south africa

Eastern Cape police have arrested 12 suspects and seized several firearms and ammunition after intercepting a vehicle near Cradock.

Colonel Michelle Matroos said two off-duty police officers from the Cradock K9 Unit had received information from colleagues at the Queenstown K9 and public order policing units about a Toyota Quantum travelling towards Cape Town which was allegedly conveying illegal firearms.

“They booked themselves on duty and started to patrol the area just outside Cradock where they stopped the vehicle.

“During a search of the vehicle‚ 12 male occupants were arrested for possession of illegal firearms and unlawful possession of ammunition‚” Matroos said.

Seven pistols‚ an AK-47 rifle and several rounds of ammunition were seized.

Matroos said the firearms would be sent for forensic tests.

Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga‚ Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner‚ praised the team for their vigilance in the recovery of the illegal firearms.

“Our Back to Basics approach is bearing fruit with good old fashioned police work. We will continue to stamp the authority of State with increased operations throughout the province. Our robust approach will continue to eliminate the proliferation of illegal firearms that contribute to the commission of crime and even the loss of innocent lives. We will not hesitate to act against individuals who continue to contravene the law‚” she added.

The suspects are expected to appear in court soon.

CAPE TOWN – Legendary South African paddler Hank McGregor, a 10-time World champion, arrived in the Mother City today to take part in tomorrow’s Bamboo Warehouse Freedom Day Paddle.

The inaugural 28km surfski challenge around Robben Island has attracted around 200 entries (singles – S1 and doubles – S2) and finishes at the Oceana Power Boat Club adjacent to the Cape Town Waterfront.

“Kudos to the organisers for delivering a new, fresh iconic event that I’m sure will go on to attract big names from around the globe in future,” said McGregor.

“We get to paddle around the infamous Robben Island which housed the late Nelson Mandela for 18 years, that’s huge, hence my decision to make the trip from Durban and be part of history.”

“To be able to get up close to the island and do so on a day commemorating the first democratic elections in 1994, for me, is a time for reflection.”

“As for the race itself, it will be a rough and tough trip from past experience; SA hosted the inaugural Ski Racing World Cup in 2004 (won by the Cape crew of Graeme Solomon and Jasper Mocke).” 

“We raced from Blouberg Beach to Robben Island and back and I remember harsh conditions that had one on guard all the way,” added McGregor.

“But this time I’m not in it to win it, it’s more a case of enjoying the occasion with my S2 partner Lee Furby, who hasn’t been around the island before. So we will just be soaking up the experience and making sure we arrive at the finish in one piece.”

“My money is on the classy Cradock-based brothers Ryan and Greg Louw (who just won the SA Lifesaving ski title) landing the S2 title.”

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Don’t rule out the threat posed by the Mocke/Jono Nieman and Clint Cook/Tyron Maher combos.

Race sponsor, the evergreen Graeme Solomon, who partners Ian Trautmann, is a man on a mission for another reason.

“Having spent countless hours in our rivers and oceans training and racing, I have seen first-hand the trash we are choking our planet with.”

“It is vital we switch from single-use plastics and using unsustainable resources. Let’s create a planet our kids can enjoy,” said Solomon.

Current world surfski champ Hayley Nixon and world junior champion Sabina Lawrie will start as favourites in the women’s race.

Mike de Bruyn

Cape Argus

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Port Elizabeth – Ngqamakhwe Police in the Eastern Cape are investigating a case of culpable homicide after two women lost their lives and 16 people were injured in a bakkie accident.  

Police spokesperson, Captain Jackson Manatha said it was alleged that a bakkie was on its way to Ngqamakhwe town when the accident occurred at Mpatheni Location, Nofotyo Village on Thursday.  

Manatha said the bakkie did not collide with another vehicle and the cause of the accident was unknown at this stage. 

He said that two women died at the scene of the crash while 16 others travelling in the bakkie were injured and taken to Ngqamakhwe Day Hospital. 

The identities of both deceased have not yet been released. 

African News Agency/ANA

Cape Town – Lukhanyo Calata is no ordinary man. I thought he was but I was wrong. In fact, Lukhanyo is exceptionally brave. Dare I say if his father were alive today he would be very proud. Courage runs in his blood.

Abigail Calata is no ordinary woman. Together with Lukhanyo, the journalist and author was prepared to sacrifice all they had and their family’s well-being in support of her husband against injustice.

I am an ordinary man. I flinch when confronted with adversity, even when I have the unequivocal support of an extraordinary woman in Laylaa Abarder.

But despite this unconditional and unwavering support I would think several times before putting my livelihood at risk. I’m not a trust fund kid. Far from it, I’m one pay cheque away from losing everything.

Lukhanyo and Abigail, who have a young son, aren’t trust fund kids either. But the difference is they don’t blink in the face of adversity. The couple earned my respect when the saga known as the #SABC8 unfolded.

I met Lukhanyo more than a decade ago and didn’t really know who he was except that he was a talented young broadcaster who had worked in both radio and TV journalism.

Only later did I realise he was the son of Struggle activist Fort Calata – one of the Cradock Four who were assassinated at the hands of the apartheid regime’s brutal machinery.

Lukhanyo doesn’t go around telling people who his daddy was. Had it not been for two of my mentors, Benny Gool and Roger Friedman, I may never have known about the link.

This context is important for what happened next. It was Monday, June 27, 2016. Hlaudi Motsoeneng was creating havoc at the SABC, ordering journalists, among other ridiculous moves, to turn their cameras away from protests.

Journalists who stood up against Hlaudi were fired. A core group, who came to be known as the #SABC8, were at the centre of the rebellion.

Lukhanyo was part of this group, first summarily suspended and then dismissed.

It was an ordinary day in the Cape Argus newsroom when I got an extraordinary call that Monday. On the line was radio broadcaster, Koketso Sachane, a mutual friend of Lukhanyo and I, to say Lukhanyo wanted to break his silence about Hlaudi’s reign of terror. He was ready to stand in direct opposition to his bosses.

Lukhanyo was by then an accomplished and high-profile parliamentary correspondent for the SABC.

The news value immediately dawned on me: Fort Calata’s son was to walk his father’s footsteps against injustice.

I devoted big resources to the story, assigning deputy news editor Lance Witten to interview Lukhanyo. We brought in a video team and started broadcasting Lukhanyo’s interview. It made an immediate impact.

The interview was splashed on the front page of the Cape Argus the next day with the headline “Is this what Fort Calata died for?” and the subhead “Slain activist’s son and SABC staffer hits out at his bosses”.

Lukhanyo told Witten in the interview: “I made the decision to become a journalist after years of watching journalists coming to our home as part of their drive to tell the story of my father and his comrades.

“Thirty-one years later, I now work as a news reporter, with the sole purpose of telling stories of my people with dedication, truth and freedom.

“A freedom that many like my father either died or were imprisoned for.

“It is therefore with great sadness that I am confronted with the disturbing direction being taken by my employers. A direction I believe flies in the face of what many have sacrificed.”

