from the Indigenous All Stars game stretches far beyond rugby league and even sport itself.
And it’s this simple: Australia needs a new anthem, one that embraces the nation we have become and are trying to be rather than the one we were four decades ago when Advance Australia Fair was adopted.
As Preston Campbell points out, Advance Australia Fair has jolting tones for indigenous people from its opening lines.
“We think about our old people and the struggles they had, and when you think about the first couple of lines – ‘Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free’ – for a lot of our communities they don’t feel like they are free,” Campbell told NRL.com
“We have been around for 60,000 plus years, so obviously we are not so young either, and there are a couple of lines in the national anthem that has a lot of people starting to think we should change it up.”
Or replace it with something better.
The chastening facts are that Australians of all backgrounds were never totally in love with the anthem anyway.
Back in 1977, when a referendum was held for the anthem, Advance Australia Fair got 43 per cent of the vote compared with 28 per cent for Waltzing Matilda.
It did not even get half the vote.
It was only 10 years before that decision that Australia voted to make Aboriginal people part of the census in Australia so for the first time they counted as Australian citizens.
Be honest. Does Australia’s anthem actually move you the way an anthem should?
If the answer is “no”, you don’t need to say sorry, because you should not have to tell yourself to love something – you either do or you don’t.
Sadly, you only realise how far Advance Australia Fair is falling short in its duty of galvanising the spirit of a nation when you see other nations sing their anthems and how it unifies them.
The South African rugby union team, which won last year’s World Cup, represented all corners and colours of the Rainbow Nation and they stood together as one emotionally bonded unit singing their hearts out before the final.
South Africa’s political history, with its sordid apartheid regime, is nothing to be proud of, but at least they recognised things had to change in all sorts of ways, including their anthem which, complex little number that it is, is quite a majestic piece of work.
It starts in Xhosa, followed by several versus in Zulu, Sesotho and Afrikaans before finishing with a spirited final verse in English.
It includes five of South Africa’s 11 national languages and was penned for adoption in 1997 by a committee featuring voices from different cultures.
Australia’s anthem was penned by a Scot in 1878, when Indigenous Australians were treated horrendously.
It just seems incongruous that former prime minister Kevin Rudd said “sorry” to indigenous Australians for the way they were treated, yet our anthem, which is our spiritual signature as a nation, does not recognise never mind embrace their culture.
When the anthem is played at major rugby league games now, such as the State of Origin series, the attention of many fans is grabbed by trying to note which players are singing it rather than actually singing along with it themselves.
There are many different strands. A few players – not many – sing heartily. Some strike the middle ground of mouthing the words but not being too emotional because they don’t want to offend their indigenous teammates.
Others don’t know the words. Some do, but deliberately don’t sing them.
It’s not the way it should be and it’s the reason that Australia needs a new anthem that represents modern Australia.
THE message sent by the axing of the national anthem from the Indigenous All Stars game stretches far beyond rugby league and even sport itself. And it’s this simple: Australia needs a new anthem, one that embraces the nation we have become and are trying to be rather than the one we were four decades …
THE message sent by the axing of the national anthem from the Indigenous All Stars game stretches far beyond rugby league and even sport itself.
And it’s this simple: Australia needs a new anthem, one that embraces the nation we have become and are trying to be rather than the one we were four decades ago when Advance Australia Fair was adopted.
As Preston Campbell points out, Advance Australia Fair has jolting tones for indigenous people from its opening lines.
“We think about our old people and the struggles they had, and when you think about the first couple of lines – ‘Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free’ – for a lot of our communities they don’t feel like they are free,” Campbell told NRL.com
“We have been around for 60,000 plus years, so obviously we are not so young either, and there are a couple of lines in the national anthem that has a lot of people starting to think we should change it up.”
Or replace it with something better.
The chastening facts are that Australians of all backgrounds were never totally in love with the anthem anyway.
Back in 1977, when a referendum was held for the anthem, Advance Australia Fair got 43 per cent of the vote compared with 28 per cent for Waltzing Matilda.
It did not even get half the vote.
It was only 10 years before that decision that Australia voted to make Aboriginal people part of the census in Australia so for the first time they counted as Australian citizens.
Be honest. Does Australia’s anthem actually move you the way an anthem should?
If the answer is “no”, you don’t need to say sorry, because you should not have to tell yourself to love something – you either do or you don’t.
Sadly, you only realise how far Advance Australia Fair is falling short in its duty of galvanising the spirit of a nation when you see other nations sing their anthems and how it unifies them.
The South African rugby union team, which won last year’s World Cup, represented all corners and colours of the Rainbow Nation and they stood together as one emotionally bonded unit singing their hearts out before the final.
South Africa’s political history, with its sordid apartheid regime, is nothing to be proud of, but at least they recognised things had to change in all sorts of ways, including their anthem which, complex little number that it is, is quite a majestic piece of work.
It starts in Xhosa, followed by several versus in Zulu, Sesotho and Afrikaans before finishing with a spirited final verse in English.
It includes five of South Africa’s 11 national languages and was penned for adoption in 1997 by a committee featuring voices from different cultures.
Australia’s anthem was penned by a Scot in 1878, when Indigenous Australians were treated horrendously.
It just seems incongruous that former prime minister Kevin Rudd said “sorry” to indigenous Australians for the way they were treated, yet our anthem, which is our spiritual signature as a nation, does not recognise never mind embrace their culture.
When the anthem is played at major rugby league games now, such as the State of Origin series, the attention of many fans is grabbed by trying to note which players are singing it rather than actually singing along with it themselves.
There are many different strands. A few players – not many – sing heartily. Some strike the middle ground of mouthing the words but not being too emotional because they don’t want to offend their indigenous teammates.