Read more: SABC undoing what my father died for: Fort Calata’s son

I was in awe of Lukhanyo’s bravery. A few days later Lukhanyo and Abigail showed even greater courage when they joined a group of journalists in protest outside the SABC’s Sea Point offices and in support of his colleagues. Days later, Lukhanyo was fired.

I called Lukhanyo after he was dismissed, feeling somehow responsible. He reassured that he did the right thing and would do it again if he needed to.

Fortunately, sanity prevailed and Lukhanyo is back at the SABC doing country duty and reporting from Parliament.

Now Lukhanyo and Abigail are ready to launch the book they had co-written, My father Died for This, telling the story of their exceptional bravery.

They’re an ordinary couple – with bills and school runs. But they are doing extraordinary things.

The book will give heart and hope to anyone who is being bullied and oppressed. It is recommended reading for every South African.

* Follow more of Abarder’s musings on Twitter – @GasantAbarder.

Port Elizabeth – Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle on Friday conveyed his condolences to the victims of two bus accidents which claimed the lives of a total of 17 people. 

Masualle also wished a speedy recovery to dozens more who were injured in the accidents.  

Two separate bus accidents on Eastern Cape roads killed at least 17 people and left scores injured on Wednesday.  

A Vaal Maseru bus which was on its way from Welkom to various Eastern Cape towns left 13 people dead and 42 injured after it overturned at Ngcobo.

Ten passengers, including the bus driver, were declared dead on the scene after the bus veered off the road and overturned in bushes a few metres from the main road, less than than a kilometre to the town of Ngcobo. Three more bodies were uncovered after the bus wreckage was removed.  

Late on Wednesday, a Translux bus was involved in an accident which left four passengers dead. The accident occurred on the N6 between Komani (Queenstown) and Jamestown. Scores of passengers were taken to hospital.  

“We convey our sincere condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in these tragic accidents,” said Masualle. 

“Investigations must now move swiftly to get their causes, it cannot be that we have become desensitised to the senseless loss of life on our roads. Reckless and negligent drivers must be brought to book, freight and commuter business owners and operators must ensure their fleet are up to standard at all times or they must be held liable.”  

Masaulle thanked to road and traffic law enforcement officers and police members who risked their lives and maintained a close watch and high visibility on the roads over Easter. 

“We urge the millions that will crisscrossing the roads of the Eastern Cape and South Africa during the Easter pilgrimage, and holiday, to exercise extreme care and vigilance while on the roads. 

“Those who must rest must rest, drinking and driving is always a no-no, and vehicle owners and operators have the responsibility to ensure their vehicles are roadworthy,” he said. 

African News Agency/ANA

The negative environmental impacts of dairy farming are well-established and widely researched. They include loss of biodiversity, eutrophication, ammonia and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and inefficient resource use.

The question is, what practices can be implemented to reduce these impacts while ensuring the long-term profitability of farms? Society wants food at a lower environmental cost, while farmers are challenged with adverse climatic conditions, difficult market conditions and an uncertain political climate.

READ Dexter cattle: Ideal for meat and dairy

The research was conducted using data collected by Trace Save (traceandsave.com) for the Woodlands Dairy Sustainability Project.

The farms included in the study were all pasture-based dairy farms in the Eastern Cape, between the Storms River in the west and the Great Fish River in the east. This includes the Tsitsikamma, Oyster Bay, Humansdorp, Gamtoos, Alexandria, Cookhouse and Cradock regions.

The Eastern Cape is the largest milk-producing province in South Africa, and the majority of dairy farmers in the study area apply a pasture-based system, making this an ideal location to explore sustainability on dairy farms.

All for sustainability
As part of his research, Galloway conducted a survey on 65 dairy farmers to examine their perceptions of sustainable agriculture. It showed that they had overwhelmingly positive perceptions of the idea.

All respondents agreed with the statement, “Sustainable agriculture methods will ensure long-term success of commercial agriculture in South Africa”.

READ Tips on selecting heifers

All but one agreed with “I want to leave a healthier farm (better soil, water, biodiversity) to future generations”, while all but two agreed with “Sustainable farming practices are needed to protect natural resources”.

However, not all these farmers had adopted the full range of sustainable practices on their farms. The primary reason they gave for not doing so was the time, cost and energy required to implement them.

Measuring impact
To examine whether it was possible to achieve economic sustainability in conjunction with environmental sustainability, Galloway explored some of the environmental impacts of dairy farming.

This involved using two tools developed by Trace Save: a carbon footprint calculation and a nutrient budget.

Simply put, a carbon footprint is the amount of GHG emissions – a major contributor to global climate change – associated with an activity.

To reduce its environmental impact, dairy farming must reduce the GHG emissions associated with milk production.

A nutrient budget is used to calculate the efficiency with which nutrients, specifically nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), have been used on a farm.

Nutrient-use efficiency is calculated by dividing the amount of nutrients removed from the farm by the amount of nutrients imported onto the farm over one year.

The total amount of N and P imported is calculated from the amount of feed, fertiliser and animals brought onto the farm.

READ Biological farming ensures dairy farm’s success

The total amount of N and P removed is calculated from the milk, crops and animals sold. Any inefficiency (more imported than removed) results in an excess of nutrients, which can lead to pollution, especially of freshwater sources.

Environmental impact varied widely among the 43 pasture-based dairy farms studied.

A factor found to be associated with environmental impact was soil health. To assess this, Galloway measured the levels of soil carbon, as carbon contributes to more active soil life, better water-holding capacity and better nutrient retention and cycling in the soil.

The research showed that farms with higher soil carbon levels had lower GHG emissions and higher N-use efficiencies; in other words, a lower environmental impact (see Graphs 1 and 2).

 

TOP (Graphs 1 and 2): The statistically significant relationship between environmental impact (nitrogen- use efficiency, on the left, and greenhouse gas emissions, on the right) and soil health on pasture-based dairy farms. (Note: ECM = energy-corrected milk, a measure that enables farm milk production to be compared on an equal basis.)

 

Economic sustainability
Next, Galloway had to determine whether the farms that had lower environmental impacts were still economically productive.

To do this, Galloway measured the total factor productivity (the efficiency with which inputs are converted into outputs) of each farm, using data envelopment analysis. This provided a measure of farm efficiency, and indicated how profitable the farms were relative to each other.

Graphs 3 and 4 show that when the measures of environmental impact and farm efficiency are compared, the more productive farms had higher N-use efficiencies and lower GHG emissions.

Put simply, the most profitable farms were also those that had the lowest environmental impact.

ABOVE (Graphs 3 and 4): The statistically significant relationship between farm efficiency and environmental impact (nitrogen- use efficiency, on the left, and greenhouse gas emissions, on the right).

The factors that achieve both goals
This important discovery led to a final question: which pasture-based dairy farm systems result in increased productivity and reduced environmental impact?

Here it was found that two aspects are crucial: reducing fertiliser application rates, and feeding less concentrate per litre of milk production, although this should be done while maximising milk production on the available land.