Others don’t know the words. Some do, but deliberately don’t sing them.
It’s not the way it should be and it’s the reason that Australia needs a new anthem that represents modern Australia.
A man wanted for murder and attempted murder in the Eastern Cape was arrested after a police officer recognised his mugshot while reading a newspaper. A photograph of the 22-year-old, wanted in connection with an incident that happened in January at Gelvandale in Nelson Mandela Bay, was circulated to the media and online on Tuesday. …
A man wanted for murder and attempted murder in the Eastern Cape was arrested after a police officer recognised his mugshot while reading a newspaper.
A photograph of the 22-year-old, wanted in connection with an incident that happened in January at Gelvandale in Nelson Mandela Bay, was circulated to the media and online on Tuesday.
Two days later, warrant officer Gegory Pitt from the Cradock commercial crime task team recognised the wanted man from the newspaper article.
“The investigating officer was contacted and the information confirmed. Pitt immediately mobilised the Cradock cluster operational command centre and Craddock K9 unit,” said police spokesperson Col Priscilla Naidu.
“The team then penetrated a house in Michausdal in Craddock and found the wanted suspect. The warrant for his arrest was executed and he was arrested and detained on charges of murder and attempted murder.”
The man is expected to appear in the Port Elizabeth magistrate’s court soon.
Mount Road cluster commander Maj-Gen Thembisile Patekile said the arrest should serve as a warning to “criminals who think that they can escape arrest”.
It’s turning into a wet and windy day for South Africans. Here follows a collection of weather alerts issued for Gauteng, Eastern Cape Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. “A lot of weather across most parts of the country. Cloudy with rain over the Southern and Eastern Cape with scattered thunderstorms across the central and …
It’s turning into a wet and windy day for South Africans. Here follows a collection of weather alerts issued for Gauteng, Eastern Cape Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
“A lot of weather across most parts of the country. Cloudy with rain over the Southern and Eastern Cape with scattered thunderstorms across the central and eastern half of the country of which some are already severe. Stay safe.”
The South African Weather Service (SAWS) issued warnings for severe thunderstorms which will “result in heavy downpours and localised flood” over north-eastern and eastern parts of the province.
In addition, residents are urged to stay indoors, off the roads where possible, and avoid crossing rivers and swollen streams where water is above your ankles.
Warning:06/02/2020 14h00 TO:06/02/2020 16h00 Severe Thunderstorms- resulting in heavy downpours and localized flooding observed over north-eastern and eastern parts of Ekurhuleni LM (Gauteng).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
It’s 15:06 and there’s a thunderstorm with such heavy rain ? I can’t deal with the weather in Gauteng ?
— Phumelele ? (@PhumieMthembu) February 6, 2020
Also read – Gauteng floods: Centurion left underwater following hectic rain
Affected areas include Ekurhuleni local municipality. In addition, Ann Swanepoel confirmed that a storm is heading towards Oaklands as well:
“Just experienced the loudest thunder clap in the Oaklands, Johannesburg area. I give it 10 minutes for the rain to come down. I sincerely hope.”
The SAWS also issued alerts for thunderstorms over large parts of KwaZulu-Natal, with “possible heavy downpours, excessive lightning, damaging winds and large hail.
Areas on alert include the district municipalities of Amajuba, Zululand, western uMgungundlovu and Harry Gwala, as well as Umkhanyakude.
Also read – Beautiful scenes as torrents of water gush through bone-dry Karoo
Warning:06/02/2020 15h00 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- are forecast and observed over parts Amajuba, Zululand, western uMgungundlovu and Harry Gwala DMs(KZN) with possible heavy downpours, excessive lightning, damaging winds and large hail.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Warning:06/02/2020 16h00 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- are observed over parts Umkhanyakude DM(KZN) with possible heavy downpours, excessive lightning, strong winds and hail.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Hail is also expected in the Free State, along with severe thunderstorms, heavy downpours and strong gusty winds for 6 February 2020. Areas on alert also include:
Warning:06/02/2020 14h20 TO:06/02/2020 16h00 Severe Thunderstorms- with large amount of small hail, heavy downpours and strong gusty winds observed between Van Stadensrus and Zastron slowly moving towards the R26 (FS)(06/02/2020).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Warning:06/02/2020 11h45 TO:06/02/2020 14h00 Severe Thunderstorms- with large amount of small hail, heavy downpours and strong gusty winds observed north of Vrede slowly moving south-east (06/02/2020) (FS).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
In addition to the above, severe thunderstorms are also observed approximately 40 kilometres from Graaff-Reinet, moving in an easterly direction.
Residents can expect heavy downpours and large amounts of small hail, while residents north of Umtata should prepare for damaging winds, heavy downpours and hail.
The slow-moving system is continuously dumping rain over the eastern part of the province, likely to be coupled with localised flooding.
Warning:06/02/2020 14h00 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- is observed 40km N of Graaff-Reinet, moving in a easterly direction. Damaging winds, Heavy downpours and large amounts of small hail can be expected.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Warning:06/02/2020 13h20 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- is observed 30km N of Umtata, moving in a easterly direction. Damaging winds, Heavy downpours and large amounts of small hail can be expected (EC).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Furthermore, severe thunderstorms are observed approximately 30 km kilometres west of Cradock moving in a southeasterly direction towards Somerset West.
Moreover, residents can expect heavy downpours and large amounts of hail. Alerts issued for the local municipalities of Elundini and Mhlontlo LM, as well as the Alfred Nzo district municipality.
Warning:06/02/2020 11h45 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- A severe storm is observed 30km W of Cradock, moving in a south easterly direction towards Somerset East. Heavy downpours and large amounts of small hail.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Warning:06/02/2020 17h00 TO:06/02/2020 21h00 Severe Thunderstorms- Observed over Elundini LM, Mhlontlo LM and Alfred Nzo DM with heavy downpours,damaging winds and large amounts of small hail (EC).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Alerts for severe thunderstorms and large amounts of small hail were issued across for Mpumalanga as well. Residents are warned of heavy rainfall and localised flooding.
In addition, central Limpopo residents – specifically those in local municipalities of Molemolle, Lepele, Polokwane and Aganang – are warned of heavy downpours with large amounts of small hail.
Warning:06/02/2020 14h00 TO:06/02/2020 23h00 Severe Thunderstorms- observed moving to the Sabie area in Mpumalanga with large amounts of small hail and heavy rainfall leading to localized flooding.
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Warning:06/02/2020 15h00 TO:06/02/2020 18h00 Severe Thunderstorms- with heavy downpours and large amounts of small hail observed over the central parts of Limpopo (Molemolle, Lepele, Polokwana, Aganang LMs).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) February 6, 2020
Also read – Weather forecast, alerts and UVB index for all South African provinces, 6 February 2020
Siblings Sunick Ferreira, 12, and Ashley Olivier, 5, have been found – three days after they went missing in Cradock, in the Eastern Cape. The children went missing on Friday after an arranged visit with their biological parents. “It is alleged that the parents left with them shortly after the children were dropped off at …
Siblings Sunick Ferreira, 12, and Ashley Olivier, 5, have been found – three days after they went missing in Cradock, in the Eastern Cape.
The children went missing on Friday after an arranged visit with their biological parents.
“It is alleged that the parents left with them shortly after the children were dropped off at their home for an arranged visit by a social worker. They left the premises with a travelling bag,” said Capt Lariane Jonker on Tuesday.
“The grandfather and legal guardian of the minors reported the two siblings missing.”
The family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit in Cradock had urged the public to assist in finding them.
On Tuesday, police received and reacted to a tip-off and arrested the couple at a homeless shelter just outside Pretoria.
The minors were kept safe by police until they were handed over into the care of their grandfather.
The couple, both in their early 30s, are expected to appear in the Temba Magistrate’s Court, north of Pretoria, on Wednesday. They face charges related to kidnapping and contravening a court order.
That is all good and well, but we need to see arrest warrants, handcuffs and blue lights. As long as the main culprits of the state capture project walk free – and here I include the likes of Jacob Zuma, Duduzane Zuma, the Guptas, Salim Essa, Brian Molefe, Anoj Singh, Mosebenzi Zwane, Ace Magashule, Faith Muthambi and many others – the fightback against the …
That is all good and well, but we need to see arrest warrants, handcuffs and blue lights. As long as the main culprits of the state capture project walk free – and here I include the likes of Jacob Zuma, Duduzane Zuma, the Guptas, Salim Essa, Brian Molefe, Anoj Singh, Mosebenzi Zwane, Ace Magashule, Faith Muthambi and many others – the fightback against the un-capturing of state institutions will continue unabated.
One of the biggest weaknesses of her term so far has been Batohi’s perceived isolation from the rest of the NPA. Yes, of course she had to clean up, but there is no way she can do so alone.
She cannot make those arrests and carry the docket to court. She needs support and her prosecutors (and the Hawks) to rally behind her.
She now has three vacancies for deputies in her office after the retirement of Willie Hofmeyr and Silas Ramaite, and the removal of Jiba from office. Batohi needs to fill these vacancies as a matter of urgency.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will formally confirm their appointment, but Batohi allegedly has carte blanche to appoint who she wants to.
Her honeymoon is over and Batohi needs to start showing results. Forty years later, she must continue the Mxenges’ struggle for truth, justice and equality at the NPA.
– Basson is editor-in-chief of News24.
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Mary Burton, political activist, president of the Black Sash from 1986-1990 and member Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (Photo: Joyrene Kramer) In a week where the Neil Aggett inquest is in the headlines and anti-apartheid activists Barbara Hogan and Frank Chikane testify about the cruelty of the murderous state machinery at the time, it is perhaps …
Mary Burton, political activist, president of the Black Sash from 1986-1990 and member Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (Photo: Joyrene Kramer)
When Mary Burton arrived in South Africa in 1961, she was known to ask uncomfortable questions. Questions that challenged the then apartheid status quo: the Group Areas Act was being enacted, with forced removals underway.
From 1986 until 1990 she would become president of the white women’s resistance organisation, the Black Sash. In 1995, former president Nelson Mandela appointed her to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – one of 17 commissioners, she served on the Human Rights Committee.
Today, a few months shy of 80 years old, Burton still delivers critical commentary in a calm, measured tone.
What is her foremost question to South Africa’s present government, under President Cyril Ramaphosa?
“What will they do to make reparations for those who suffered so much in the past?” says Burton. “Because without something being done – both symbolic and real – reconciliation is going to be very difficult.”
While the government may argue that changes are being made – Burton says it is happening too slowly, and without tangible results for the country’s poor.
“I feel more hopeful with the new government,” she says. “What with competent people slowly, terribly slowly, being put into place. But it’s awful how long it takes. Getting rid of people who are – or have been – complicit in corruption seems to be difficult to do. I suppose there has to be proof, and that takes a long time. But there doesn’t seem to be enough urgency about the economic and social conditions of the poor. I think that is the trouble.”
She notes that since 1994, economic reform policies have benefited an elite few and these benefits are not trickling down. “Well, trickle-down never seems to work,” she adds.
Is there a better alternative to capitalism?