To achieve this requires optimal stocking density, full utilisation of pasture through effective grazing management, and supporting pasture growth with healthy soil rather than fertiliser.

This dynamic is illustrated in the diagram above.

“I believe that as farmers realise that environmental goals are not opposed to economic goals on pasture-based dairy farms, they’ll be willing to put in the effort it takes to produce milk in a more sustainable manner,” says Galloway. – Staff reporter

Email Dr Craig Galloway at [email protected].

Galloway’s PhD research supervisors were: Prof Karen Esler, Dr Heidi Prozesky and Dr Beatrice Conradie.

Steeped in history, Cradock is considered the capital of the Karoo heartland and lies on the banks of the Great Fish River.

Most of the migration during the Great Trek started around Cradock. The area was originally intended to be a Boer fort to contain the Xhosa who were competing for grazing ground for cattle.

This relaxed Karoo town today produces some of the best mohair and lamb in the country.

Construction of the Orange-Fish River Tunnel was of great importance to the town’s economic development and had a big impact on households and local industry.

Completed in 1975 and 83km in length, the tunnel diverts water from the Gariep Dam on the Orange River to the Great Fish River and then onto the Sundays River Valley, Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth for irrigation.

The tunnel also led to the establishment of the annual Fish River Canoe Marathon, which attracts more than 1,500 paddlers from all over the world.

Other interesting events in the area include the annual Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival, the Karoo Food Festival and the Cradock Show, with its saddle horses a particular highlight.

Thousands of visitors flock to the Mountain Zebra National Park outside town every year, while others come to pay their respects at the Cradock Four Monument and Garden of Remembrance.

Visitors are also attracted by the numerous historic buildings in the area, such as the Dutch Reformed Mother Church, a national monument designed to look like London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields church, and the Olive Schreiner House Museum, devoted to the author’s life and works.

Schreiner is said to have written the novel The Story of an African Farm while working as a governess on farms in the district, and she spent much of her early life in Cradock.

The restored Old Water Mill and the Great Fish River Museum are also favoured by visitors, and Die Tuishuise and Victoria Manor has been beautifully restored to offer unique accommodation.

Cradock provides an authentic taste of country living and is a pleasing escape from the hustle and bustle of city life.

“I love the fresh air, beautiful mountain scenery, nature, the big backyards, the fruit trees, the architecture and the farmstyle feel. I love that we know everyone, but the day-to-day kindness is most important to me and I don’t want, or need, to live anywhere else in the world. This is home!” says resident Lisa Ker.

Property prices

You can expect to pay in the region of R688000 for a typical three-bedroomed house. There are very few flats in Cradock, wiht 92% of the stock in houses.

For a 20-year bond on R688,000, you would pay R6,754 per month at 10.5% prime.

Dine out

True Living: for great South African cuisine

Daggaboer Farm Stall: for delicious baked goods

Buffalo Dan’s: for juicy steaks

Albert Restaurant at Die Tuishuise and Victoria Manor: for a fantastic dinner

The Olde Maple Shed: for great breakfasts

Mila’s: for yummy pizza

Area attractions

Mountain Zebra National Park

Schreiner House Museum

Fish River Museum

Dutch Reformed Mother Church

Cat Conservation Trust

Orange Grove Karoo

Cradock Four monument and Garden of Remembrance

Stay over

Die Tuishuise and Victoria Manor

White Rose Guest House

Annie’s Guest House

Fish River Cottages

Heritage House Bed and Breakfast

The 18 months Winnie Madikizela-Mandela spent in solitary confinement in the 1970s in all likelihood resulted in “profound post-traumatic stress” that was never treated. She was instead banished to Brandfort afterwards.

Paying tribute to the late anti-apartheid icon, whom she first met in 1976, journalist, author and activist Charlene Smith scolded some white South African social media users for “white trash know-nothing comments” on Winnie.

“She spent 18 months in solitary confinement, naked, not allowed to wash, and not allowed out for exercises. She did not know what had become of her girls. When she would speak of this with me, her whole countenance would change.

“She was not allowed sanitary towels when she had periods, nor water or cloths to clean, and so the blood caked on her. She made friends with cockroaches. I’ve been in the cell at the Old Fort that she was held in. It is narrow with high, thick walls, it is oppressively dark when the door is closed, as it was for 18 months,” Smith wrote.

RELATED: Estimated R45m poured into dilapidated Cradock Four memorial

Smith suggested that “she [Madikizela-Mandela] experienced profound Post Traumatic Stress. It was never treated; instead, she was expelled to Brandfort”.

“She used to wait at the Brandfort post office at around 11am each day for phone calls or would make phone calls out.”

Smith pointed out that those who visited her were “arrested and charged”, which resulted in Madikizela-Mandela remaining “isolated and lonely”.

“… It was here that the drinking and drug taking began and affairs with younger men, including a dreadlocked filmmaker. The conservative black folk of Brandfort township grew to loathe her.”

Smith drew a correlation between the pain Madikizela-Mandela carried and its manifestation through the actions of the infamous Mandela United Football Club.

“She formed the Mandela United Football Club, it became an instrument of torture and murder of young men wrongly accused of being spies. At the TRC hearings, where its activities were recounted, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who knew her long put his head on the table and cried,” Smith recalled.

MORE: Madikizela petitions the appeals court for Qunu homestead ownership one more time

“If Madiba could forgive and honour her, and then not punish white South Africans for what we put her and others like her through, how DARE you judge her?” Smith asked.

She reminded those who have circulated disparaging messages, such as “Ding Dong the witch is dead”, that Mandela once wrote: “I have often wondered whether any kind of commitment can ever be sufficient excuse for abandoning a young and inexperienced woman in a pitiless desert.”

“Because of the poison that is racism she was tortured beyond anything anyone should endure, and because she was so venerated none loved her enough to give the help she needed.

“Winnie is the Conscience of a Nation that has already forgotten the tragedy of apartheid history; even in her death, people do not realise how she suffered, how damaged she became and how it hurt her and those who cared for her most,” Smith argued.

Call for flags to be lowered nationwide

Travel / 5 April 2018, 2:00pm / shingai darangwa

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Bruce Hughes broke the record in the Freedom Challenge Race to Cradock when he took part in the 575km non-stop self-navigated mountain-bike race two weeks ago.

Just four days later, Hughes took part in the less-competitive and untimed 554km Race to Willowmore.

Bruce Hughes, pictured here racing in New Zealand, broke the record in the 575km Freedom Challenge Race to Cradock two weeks ago. Photo: Supplied

After riding a combined 1 129km in the space of a week and beating the Race to Cradock record by four hours and 17 minutes, Hughes described racing in ultra-endurance events as an “addiction” for him.

“It was not my first time,” he told In the Bunch. “I have a bit of a habit of doing these ultra-endurance events.

“I am currently on a sabbatical from fulltime work and I am exploring more avenues in endurance riding. I have just come back from New Zealand where I did a 3 000km race.