“Well, it’s very difficult because socialism hasn’t really made a big difference in many parts of the world. I just think an awareness needs to be instilled in people who have wealth, that it is to their benefit to share some of that wealth. That if they want safety and security, it costs you. It’s all a question of people stealing at the top, their wealth is stolen wealth. It’s taken from the lives of the poor. So whether the wealth comes from mining or natural resources exploitation, agriculture and so on, people make fortunes at the cost of other people’s labour. The discrepancies are too great. It can’t possibly be just.”
Mary’s eyes are very blue, her gaze level and arresting. She is speaking from the Rondebosch lounge of one of her four sons, while her own nearby house is being renovated. She voices frustration at the ongoing home improvements. “Picking bathroom taps is of little interest to me, but it has to be done,” she says.
Born in the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires in January 1940, Mary studied in Lausanne, Switzerland, after school. She met Cape Town businessman Geoff Burton during a skiing holiday in Austria. After working as a journalist at an English-language newspaper in São Paulo in Brazil, she visited Cape Town where they decided to get married.
“It was 1961, and so much was happening,” she recalls. “My new parents-in-law were completely oblivious and quite prejudiced in many ways, as so many white South Africans of that generation were. So the removals were beginning to become a reality. And it all seemed so ridiculous to me, to move people out of established neighbourhoods in the interest of a strange policy – when there was no conflict, there was no tension between people living together.”
Despite her misgivings, Mary never left South Africa. Instead, she threw her petite frame behind defying the norm – finding purpose in fighting the injustice of her new home.
When first founded in 1955, the Black Sash had up to 20,000 members signing petitions and demonstrating around the country. But it was tough, with many women forced to drop out. By the time Burton joined, the organisation’s number was about 2,500.
“At the time, it just seemed like the right thing to do. I was fortunate in that my husband supported me. But my parents-in-law were very anxious. And that was something that really had to be negotiated. My mother-in-law had known some of the women who first joined the Black Sash, but she said to me, you know, that they left because it was getting very communistic. I mean, there was nothing communistic about the group. But that was the perception – very clever propaganda on the part of the government. And anything communism was just terrifying, people were absolutely terrified.”
At Black Sash meetings, they would agonise over the wording on placards – on how to best convey the evils of apartheid to a blinkered public.
“I gradually came to understand the only way things would change was if voters were educated enough to understand what was happening, and would vote for legislative change,” she says.
One of her earliest Black Sash memories is of a silent demonstration in Kalk Bay. “It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining on the sea, you know, the tourists and the passers-by were all there. And here was this big, big group of Black Sash members, all along the pavement. Maybe a 100, or more. I’ve never forgotten that experience. And the different reactions of the people who walked past; hostility from white people, encouragement from the local population there, the fishing community.”
Burton speaks fondly of the late Noel Robb, one of the organisation’s pioneering members. “They were educating us, the older members. So I remember going with Noel Robb, who was such a strong personality, to visit the migrant labour hospitals in Langa.”
She pauses, choosing her words. “To be confronted with the way in which black men had to live their lives. In those terrible cramped quarters, often with families illegally there. Those single-quarter hostels. They were terrible places. Just terrible. It was the 1960s, these were men who worked in factories, at the harbour, on the docks.”
In the 1980s, Burton joined public marches where inevitably people were killed in clashes with police. Then, along with other Black Sash members, she would attend their funerals.
In March 1985, three months before his murder, Matthew Goniwe – one of the Cradock Four – addressed the Black Sash at their national conference. “At Black Sash we knew Goniwe,” says Burton. “In our memories, a very fine man.”
In January 1997, details of Goniwe’s murder was revealed before the TRC. Over 20,000 victims voluntarily filled out statements heard by the commission’s Human Rights Committee.
“For two years I’ve listened to terrible, terrible stories,” Burton told American journalist Barbara MacLean in 1998, in an interview published in Maclean’s book Strike a Woman, Strike a Rock: Fighting for Freedom in South Africa.
Looking back, Burton says she was fortunate, being able to return to her family after TRC hearings.
“The daily hearing of the stories, I think it took everybody on the TRC into some very dark places,” she says. “Of course, it was very hard. I thought I knew what I was going to hear, but I was shocked.
“However, I came home at night to a family, most of my days. There were people who worked for the TRC who did not have that kind of support. And I think many of them carry much more trauma from that time than I do. The problem was, hearing so many stories. You might not have paid enough attention to each one, the attention each and every one deserved.”
At the time Burton donated part of her commissioner’s salary to the Black Sash, and famously declined the use of an official car. “At the end of my life, they will put on my tombstone: ‘She did not take a government car!’” Mary joked in 1998, in response to questions from MacLean.
Recently, Burton attended the launch of Impossible Return by Siona O’Connell. The book chronicles forced removals in Harfield Village, a gentrifying hub in Cape Town’s southern suburbs.
“In the 1960s, this man, then a young photographer, would just walk around the village. The kids in the streets followed him; they all got to know him by name, taking him into their houses, where he was fed by the local mamas and so on. And now these photographs are in this book. Siona went back to the families he got to know, interviewing the next generation on the impact the removal had on them. It’s incredibly powerful. There were not many dry eyes.”
At the launch, she got speaking to Professor Murray Leibbrandt, a scholar in South African inequality and poverty at the University of Cape Town.
“Well what we were talking about, really, is the task of rebuilding. How do we get rid of the rage that is spilling into our society now? So many things are interlinked – the violence and gender issues and all of that. It’s part of our social mix. One of the ways is obviously through socioeconomic policies that will uplift people and give them a chance in life.”
In 1994 the Black Sash restructured. Management was handed over to professionals, who today operate litigation and advocacy advice centres in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban. Burton is still involved as the organisation’s patron.
For Burton, pursuing a more just society remains an enduring passion.
“I do think about it a lot,’ she says. “It’s intellectually interesting to think about what might be done, to try and find solutions.”
In the thick of TRC hearings two decades ago, Burton told a journalist: “You have no right to harden your heart in this country.”
Confronted by her own words today, she nods: “Yes.” MC
While a fine and warm day is expected across the country on Thursday, the South African Weather Service has issued a warning of possible thundershowers in some parts. Warnings Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected in places over the Northern Cape. Watches Severe thunderstorms are possible over the north-eastern Free State, north-western parts of KwaZulu-Natal, southern …
While
a fine and warm day is expected across the country on Thursday, the South African
Weather Service has issued a warning of possible thundershowers
in some parts.
Warnings
Extremely high fire danger
conditions are expected in places over the Northern Cape.
Watches
Severe thunderstorms are possible
over the north-eastern Free State, north-western parts of KwaZulu-Natal,
southern and south-western parts of Mpumalanga as well as the southern and
central parts of Gauteng.
The
weather in your region
Gauteng will
be fine and warm, becoming partly cloudy in the afternoon with scattered
showers and thundershowers but isolated in the north.
The expected UVB sunburn index is
high.
Mpumalanga will
be hot on the Lowveld, otherwise partly cloudy and warm with isolated showers
and thundershowers, except in the east. Scattered thundershowers are expected
in the south-west.
Limpopo will be partly cloudy and warm to hot
but very hot in places on the Lowveld, Limpopo Valley and western Bushveld.
Isolated thundershowers are expected in the south-west.
For the North West, it will be
fine and hot, becoming partly cloudy in the east with isolated afternoon
thundershowers.
Conditions in the Free State will
be cloudy with fog patches in the north-east at first, otherwise fine and warm
to hot but partly cloudy in the east with isolated thundershowers but scattered
in the extreme north-east.
The Northern Cape can
expect fog along the coast in the morning where it will be warm, otherwise fine
and hot to very hot.
The wind along the coast will be
moderate to fresh south-easterly in the morning, otherwise moderate to fresh
south-westerly.
In the Western Cape, it will
be cloudy to partly cloudy in the east in the morning, otherwise fine and warm
to hot but very hot over the Karoo and West Coast. It will be cool in places
along the South Coast.
The wind along the coast will be
fresh to strong easterly to south-easterly but moderate to fresh south-westerly
north of Cape Columbine.
The expected UVB sunburn index is
extreme.
The western half of the Eastern Cape will
be cloudy south of Graaf-Reinet and Cradock in the morning, otherwise partly
cloudy and warm but hot in the north.
The wind along the coast will be
light to moderate easterly becoming fresh to strong south-easterly in the
afternoon.
In the eastern half of the
Eastern Cape, it will be fine and hot to very hot in the north with isolated
afternoon thunderstorms, otherwise cloudy and warm but cool along the coast and
adjacent interior with scattered showers and rain.
The wind along the coast will be
light south-westerly in the extreme north early morning, otherwise light to
moderate to south-easterly becoming moderate easterly mid-morning but fresh to
strong north-easterly late in the afternoon.
KwaZulu-Natal will
experience morning fog over the interior, otherwise cloudy and warm with
isolated showers and thundershowers but scattered in the north-west. It will be
cool in the south.
The wind along the coast will be
moderate south-westerly to southerly but north-easterly north of Richards Bay.
The expected UVB sunburn index is
moderate.
– Compiled by Kamva Somdyala
Click here to see the specific forecast for your city over the next few days
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Flag of South Africa on the car’s fuel tank filler flap. AKlion / Shutterstock.com Strategic South African towns, which include Bethal, Jozini, Makhado, Welkom, etc, may receive priority support from the South African government. The support to a group of 61 towns may be in a form of state funding. The South African government revealed …
Strategic South African towns, which include Bethal, Jozini, Makhado, Welkom, etc, may receive priority support from the South African government.
The support to a group of 61 towns may be in a form of state funding.
The South African government revealed the plan this week in a new draft National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF).
The plan is open for public comment until 20 March.
The NSDF is described as the first of its kind and according to the government it seeks to make a bold and decisive contribution to bringing about the peaceful, prosperous and truly transformed South Africa, as articulated in the Freedom Charter, the Reconstruction and Development Programme and the National Development Plan.
Furthermore, the new plan aims to create a network of regional development anchors driving the new rural economy that will necessitate the development of a very different local economy in those towns built up over generations and sustained by a model of either largescale commercial agriculture or subsistence agriculture.
Once the plan is adopted and implemented, the anchor towns will benefit through new agriculture support entities, cooperatives, equipment, fertilizer, market support, funding and research will need to be introduced in towns in rural areas to support a new type of farmer.
“Municipalities, who will have to ensure new and appropriate land management in such areas, may also be expected and/or called upon to assist new role-players in the local economy with establishing new agricultural and non-agricultural-related economic activities,” reads the new plan.
“In this, they will require very specific support from the national and provincial sector departments responsible for agriculture and rural development, who will themselves also have to take on new roles in the light of the new dawn in rural South Africa.”
Rural communities will increasingly also demand better levels and higher speeds of connectivity, both by road and rail and by broadband.
With regards to national spatial development, South Africa should see the roll-out of lightning-fast broadband access throughout the country within less than a decade.
(1) the roll-out of broadband throughout the country, first to the most densely populated areas, and thereafter the more sparsely populated areas;
(2) the prioritisation of well-functioning, key national road and rail networks to ensure the creation of a densely integrated functional national economic system
This Draft NSDF highlighted the persistence of colonial and apartheid spatial patterns and their detrimental impact on the ability of government to meet its national development objectives of reducing poverty, inequality and unemployment.