“I love the Freedom Trail. I have done the Race Across South Africa [2 300km from Pietermaritzburg to Wellington] twice before.

“I enjoy the competition, the routes and the support stations. I try to come back as often as I can, but unfortunately I won’t be taking part in the Race Across SA this year.”

Hughes said he made a “calculation” before the Race to Cradock event in order to ensure he broke the record.

“I thought it was very feasible to break the record when I entered the race if I just followed a plan,” he said.

“It was surprising and nice to break the record by such a big margin.”

He, however, felt the race was about more than times. “The trails are not so much about records, but more about pushing yourself.

“I had never done 48 hours of racing without sleep. I have done longer races, but not of that nature.

“It was a good learning curve to know that I could push myself like that.”

Hughes completed the route, which took place from Rhodes to Cradock, in 42 hours and 52 minutes.

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A trainee sangoma has turned to the Port Elizabeth Small Claims Court in a bid to recoup R25‚000 she says she paid to a traditional healer who allegedly tried to lure her into witchcraft instead.

The Herald newspaper reported that Gcobisa Rasmeni‚ 36‚ alleges the traditional healer led her to a river in Cradock to be initiated (ukuthwasa) in order to be a fully fledged sangoma.

She claims she was handed a black cat and told to sacrifice it as part of the rituals she was required to perform. This caused her to back out at the last minute.

“I approached him in the first place because I was sick and needed healing. I would not have approached him if I knew he wanted to initiate me into witchcraft‚” the Herald quoted Rasmeni as saying.

The sangoma denied the allegation of witchcraft. He said his work was above board and accused Rasmeni of tarnishing his name.

“It’s not true that I bewitched her or her family. In fact it’s her neighbour who bewitched her‚” the Herald quoted him as saying.

Rasmeni says her family have left their home because they heard “strange noises and things walking on the rooftop”.

“Funny things happen around me. Sometimes money vanishes out of my hand‚” she said.

She borrowed the money to pay the sangoma via a bank credit card facility.

Now her letter to the Small Claims Court states she wants a refund from him within 14 days.

– HeraldLIVE

He saw how bad things can be, so perhaps it’s karma that he just got to enjoy a fantastic hunting trip in South Africa, expenses paid by the Disabled American Veterans organization.

He was able to help stalk a white rhinoceros, which was then tranquilized, and he successfully bagged a half-dozen or so venison-type animals during his eight-day stay near Cradock.

Even though his Toyota truck was chased and nearly speared by a black rhino at one point, “it was the trip of a lifetime, and then some,” Baker said.

He and another veteran, a Green Beret who lost an arm in the Afghanistan war, were guests at Tam Safaris, with over 60,000 fenced-in acres and 40 species of game animals. Baker, 43, is in management at a Fargo hotel, and was impressed with the first-class hospitality at Tams. “It’s second to none,” he said. He left on his trip Feb. 12 and returned Feb. 22.

The eastern cape area of South Africa is usually dry and the savannah grasses brown, but it rained every day that Baker was there, so the grass was green and the animals were all “fat and sassy and enjoying life,” he said with a grin. The two veterans and their guides were busy every day.

The most intriguing thing was the rhinos, he said. The heavy beasts compensate for their poor eyesight with extraordinary senses of smell and hearing, making them a challenge to track.

“Nothing will top the three days that we had rhino involvement,” he said.

There’s a big difference between aggressive black rhinos and more docile white rhinos, he said. “They say if it’s running away from you, it’s a white rhino, if it’s running towards you, it’s a black rhino,” he said. The black rhino that charged their jeep got too close for comfort. “Our professional hunter was yelling at our driver to go faster—it was from here to the wall away,” Baker said, pointing to a wall about five feet away. “It would have flipped the jeep.”

Another time, “we got within 20 yards of them, a herd of white rhino went by about 20 yards away,” he said, still a little in awe over the experience.

After Baker and his crew stalked his white rhino, a veterinarian used a tranquilizer gun to subdue it, and then implanted a GPS chip in the pregnant beast. All the rhinos are tracked in real time, especially at night, to protect them against poachers, since their horns can fetch a lot of money in Asia. To help keep them healthy, rhinos at Tam Safaris are also given vitamin shots by helicopter-riding vets using tranquilizer guns.

Baker did well on his hunting trip, bagging a black wildebeest, a red hartebeest, a blesbok, a zebra, an impala, a gemsbok and a white springbok. None of them endangered species, of course.

Nothing goes to waste there—all the meat is consumed, and as part of the trip Baker gets to have mounts of his trophy animals done by a taxidermist so he can display them.

Hunting and fishing trips sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans organization are a lot of fun, obviously. But they are also intended to be therapeutic for veterans, said Becker County Veterans Service Officer Lauri Brooke.

“Putting veterans together is a key part of recovery, because they understand each other,” she said. “Part of it is trying to get them back to what they enjoyed before (combat) … it’s been proven to work—there’s a recreational therapy to it,” she said.

“It puts things into perspective,” Baker agreed. He got a lot out of talking to his Green Beret companion, the first American amputee in the Afghanistan war, and Baker was inspired by the way the man didn’t let his disability get in the way of enjoying the hunt. “He’s just a stand-up guy,” Baker said. “To watch him with one arm, and vision loss in one eye, it’s interesting to watch him get behind a weapon and be a success at shooting.”

Safaris may not be so politically correct these days, but that’s because people don’t always understand how much hunting contributes much-needed cash to the African economy, and toward helping preserve exotic animals and their environment. It’s kind of like how groups like Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever help preserve wetlands and other habitat needed for the game birds to thrive in Minnesota.

“The hunting and conservation efforts over there helps villagers, and helps the animals—it’s amazing how poor they are over there—South Africans can’t afford to put vitamins into rhinos,” Baker said.

He said he’s grateful to the Disabled American Veterans group for everything they do.

“Veterans used to come home and sit in the house and go on and never talk about it (combat) with anybody,” he said.

As time and mental health has evolved, so has the way veterans deal with their experiences, he added. “When you are around people that have been through what you have, they get it,” he said. “It was truly the trip of a lifetime.”

If people want to get involved in helping pay for hunting and fishing trips for veterans (most are less expensive and much closer to home) they can talk to Brooke at the veterans’ service office.

Charles de Gaulle, French president of the 1960s, was probably not speaking of our man in Paris, ambassador Rapu Molekane, when he opined: “Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.”
A career diplomat, Molekane is a man for all seasons. Before Paris, where he is into his third year, the soft-spoken Molekane was in Bava- ria, Germany.

A quote that is likely to fit his character snugly is from Bisaac Goldberg, who said: “Diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest thing in the nicest way.”

Molekane comes from that gene- ration of the ANC Youth League of Peter Mokaba. “We were very close with Peter,” he says.

Mokaba was a hothead. So too Molekane, by association.

Their relationship dates back many years in the youth formations. Mokaba was president of the Mankweng Youth Congress. Molekane was his opposite number at the Soweto Youth Congress. They were arrested for organising Congress of South Africa Students affairs.

He was at the Soweto College, training as a teacher; Mokaba was already a teacher in Mankweng.

For their trouble, they were bundled into Sun City, the Johannesburg Prison, where they were joined by the famed Cradock Four – Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli.

Mokaba was belligerent, the kind of war talk that appealed to Julius Malema when his turn came to head the ANC Youth League. While Mokaba’s militancy was the bane of adults, especially the pacifists, it was to the younger Molekane that the task of taming Mokaba was left.

He has always been known as Rapu. “My full name is Rapulane, but I’ve never used that name. It is from my people, the Barolong ba Rapulane. My father is from royalty but never claimed that lineage and its rewards. He came to Johannesburg in the early 20s. He and Thaba Nchu are worlds apart. But my roots are in the Free State,” says the boy from White City, Jabavu in Soweto.

I venture the suggestion that diplomacy has mellowed him, his temper now a far cry from the war cry made famous by Mokaba: Kill the Boer; Kill the Farmer.

“I haven’t changed; I’m still the same. Diplomacy does not mean one has to be softer. The positions we continue to hold have not changed. It’s just the conditions that have made us to grow.”

That’s Bisaac Goldberg speaking.

Molekane says of the love-hate relationship with Paris when the subject of Dulcie September comes up in the interview: “That’s where diplomacy comes in. You’d do well to avoid issues that are a sore point that will create animosity and concentrate on what we need from the French.

“But you don’t sweep these things under the carpet. When things don’t go well, you remind them. But we try to be civil.”

Assassinated on March 29, 1988, as she was opening the door to her office, September’s killers have still not been brought to book. It can’t be easy traversing the road to a metamorphosis from a fierce Young Turk to a diplomat watching every word.

“We were hand-picked by Alfred Nzo, the four of us, in 1994 during the first parliament,” he says of their introduction to the diplomatic corps.

He names the three others making up the quartet as Jerry Ndou, Louis Mnguni and Jackie Selebi. This reporter wonders if the first on the list is not Jerry Matjila but it seems rude to interrupt Molekane.

He says the rationale behind their move into the diplomatic corps, still under foreign affairs at the time and with Rusty Evans at the helm, was to blood younger people “who understood the politics of the ANC”.

“Not just go for a short stint but to become part of the department; to implement the decisions taken in parliament, about the foreign policy philosophy of the ANC. We went there as junior diplomats.”

Fast-forward to 2018, the young man who had to run the gauntlet of the FW de Klerk laws, sells the good story of South Africa to the world from Paris.

“We achieved our freedom through the help of many countries, throughout the globe, especially those in Europe. In the UK you had the anti-apartheid movement that was very active.

“Successive governments in Europe were supportive of apartheid. Most of them now pretend they were on our side. They were not. You go to the UK, the Labour government supported apartheid. Even here in France, the socialist government supported apartheid.”

“Our mobilisation of the anti- apartheid struggle was not targeting governments, we were targeting society trade union movements, the churches, all over the capitals of Europe.

“So even today we have a much better relationship with movements than we have with some governments.” Molekwane adds: “The world has changed so much that no country in the world can do without Africa. They need us more; they need the natural resources.

“Africa has got a young, vibrant society; they have ageing societies. They need Africa more to sustain their lifestyle. With all their knowledge and skills, they need us more.”

South Africa has a unique Big Brother role in this regard.

“Here I am always called to give a view of what South Africa thinks about whatever happens on the continent in Zimbabwe. Do we lift the sanctions, do we continue? In the Seychelles the former French colonies.

“We are a reference point for them. Even ordinary people want to hear the South African viewpoint about what is happening on the continent. We continue to be held in high regard,” says Molekane, now also the vice-president for Africa on the executive board of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

“We have done quite a lot to strengthen relations between France and South Africa,” he says.

He will not take the credit but salutes the work of his predecessors upon which he now builds.

In education, he says, the French have opened their doors to South African students.

“We have about 50 postgraduate and PhD students at various universities throughout France. This was begun long before I came here.”

Education is but a part of the huge basket of co-operation areas South Africa has with France and Molekane speaks about each with relish.

“The French are shrewd business people. They have a huge contract with Prasa through their structure here called Alstom. We didn’t come to buy trains here. We bought the know-how. The trains are built in South Africa, in Boksburg. We have taken their IP; we are training South Africans here who are becoming artisans and engineers to build these trains. Some of them will be hitting the road very soon (going back to South Africa).”

He then talks about Koeberg, how the French helped build the nuclear power station, together with the Israelis.

“So we continue to co-operate and collaborate with the French around nuclear technology for peaceful use. We sell isotopes for radiation for use as cancer treatment. They buy these things from us in South Africa, through Nersa (the National Energy Regulator of SA) and the Department of Science and Technology.

“They are quite advanced in secondary medicine, especially nuclear medicine. We co-operate with them. They continue to service that station. Before we came here, Koeberg was buying everything from here – even the bolts and nuts. We changed that. We now have South African technicians to produce these things.”

He talks at length about the balance of trade between the two countries – R20billion in exports to France, while South Africa imports goods worth about R40bn.

He laments the trade barriers on South African wine in France. He returns to the trade gap between France and South Africa, obviously a sore point for him. He sings the praises of the Forum for Political Dialogue “to discuss all our various areas of collaboration with them”.

“Of course they always want to sell us things.”

Time has healed the militant, though he’d not admit to such. He now talks about the urgency to do away with the visa requirement when, in his youth, the subject for passionate discussion would have been De Klerk’s ban on over-age students at tertiary institutions.

“I’m a full-time diplomat,” he says, responding to a question about what’s next for him after his four-year term ends in 2019.

The Sunday Independent 

AVID paddlers will chop up the water at St Francis Bay in their furious quest to become the next King of the Kromme.

Now in its 13th year, the annual Pam Golding Properties King of the Kromme, is set to take to the water at Quaysyde Restaurant at 16:00 on Easter Saturday, March 31.

It is anticipated that the shift of the event from a Sunday to a Saturday, will see more paddlers competing this year.

Hosted by the St Francis Paddling Club and sponsored by Pam Golding Properties, the main race will stretch over 20km, while the short race will have contestants paddling for 12km.

There will also be a 1km race for paddlers under 12, as well as a guppy race for paddlers under 10.

Contestants will paddle off at Quasyde Restaurant, from where they will follow the canals for 1km, before paddling up the Kromme River for 8km until they reach the Geelhout Tributary. From their it is 2km to the turn at the buoy.

Then it is a race back to the finish line with some assistance from the tide.

“This is a particularly special stretch with indigenous bush right up to the banks. The river becomes ever narrower until it is about 8m wide at the turn,� says Richard Arderne from Pam Golding.

Though it is a singles race, doubles are also welcome.