• Spatial development logic and pattern;
• Natural resource use and maintenance profile; and
• Patterns of ownership of, and access to, land and other resources.
The desired national spatial development vision, logic, and pattern, as put forward in the NSDF hold out the real promise of a very different South Africa by 2050.
The South African Weather Service on Friday warned that citizens should expect another afternoon of stormy weather across the country. The service on Twitter issued watches for areas across a number of provinces, for severe thunderstorms: Over KwaZulu-Natal‘s Harry Gwala, uMgungundlovu, uThukela, uMzinyathi and Amajuba districts. This watch is in effect from 2pm Friday until …
The South African Weather Service on Friday warned that citizens should expect another afternoon of stormy weather across the country.
The service on Twitter issued watches for areas across a number of provinces, for severe thunderstorms:
Heavy rain and localised flooding watches are also in effect for:
A severe thunderstorm warning is also in effect in the Eastern Cape at the time of writing.
Warning:24/01/2020 13h00 TO:24/01/2020 16h00 Severe Thunderstorms- observed north west of Cradock (Inxuba Yethemba LM), moving slowly south eastwards. Heavy downpours, damaging hail and strong winds can be expected (EC).
— SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) January 24, 2020
We provided a summary of the watches currently in effect for Friday and Saturday, but we’d suggest following SAWS’s official Twitter account, especially for realtime updates on South Africa’s summer weather systems.
And be sure to bookmark its warnings portal too, where it regularly updates the advisories and more serious information on the daily.
Feature image: storm clouds gather over South Africa’s interior, January 2020, by Andy Walker/Memeburn
PUBLISHED: 06:30 17 January 2020 Gus Jones Geologist Raymond Priestley takes a reading from a piece of scientific equipment at the Koettlitz Glacier during Scott’s Antarctic expedition in 1910-13. Picture: Getty Images. The Print Collector Become a Supporter The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. …
PUBLISHED: 06:30 17 January 2020
Geologist Raymond Priestley takes a reading from a piece of scientific equipment at the Koettlitz Glacier during Scott’s Antarctic expedition in 1910-13. Picture: Getty Images.
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On January 10, 1916, in the small Karoo town of Cradock, South Africa, Dr Reginald Koettlitz passed away within two hours of his wife, Marie Louise Butez. He died of dysentery, she of heart disease.
For more than a decade, Koettlitz had been working as a country doctor in this remote region, often using a horse or pony-and-trap to call on patients in out-of-the-way places.
Such journeys would have presented little challenge for him, though. For in the years before he arrived in South Africa Koettlitz had travelled thousands of miles around the globe, and explored some of its most inhospitable places. He had been deep into the Arctic and, with Captain Scott, the Antarctic, and had also trekked through vast uncharted areas of Africa and, alone, up the Amazon to Manaos.
Yet, while other greats from this heroic age of exploration remain well-known names, more than a century on, that of Koettlitz has all but faded into obscurity.
It was a process that had begun long before his death. Indeed, his move to rural South Africa in 1905 was part of a withdrawal from the world of exploration in which he had been a leading figure.
It was not a deliberate retreat on Koettlitz’s part, though. During his final years in South Africa he still hankered for the chance to take part in one more great polar expedition. But by then Koettlitz had become increasingly alienated from the exploration establishment – a process which stemmed from his fractious relationship with Scott and criticism of his daredevil approach to polar expeditions, which ultimately led to his death on the ice in 1912.
While Scott was lauded and then eulogised, his former colleague Koettlitz was sidelined and then forgotten. It is high time that historical slight was corrected.
He came from an itinerant family which had moved from Konigsberg, in Prussia, to Germany, then Ostend, in Belgium, where Reginald was born in 1860.
His father was a minister in the Reformed Lutheran Church, his mother, Rosetta Dowdeswell, a English teacher. They were a family of some considerable wealth but had fallen on hard times as a result of the gambling debts incurred by a previous minister of the church.
Shortly after Reginald’s birth the family were on the move again, this time across the Channel to Dover, where his father resumed his duties as a church minister. Reginald, like his brothers, attended Dover College before qualifying as a doctor at Guy’s Hospital, London and Edinburgh University.
His first practice was as a GP and surgeon to mines in Butterknowle, County Durham. It was here he gained experience in treating not only common ailments but injuries sustained by miners in the open and underground workings.
But his horizons were broader than County Durham’s Gaunless valley and he secured an appointment as physician on an expedition – led by Frederick George Jackson and financed by newspaper proprietor Alfred Harmsworth – to the Arctic. Jackson had been misled by false maps into believing that Franz Jozef Land, an archipelago deep inside the Arctic Circle and only 500 miles from the North Pole, was in fact a land mass which reached the pole.
The Jackson-Harmsworth expedition involved three testing years spent on the islands. The group was only the second to live and survive on the archipelago.
One day, during their second year in the region, the group were startled by the sudden appearance of “a tall man, wearing a soft felt hat, loosely made, voluminous clothes, and long shaggy hair and beard”. It turned out to be the Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, who with his sole companion Hjalmar Johansen had been living on the ice since leaving their ship Fram more than a year earlier in an abortive attempt to reach the North Pole. It was chance that had brought Nansen and Johanssen to the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition camp and helped guarantee their survival.
As for Koettlitz, one of his main medical challenges during the expedition was to keep the men from suffering from scurvy. Their supplies soon ran low and they were forced to live from the land. This meant killing and consuming birds and animals which they found on Franz Josef Land. Polar bears in particular became a regular food source and more than 80 were killed during the expedition – providing nourishing dishes such as bear’s blood soup – along with hundreds of birds. Two sailors on the expedition ship Windward died from scurvy, having refused this diet, but none of the land party suffered from the disease.