It is hoped that this year the prestigious floating trophy will go to a local paddler. So far, the race has been dominated by Port Elizabeth paddlers Scot Johnson, Calvin Zeelie, Jordan Zeelie, Luke McNish and Greg Louw. Other winners include Juan Maree from Cradock, Dave Hamilton-Brown from Johannesburg and Matt Bouman from Durban.

The main prize for the 20km single race is R2 000, while the runner-up and second runner-up will receive R1 000 and R500 respectively.

A split-shaft Carbonology paddle valued at R2 500 will be up for grabs in the lucky draw.

ANC recently succeeded in securing the two-thirds majority needed to pave the way for an amendment of the Constitution – a move which will enable the government to expropriate land without compensation – by supporting and modifying a motion from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The land question in South Africa remains a thorny issue as black people were subjected to increasing dispossession during the apartheid era and as far back as the colonialists.

A landmark in this process was the Natives Land Act of 1913, written about movingly by Sol Plaatje in his book Native Life in South Africa.

Dispossession came through forced removals by the apartheid regime. A case in point was the demolition of Sophiatown in 1955, leaving urban black people wrenched brutally from their homes. For black people, apartheid was an era of subjugation and dispossession. For the colonialists and for the beneficiaries of apartheid, it was a time of political power used in the service of economic advancement.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the government’s efforts to return land to the dispossessed – through the willing seller, willing buyer arrangement – hit an iceberg. In many instances, land owners, mainly white and mostly farmers, demanded exorbitant figures for land. The result has been frustration for the government which has been left unable to resettle black people or at least compensate them adequately.

The government says only about 10% of commercial land has been restored to the dispossessed since 1994. Its stance on land expropriation without compensation comes as no surprise.

As a heritage practitioner, this new development makes me think that in many ways the heritage sector is faced with similar problems related to land distribution. Some individuals and companies are sitting on valuable heritage assets.

Some do not even know the historic value of these possessions until it is pointed out to them.

Upon realising the financial value of their properties, owners of these heritage sites often start thinking in monetary terms. The prospect of selling to the government, with its apparently unlimited resources, beckons.

A case in point is the Waaihoek Methodist church in Bloemfontein, where the ANC was formed in 1912. The property had been used as a panel-beating establishment since 2003.

Unbeknown to the owner of this dilapidated place, Kevin Jacobs, his was a valuable possession. Once this came to his attention, he realised he had been sitting on a pot of gold.

And so began negotiations between him and the Free State government, then under pressure to get the historic church ready in time for the ANC centenary celebrations in 2012. Jacobs saw an opportunity to bargain, demanded R15m and was eventually paid R10m for the building.

The seller must have been well satisfied, but for the government, as is the case with willing buyers, willing sellers, this was another episode of digging deep into dwindling government coffers just to secure an important historic building.

The Sanlam building in Port Elizabeth, the security branch offices during apartheid times, is another notable example. Activists were often detained, tortured and sometimes died at the hands of the police in that notorious building. Lungile Tabalaza and George Botha are examples of struggle activists who drew their last breath in what is now the Sanlam building. Steve Biko, the leader of the black consciousness movement, was detained in this building in 1977 and horribly tortured. Siphiwo Mthimkhulu was tortured and poisoned in the building. He was later assassinated in Cradock in 1982.

In post-apartheid South Africa, there has been a great need to reconnect with the history of the Sanlam Building through a memorial site. The sixth floor of the building is of particular interest because this is where activists were tortured, including room 601 where Biko was tortured. Through the Steve Biko Foundation, the Biko family has been in the forefront, trying to ensure that the site is preserved for the purpose of renewal and spiritual healing.

But the issue of ownership once more came into play. The Sanlam building was privately owned by Irish property dealer Ken Denton. It would be years before the building could be restored as a memorial site.

The building was eventually bought by the Qhama Social Housing Institute, a private not-for-profit company working with the government and specialising in urban renewal and mixed-development housing.

In 2016, R86m was invested in the project with the intention to convert the building into a housing unit for families of former detainees under the auspices of the Steve Biko Munford project. The sixth floor of the Sanlam building would be preserved as a memorial site and room 601 as a prayer room.

Sites such as the Sanlam building, as with some of the land taken during apartheid and colonial times, have significance that is more than material. For instance, relatives of the landless are often buried in land that was dispossessed. Solemn rituals and other cultural activities are often performed at the grave sites, which in African can be a cornerstone to life, adding significance to existence. All this becomes impossible when the land was dispossessed.

Similarly, in the case of the Sanlam building, rituals might have to be performed by families whose loved ones died in the building, spiritually reconnecting for healing and spiritual revival.

Some might want to visit the place just to pray, asking the Lord to receive the spirit of their loved one. Some families might want to visit such spaces to repatriate the spirits of their loved ones to a final resting place, such as Isivivane at Freedom Park in Pretoria. Moreover, preserving such heritage sites is significant for present and future generations to learn about our country’s history of racial oppression.

That said, let me raise a perhaps controversial question. These sites are sometimes in private hands and are often difficult to secure for preservation. Should they not be expropriated without compensation as will now be the case with the land? A statement of this nature does of course require heritage practitioners, government, policy-makers and the public to engage with it.

Closely related is the subject of ownership of the names of struggle heroes, including their final resting places. In April 2016, the EFF hoped to evoke Solomon Mahlangu’s name in a rally in Mamelodi, but the Mahlangu family would have none of it. Mahlangu, they argued, belongs to the ANC. The matter landed in court.

Another case is that of former president Nelson Mandela’s final resting place in Qunu, Eastern Cape. Recently, the ANC delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa was refused access to Mandela’s place of interment. The Mandela family members wanted to perform some rituals before allowing the public to visit the site, they asserted.

How far does our freedom as members of the public extend with regard to names and sites pertaining to struggle heroes? Or, to put it differently, where do we draw the line between family and the public on such issues? An indaba aimed at engaging the nuances around issues discussed in this article may be necessary, particularly on that of expropriation without compensation of memorial sites.

– Mancotywa is the head of the National Heritage Council.

ANC recently succeeded in securing the two-thirds majority needed to pave the way for an amendment of the Constitution – a move which will enable the government to expropriate land without compensation – by supporting and modifying a motion from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The land question in South Africa remains a thorny issue as black people were subjected to increasing dispossession during the apartheid era and as far back as the colonialists.

A landmark in this process was the Natives Land Act of 1913, written about movingly by Sol Plaatje in his book Native Life in South Africa.

Dispossession came through forced removals by the apartheid regime. A case in point was the demolition of Sophiatown in 1955, leaving urban black people wrenched brutally from their homes. For black people, apartheid was an era of subjugation and dispossession. For the colonialists and for the beneficiaries of apartheid, it was a time of political power used in the service of economic advancement.

In post-apartheid South Africa, the government’s efforts to return land to the dispossessed – through the willing seller, willing buyer arrangement – hit an iceberg. In many instances, land owners, mainly white and mostly farmers, demanded exorbitant figures for land. The result has been frustration for the government which has been left unable to resettle black people or at least compensate them adequately.