It was an important lesson that Koettlitz was to take with him when he took part in Scott’s Discovery expedition to the Antarctic, from 1901 to 1904.
Koettlitz was appointed as senior surgeon for Scott’s trip and was also responsible for specific scientific duties. Prior to departure to the south he led the group responsible for equipment and provisions. From time in the Arctic Koettlitz knew the importance of using native Samoyed-type clothing, made primarily from Reindeer skin and fur.
But this English-based expedition ignored his advice, opting for ineffective man-made clothing, to the detriment and safety of the expedition members. But it was thought essential by the planners that personal tastes were catered for and under the title of ‘medical comforts’, 27 gallons of brandy and whisky, 60 gallons of port wine, 36 gallons of sherry and a similar amount of champagne were carried to the Antarctic continent. To enhance morale on the lower deck 1,800lbs of tobacco was also stowed away.
Having met Nansen on Franz Josef Land, Koettlitz had stayed in contact with the Norwegian and regularly sought his advice on matters relating to survival in the polar regions.
In their correspondence, Koettlitz was often scathing on the way the expedition was being organised, with Scott himself and Clements Markham, the president of the Royal Geographical Society, the target of particular criticism. “I fear there will be much blundering, waste of time and money, it will be muddled through à l’Anglais,” Koettlitz wrote, in remarks that were eerily prescient in the light of Scott’s ultimate fate. “How can men be such fools, men who have no knowledge of survival in the polar-regions?” he asked. He also wondered whether the men would take his advice to ‘live off the land’, eating seals and penguins to ward off scurvy.
As he feared, once they reached the ice his recommendations were often ignored and some of the men did develop scurvy, something Koettlitz was able to address by introducing his fresh meat diet.
The main goal of the expedition was the exploration of the interior of the Antarctic land mass, which was at the time mainly unexplored. Koettlitz was deeply involved in this work. He made a series of epic sledge journeys from the base in McMurdo Sound where the Discovery was locked in the ice for the duration of the expedition.
His main sledge journey with Albert Armitage, who had also been a colleague on the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, involved the ascent of the Transantarctic Mountains. The pair became the first men to step on the polar plateau, having reached a height of almost 9,000ft.
Other treks included sledge journeys to Black and Brown Islands, where he ascended to a height of 2,750ft discovering it was a volcanic cone and crater. These journeys and scientific discoveries were described in his extensive expedition journals and letters.
On return to Dover in 1904, Koettlitz gave one extended lecture in Dover Town Hall where he displayed the first colour images taken on the Antarctic continent. He was an accomplished photographer but, as with much with regard to Koettlitz, these images were handed to the expedition managing committee and have been lost to science and the nation.
It is a fitting metaphor for the way Koettlitz’s own story was overlooked. A clever but stubborn man, this polar explorer of great knowledge and experience suffered from an image problem from the very beginning.
His stubborn streak led to disagreements with Scott and a strained relationship. The pair would often play each other at chess during the expedition, with the eccentric surgeon’s victories causing Scott much annoyance.
Koettlitz was a serious man frustrated by those who lacked the same professional approach and therefore regarded by others as aloof and uptight. The idea of taking grease-paint to the Antarctic, to allow the men to stage morale-boosting shows, horrified him – as did playing football when they should be practising putting up tents.
Of course, critics would later point to Scott’s less than meticulous attitude as a contributory factor behind his death on the tragic Terra Nova expedition in 1912.
As something of an outsider on the expedition, therefore, Koettlitz was pushed into the shadows on its return. Although he had been made chief of scientific staff, his position wasn’t recognised in Scott’s book of the expedition, The Voyage of the Discovery. Worse, none of his work featured in the expedition’s final scientific reports. Even a report to the British Medical Journal was presented by Koettlitz’s deputy on the ship. This falling out with the polar establishment led ultimately to his move to South Africa, where he practised as the resident doctor in the expanse of the Great Karoo.
In Cradock there is a memorial to him erected by the residents of the region. There is no monument in England, just a polar bear shot by him on Franz Jozef Island now on display in Dover Museum.
To really find his fitting honours, though, you have to go to the ends of the earth: To the Koettlitz Glacier, one of Antarctica’s largest, and to Reginald Koettlitz Island, part of Franz Josef Land, both named in his honour.
A A ‘Gus’ Jones is author of Scott’s Forgotten Surgeon.
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Traditional Braaibroodjies. It’s best to braai your broodjies after all the meat has been grilled. This way, the bread soaks up the fat on the grill for extra flavour and a non-stick coating. Photo: Elanie Lombard Ah, the braaibroodjie: a perfect combination of cheesy gooeyness, crunchy toastiness paired with the beloved taste of smoke, sweet-and-sour …
Traditional Braaibroodjies. It’s best to braai your broodjies after all the meat has been grilled. This way, the bread soaks up the fat on the grill for extra flavour and a non-stick coating. Photo: Elanie Lombard
South Africans have a broodjie – a sandwich toasted on the braai grid – for every occasion. For summertime braaiing, we have the classic onion, cheese and tomato braaibroodjie. For school, our moms make us skoolbroodjies. For holidays, there are re-warmed, savoury mince jaffles and for road trips, nothing beats a room temperature padkosbroodjie washed down with a cup of sweet Cremora coffee from a flask.
Eating padkos is synonymous with going on holiday in South Africa. Driving up from Port Elizabeth to Cradock along the N10 this past holiday, this was evident once again. Dotted along the side of the road were fancy couples hanging out of their SUV boots, Volkswagen minibuses carrying grannies, kids and dogs, tired taxi drivers and crumpled passengers, all stretching legs and grabbing a bite to steady them for the road ahead.