The government says only about 10% of commercial land has been restored to the dispossessed since 1994. Its stance on land expropriation without compensation comes as no surprise.

As a heritage practitioner, this new development makes me think that in many ways the heritage sector is faced with similar problems related to land distribution. Some individuals and companies are sitting on valuable heritage assets.

Some do not even know the historic value of these possessions until it is pointed out to them.

Upon realising the financial value of their properties, owners of these heritage sites often start thinking in monetary terms. The prospect of selling to the government, with its apparently unlimited resources, beckons.

A case in point is the Waaihoek Methodist church in Bloemfontein, where the ANC was formed in 1912. The property had been used as a panel-beating establishment since 2003.

Unbeknown to the owner of this dilapidated place, Kevin Jacobs, his was a valuable possession. Once this came to his attention, he realised he had been sitting on a pot of gold.

And so began negotiations between him and the Free State government, then under pressure to get the historic church ready in time for the ANC centenary celebrations in 2012. Jacobs saw an opportunity to bargain, demanded R15m and was eventually paid R10m for the building.

The seller must have been well satisfied, but for the government, as is the case with willing buyers, willing sellers, this was another episode of digging deep into dwindling government coffers just to secure an important historic building.

The Sanlam building in Port Elizabeth, the security branch offices during apartheid times, is another notable example. Activists were often detained, tortured and sometimes died at the hands of the police in that notorious building. Lungile Tabalaza and George Botha are examples of struggle activists who drew their last breath in what is now the Sanlam building. Steve Biko, the leader of the black consciousness movement, was detained in this building in 1977 and horribly tortured. Siphiwo Mthimkhulu was tortured and poisoned in the building. He was later assassinated in Cradock in 1982.

In post-apartheid South Africa, there has been a great need to reconnect with the history of the Sanlam Building through a memorial site. The sixth floor of the building is of particular interest because this is where activists were tortured, including room 601 where Biko was tortured. Through the Steve Biko Foundation, the Biko family has been in the forefront, trying to ensure that the site is preserved for the purpose of renewal and spiritual healing.

But the issue of ownership once more came into play. The Sanlam building was privately owned by Irish property dealer Ken Denton. It would be years before the building could be restored as a memorial site.

The building was eventually bought by the Qhama Social Housing Institute, a private not-for-profit company working with the government and specialising in urban renewal and mixed-development housing.

In 2016, R86m was invested in the project with the intention to convert the building into a housing unit for families of former detainees under the auspices of the Steve Biko Munford project. The sixth floor of the Sanlam building would be preserved as a memorial site and room 601 as a prayer room.

Sites such as the Sanlam building, as with some of the land taken during apartheid and colonial times, have significance that is more than material. For instance, relatives of the landless are often buried in land that was dispossessed. Solemn rituals and other cultural activities are often performed at the grave sites, which in African can be a cornerstone to life, adding significance to existence. All this becomes impossible when the land was dispossessed.

Similarly, in the case of the Sanlam building, rituals might have to be performed by families whose loved ones died in the building, spiritually reconnecting for healing and spiritual revival.

Some might want to visit the place just to pray, asking the Lord to receive the spirit of their loved one. Some families might want to visit such spaces to repatriate the spirits of their loved ones to a final resting place, such as Isivivane at Freedom Park in Pretoria. Moreover, preserving such heritage sites is significant for present and future generations to learn about our country’s history of racial oppression.

That said, let me raise a perhaps controversial question. These sites are sometimes in private hands and are often difficult to secure for preservation. Should they not be expropriated without compensation as will now be the case with the land? A statement of this nature does of course require heritage practitioners, government, policy-makers and the public to engage with it.

Closely related is the subject of ownership of the names of struggle heroes, including their final resting places. In April 2016, the EFF hoped to evoke Solomon Mahlangu’s name in a rally in Mamelodi, but the Mahlangu family would have none of it. Mahlangu, they argued, belongs to the ANC. The matter landed in court.

Another case is that of former president Nelson Mandela’s final resting place in Qunu, Eastern Cape. Recently, the ANC delegation led by President Cyril Ramaphosa was refused access to Mandela’s place of interment. The Mandela family members wanted to perform some rituals before allowing the public to visit the site, they asserted.

How far does our freedom as members of the public extend with regard to names and sites pertaining to struggle heroes? Or, to put it differently, where do we draw the line between family and the public on such issues? An indaba aimed at engaging the nuances around issues discussed in this article may be necessary, particularly on that of expropriation without compensation of memorial sites.

– Mancotywa is the head of the National Heritage Council

Gysie Britz was introduced to racing pigeons at the age of 10 by fanciers Andries van Straten and Josie Ferreira.

“I started with active pigeon racing at Westdene Racing Pigeon Club in 1959,” he recalls.

“Later, I participated at Mayfair Racing Pigeon Club and the Mayfair South Golden Reef Racing Pigeon Association, then rejoined Westdene.

“I stopped racing pigeons in 1970, but in 1986 the pigeon bug bit again and I established a loft in Brackendowns, which fell outside the membership boundaries of the Transvaal Racing Pigeon Federation and the then Transvaal Homing Union.”

At the time, there were 26 fanciers in the area and they formed their own club, which was affiliated to Meyerton Racing Pigeon Club.

“The pigeons were basketed for the race events at my home and transported to Meyerton,” says Gysie.

He moved to Mayberry Park in 1989 and joined Alberton Homing Society in 1990.

“I retired from pigeon racing in 2004, but, at 80 years old, I’m still involved in the sport in numerous ways,” he says.

“My preferred strain or pigeon bloodlines are: Oscar De Vriendt [and] Huyskens Van Riel, from Ivan Kitchenbrand via Hilton Harper; Janssens, from Trevor Gilbert; and Fihrens, which often had to be brought back to the loft from an outside toilet where they insisted on making nests!”

Highlights
Asked about his performance highlights, Gysie recalls that in 1990, during his first year at Alberton, he timed in the only pigeon back on the same day of liberation from Richmond.

“In 2002, again from Richmond, only 10 pigeons made it back on the same day of liberation, and mine scored first, third, fifth and seventh.

“It was also very special to score top union position in the short- and middle-distance out of 4 000-plus birds, as well as winning the long-distance union event in the Three Sisters Old Bird National out of 2 110 birds, all in 1993.

“In 1999, one of my favourite pigeons, SA TRPF 98 16856, won 1st Club/1st Union from Cradock, beating 4 378 birds entered by 232 members.”

Inspiration
Over the years, Gysie has been inspired by a number of other fanciers. Chief amongst these are Lou Holbert and Chris Neethling.

“[Their] pigeons formed part of the proudly SA pigeon families during the early years of our sport until the present day,” he says.

Fanciers Cilla Keizer, Aubrey Louw and Trevor Gilbert were also an inspiration to him.

Advice for beginners
Asked what he would do differently if he had to begin all over again, he replies: “I’d
start with the best genetic quality I could afford, as the sport is very competitive and expensive. You can’t waste time and money with mediocre pigeon stock!”