Whether you stop at one of those old off-ramps with the little concrete tables to enjoy your bounty, or bask in the scent of sandwiches in the comfort of your car, padkos is what holiday tastes (and smells) like.
Padkos has evolved. Roadside snackers are no longer bound to leftovers and homemade concoctions. Farm stalls along most of SA’s roads act as gourmet padkos pitstops, and there’s even a good case to be made for a fresh bucket of KFC chicken with rolls, given that you share it with your fellow passengers…
One thing is certain; padkos is not padkos without that broodjie to make it a meal.
For my family, padkos remains glorified leftovers and is not complete without hard-boiled eggs, cold mielies from the previous night’s braai, frikkadels and the all-important padkosbroodjie.
White bread is a must, as is a lettuce leaf to act as a barrier for tomato juices that might soak down into the bread, making it soggy. Rest assured that the lettuce leaf will be a little wilted by the time you eat your broodjie… and if you don’t bite it off clean, it might come sliding out of the sandwich and slap you on the chin.
It sounds unappealing but, for some reason, padkosbroodjies need that lettuce to work. It adds that familiar “padkos” flavour. It’s a flavour also found in the southern Americans’ favourite Wilted Lettuce Salad, where warm bacon fat and vinegar is used as a dressing over the leaves, wilting them to release a unique and desirable flavour.
I prefer the padkosbroodjies without tomato, however, for fear of the soggy bread. “In the old days, you ate what you were given,” my dad Wentzel recalls from the padkos stops of his childhood. “The children got tomato, onion and cheese broodjies and only the adults had homemade cold cuts on theirs. Leg of lamb from a previous Sunday’s roast or slices of corned beef or gammon, if we were travelling after Christmas.”
This is often the case. South Africans hardly ever miss a family Christmas even if it means travelling great distances on horrendous roads, sometimes in unreliable vehicles at the mercy of over-tired drivers. It explains why our roads are so busy during Easter and Christmas.
When you finally arrive at your destination, there’s another beloved broodjie that signals the official start to your holiday. Jan Braai reckons it’s “the most iconic item on the menu at any braai and probably the best meal in the world”. Ah, the braaibroodjie: a perfect combination of cheesy gooeyness, crunchy toastiness paired with the beloved taste of smoke, sweet-and-sour Mrs Balls chutney and tangy onion, for balance.
We love these two broodjies equally for the unique roles they fulfill, but did you know that the braaibroodjie and the padkosbroodjie is, in fact, the same thing? Yes, trust our ingenious food forerunners to not want to waste a crumb. Leftover padkosbroodjies were rid of their lettuce and thrown on the cold coals to crisp up. The gentle heat and smoke would mask any trace of sogginess and transform the old tomato, cheese and onion sandwiches to heavenly status.
Generational disputes over the use of chutney on a classic braaibroodjie wage on. Yet we all agree on one thing – “Braaibroodjies is draaibroodjies”… in other words, turned over on the grid – you need the most vigilant of braaiers to make the perfect braaibroodjies. They need to be turned constantly to ensure they’re crisp and golden on the outside, with gooey melted cheese on the inside.
It’s a standard on which relationships are built. In his hit song, Blaas jou Vuvuzela, Jack Parow asks a prospective girlfriend: “Voordat ek jou oopmond soen, sê my, kan jy braaibroodjies maak?” (Before I kiss you, tell me, can you make braaibroodjies?)
Our beloved broodjies can transport us back to childhood. One bite of a fresh peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich and you’re back in primary school, trading broodjies for marbles. The boarding school kids didn’t have much to wager; our go-to was brown bread with a thick layer of “dakverf” (roof paint) – our nickname for the luminous red mixed fruit jam we got.
On Mondays, however, the boarding school kids’ skoolbroodjies were award-winning. Everyone drooled over our roast lamb, cheese and chutney gourmet broodjies, or ones with peanut butter, honey and banana on French toast. Our favourite was my mom’s mince and cheese snackwiches. She had one day to send us off with skoolbroodjies, and she made it count.
Perhaps that’s the allure of the broodjie. Not the fancy toppings, but a simple act of care – and the refusal to waste any leftovers, of course.
Making someone a broodjie always means you care. A dry Marmite broodjie for when they’re ill, a skoolbroodjie for when they’re better. A padkosbroodjie to kick off the holiday, and to act as a last hurrah when returning home again.
My dad still measures every padkos stop to that of my great grandmother Ouma Tok, who perfected the padkos prototype. She packed linen serviettes and a tablecloth and set those roadside concrete tables like she was hosting the Queen. Keep calm and have a padkosbroodjie…
Things have changed… these days, we skip the formalities and dive right into the plastic containers and tinfoil parcels with abandon. But the effect remains the same; it’s a simple meal shared with excitement and familiarity in true South African roadside style.
Next time you have leftover padkosbroodjies, try them on the braai. You can use this Universal Broodjie recipe for padkos, braai or snackwiching:
8 slices of store-bought white bread
Mrs Balls chutney, smeared to taste on 4 of the slices
Mayonnaise, smeared to taste on the remaining 4 of the slices
8 slices good-quality white Cheddar
3 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced thinly
2 red onions, sliced thinly
8 iceberg lettuce leaves
White pepper
Salt
Butter the bread slices to all corners before adding chutney and mayo to opposing slices. Stack the chutney slices with cheese, onion, tomato. Salt and pepper generously. Add lettuce and close the sandwich with the mayo slice. Cover with tin foil and keep refrigerated before hitting the road.
If braaiing or snackwiching the leftovers, add butter to the outsides of the bread and remove the lettuce before applying heat. DM