Beginners in the sport should also start with the best basic loft they can afford.

“It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it must be effective in terms of its construction, providing good shelter and ventilation.

“Make friends with a champion fancier you can trust and learn the basics of how to be successful in pigeon racing early in your career; this will give you a head start.”

Thomas Smit is a racing pigeon selector, and a freelance journalist and writer.

A total of 70 boerboels and their breeders competed in the first Eastern Cape boerboel show of 2018 on Saturday.

The event was held at Pioneer Nursery along the Gonubie Main Road and was a South African Boerboel Breeders’ Society (SABBS) event.

There were two aspects to Saturday’s show, one being appraisals and the other being the showing of the dogs.

A breeder from Cradock, Magda Brink, said: “I think this is the only breed we know of in the world that still has appraisals. This is because breeders are still trying to get to the perfect boerboel.”

Brink said that appraisals were necessary to build a breed standard from the wide genetic variety in boerboels, adding that the variety came from the breed still being very young.

“Males can weigh anywhere from 60 to 90kg. Females are obviously smaller. They come in black, brindle, fawn and deep red. Some dogs have what is called an Irish marking, which is like a white necklace around the dog’s neck and can go down to the dog’s chest,” explained Brink.

Eastern Cape SABBS representative and board member Chandre Ludeke said during the appraisal every aspect of the dog was looked at to determine if it could be used for breeding.

“It is marked out of 100 and needs to score 75 and above to be allowed to breed. A dog can be appraised once it turns 12 months and can be appraised again when it gets older as they keep growing until three years of age,” said Ludeke.

The show section of the day was divided into different categories, including sub-junior, junior, senior, junior handlers, family class and champion classes. For a dog to compete it had to be “birth notified”, proving that it comes from registered parents.

Dogs can be shown from as young as eight weeks but it is preferred that they start at three months once they have had all their inoculations.

Ludeke said the dogs were judged on various aspects, including not only the look or confirmation of the dog but also the way it moves and its temperament with the goal being a well-balanced animal.

Throughout the day, the audience was treated to some truly awe-inspiring dogs with some of the larger dogs getting audible gasps from the audience. All dogs were well behaved with no barks or growls being directed at any attendees.

Razor Boerboels local breeder Shaun Thompson emphasised that the key to having a well-rounded boerboel was socialisation.

“If you don’t socialise it, the dog will have to stay in your yard and only act as a guard, but if you do socialise it then the dog will be well rounded,” he said, adding that boerboels needed a big yard and plenty of high-quality food.

“It is important to buy from a good breeder, that’s why all the dogs today [Saturday] were well behaved and interacted with one another appropriately in the ring. People need to keep away from backyard breeders,” said Ludeke.

Puppies go for between R5000 and R8000 when coming from a reputable breeder, she said, adding this included first-time inoculation, micro-chipping, a vet check and its birth papers.

He saw how bad things can be, so perhaps it’s karma that he just got to enjoy a fantastic hunting trip in South Africa, expenses paid by the Disabled American Veterans organization.

He was able to help stalk a white rhinoceros, which was then tranquilized, and he successfully bagged a half-dozen or so venison-type animals during his eight-day stay near Cradock.

Even though his Toyota truck was chased and nearly speared by a black rhino at one point, “it was the trip of a lifetime, and then some,” Baker said.

He and another veteran, a Green Beret who lost an arm in the Afghanistan war, were guests at Tam Safaris, with over 60,000 fenced-in acres and 40 species of game animals. Baker, 43, is in management at a Fargo hotel, and was impressed with the first-class hospitality at Tams. “It’s second to none,” he said. He left on his trip Feb. 12 and returned Feb. 22.

The eastern cape area of South Africa is usually dry and the savannah grasses brown, but it rained every day that Baker was there, so the grass was green and the animals were all “fat and sassy and enjoying life,” he said with a grin. The two veterans and their guides were busy every day.

The most intriguing thing was the rhinos, he said. The heavy beasts compensate for their poor eyesight with extraordinary senses of smell and hearing, making them a challenge to track.

“Nothing will top the three days that we had rhino involvement,” he said.

There’s a big difference between aggressive black rhinos and more docile white rhinos, he said. “They say if it’s running away from you, it’s a white rhino, if it’s running towards you, it’s a black rhino,” he said. The black rhino that charged their jeep got too close for comfort. “Our professional hunter was yelling at our driver to go faster—it was from here to the wall away,” Baker said, pointing to a wall about five feet away. “It would have flipped the jeep.”

Another time, “we got within 20 yards of them, a herd of white rhino went by about 20 yards away,” he said, still a little in awe over the experience.

After Baker and his crew stalked his white rhino, a veterinarian used a tranquilizer gun to subdue it, and then implanted a GPS chip in the pregnant beast. All the rhinos are tracked in real time, especially at night, to protect them against poachers, since their horns can fetch a lot of money in Asia. To help keep them healthy, rhinos at Tam Safaris are also given vitamin shots by helicopter-riding vets using tranquilizer guns.

Baker did well on his hunting trip, bagging a black wildebeest, a red hartebeest, a blesbok, a zebra, an impala, a gemsbok and a white springbok. None of them endangered species, of course.

Nothing goes to waste there—all the meat is consumed, and as part of the trip Baker gets to have mounts of his trophy animals done by a taxidermist so he can display them.

Hunting and fishing trips sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans organization are a lot of fun, obviously. But they are also intended to be therapeutic for veterans, said Becker County Veterans Service Officer Lauri Brooke.

“Putting veterans together is a key part of recovery, because they understand each other,” she said. “Part of it is trying to get them back to what they enjoyed before (combat) … it’s been proven to work—there’s a recreational therapy to it,” she said.

“It puts things into perspective,” Baker agreed. He got a lot out of talking to his Green Beret companion, the first American amputee in the Afghanistan war, and Baker was inspired by the way the man didn’t let his disability get in the way of enjoying the hunt. “He’s just a stand-up guy,” Baker said. “To watch him with one arm, and vision loss in one eye, it’s interesting to watch him get behind a weapon and be a success at shooting.”

Safaris may not be so politically correct these days, but that’s because people don’t always understand how much hunting contributes much-needed cash to the African economy, and toward helping preserve exotic animals and their environment. It’s kind of like how groups like Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever help preserve wetlands and other habitat needed for the game birds to thrive in Minnesota.

“The hunting and conservation efforts over there helps villagers, and helps the animals—it’s amazing how poor they are over there—South Africans can’t afford to put vitamins into rhinos,” Baker said.

He said he’s grateful to the Disabled American Veterans group for everything they do.

“Veterans used to come home and sit in the house and go on and never talk about it (combat) with anybody,” he said.

As time and mental health has evolved, so has the way veterans deal with their experiences, he added. “When you are around people that have been through what you have, they get it,” he said. “It was truly the trip of a lifetime.”

If people want to get involved in helping pay for hunting and fishing trips for veterans (most are less expensive and much closer to home) they can talk to Brooke at the veterans’ service office.