Hadeda News - 06 January 2023

Orange–Senqu River Project to Get Water To South Africa

The efforts of countries in the southernAfrican region to bring at least a modicum of peace and security to the troubled mountain kingdom of Lesotho have been welcomed by Prime Minister Samuel Matekane.

He spoke following a courtesy call from SouthernAfrican Development Community (SADC) executive secretary Elias Magosi earlier this month (December).A statement has it Matekane committed Lesotho to SADC governance principles as well as maintaining peace in the landlocked country

Magosi’s visit came in the wake of successful October National Assembly elections in Lesotho as well as being part of a programme introducing himself to heads of state and government in the 16 member regional bloc. He was named to replace StergomenaTax in September 2021.To date Magosi has been to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eswatini,Tanzania,Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, SouthAfrica, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The SADC statement has

Matekane saying his government is ready to expedite implementation of ongoing national reforms with a view to restoring peace and collaborating with the Lesotho SADC oversight committee. He gave Magosi an overview of inclusive and sustainable economic growth and private sector job creation as well as building enabling infrastructure in renewable energy This includes hydro-power, wind and solar energy as priority projects.

SouthAfrica’s interest in a stable and prosperous Lesotho was again emphasised early in December when Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu met Lesotho Natural Resources Minister Mohlomi Moleko.The meeting, according to the SouthAfrican government was an important bilateral around phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).

This binational infrastructure project involves construction of a network tunnel and dam network to transfer water from Orange–Senqu River in the Lesotho highlands to SouthAfrica and utilise the water delivery

Katse Dam, the major component of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project first phase.

system for hydro-electric power in Lesotho.

The water transfer component of phase 2 comprises a 165m high concrete faced rock fill dam at Polihali downstream of the confluence of the Khubelu and Senqu-Orange rivers and a 38km long concrete-lined gravity tunnel connecting Polihali reservoir to the Katse reservoir.The completion of Phase 2 of LHWP

is anticipated to be in 2028 and will augment water transfer from Lesotho to SouthAfrica with extra 490 million cubic metres a year up from the current 780 million m3/year to make 1 260 million m3/year through the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS).This is biggest system in SouthAfrica comprising 14 dams with catchments in Free State, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and North West. - defenceweb

Washington – Parts of the brain that support our ability to solve problems without prior experience, also known as fluid intelligence, have been mapped by a team led by UCLand UCLH researchers.

Fluid intelligence is arguably the defining feature of human cognition. It predicts educational and professional success, social mobility, health, and longevity. It also correlates with many cognitive abilities such as memory

Fluid intelligence is thought to be a key feature involved in “active thinking” – a set of complex mental processes such as those involved in abstraction, judgment, attention, strategy generation and inhibition.These skills can all be used in everyday activities – from organising a dinner party to filling out a tax return.

Despite its central role in human behaviour, fluid intelligence remains contentious, with regards to whether it is a single or a cluster of cognitive abilities, and the nature of its relationship with the brain.

To establish which parts of the brain are necessary for a certain ability, researchers must study patients in whom that part is either missing or damaged. Such “lesion-deficit mapping” studies are difficult to conduct owing to the challenge of identifying and testing patients with focal brain injury

Consequently, previous studies

have mainly used functional imaging (fMRI) techniques –which can be misleading.

The new study, led by UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at UCLH researchers and published in Brain, investigated 227 patients who had suffered either a brain tumour or stroke to specific parts of the brain, using the RavenAdvanced Progressive Matrices (APM): the best-established test of fluid intelligence.The test contains multiple choice visual pattern problems of increasing difficulty

Each problem presents an incomplete pattern of geometric figures and requires selection of the missing piece from a set of multiple possible choices.

The researchers then introduced a novel “lesiondeficit mapping” approach to disentangle the intricate anatomical patterns of common forms of brain injury, such as stroke.

Their approach treated the relations between brain regions as a mathematical network whose connections describe the tendency of regions to be affected together, either because of the disease process or in reflection of common cognitive ability This enabled researchers to disentangle the brain map of cognitive abilities from the patterns of damage – allowing

them to map the different parts of the brain and determine which patients did worse in the fluid intelligence task according to their injuries.

The researchers found that fluid intelligence impaired performance was largely confined to patients with right frontal lesions – rather than a wide set of regions distributed across the brain. Alongside brain tumours and stroke, such damage is often found in patients with a range of other neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury and dementia.

Lead author, Professor Lisa Cipolotti (UCLQueen Square Institute of Neurology), said: “Our findings indicate for the first time that the right frontal regions of the brain are critical to the high-level functions involved in fluid intelligence, such as problem

solving and reasoning.

“This supports the use ofAPM in a clinical setting, as a way of assessing fluid intelligence and identifying right frontal lobe dysfunction.

“Our approach of combining novel lesion-deficit mapping with detailed investigation ofAPM performance in a large sample of patients provides crucial information about the neural basis of fluid intelligence. More attention to lesion studies is essential to uncover the relationship between the brain and cognition, which often determines how neurological disorders are treated.”

The study was funded by Welcome and the NIHR UCLH Biomedical Research Centre funding scheme. Researchers also received funding fromThe National BrainAppeal and the Guarantors of Brain. - DFA

Healthy pensioners have the power to create just as many new brain cells as young people in their 20s, research has revealed. Picture: File

Skryfwenke: hoeveel beskrywing?

die natuur of kampeer wees soos jy nie. Sodra die leser paragrawe begin vluglees, het jy moeilikheid.

Gebruik jou verbeelding. Stephen King het gesê verbeelding begin in die skrywer se brein en eindig in die leser s’n.

versteur het.” (Spel, bl. 135)

Gebruik perspektief om die beskrywing oor te dra. Wie is jou fokaliseerder? Wat sien hy/sy en hoe sien hy/sy die ander karakters?

Dis eintlik baie moeilik om vir iemand te sê presies hoeveel beskrywing nodig is. Het jy al al ‘n manuskrip of boek gelees en dele daarvan gevluglees en ander dele sommer net glad nie gelees nie. Ek moet bieg dat ek dit maklik doen en wanneer dit eers so gaan, sal ek sterk oorweeg om die boek toe te maak en nie verder te lees nie. Dikwels is dit dan presies wat gebeur

My eerste 3 boeke is jeugfiksie en die jeug verloor gou belangstelling in ‘n boek – veral ‘n omslagtige een. Jeugfiksieskrywers kompeteer met elektronika, maats, sport en wat ook al verder en daarom is daar in jeugfiksie nie tyd of plek vir ellelange beskrywings nie.

Persoonlik glo ek daaraan dat ‘n mens nie met ink op papier moet mors nie. Sê jou sê en kry klaar

(Ek verwys hier nie na literêre fiksie nie.)

Indien ek riglyne moet gee, sou ek sê:

Indien dit nié die plot bevorder of karakters beskryf nie, vermy detail.As dit wat jy beskryf nie belangrik is en ‘n verskil aan die plot of karakterisering gaan maak nie, beperk die beskrywing of laat dit uit. In ‘n riller, byvoorbeeld, dra die beskrywing tot verhoogde spanning by. Vra jouself af wat die beskrywing tot jou storie bydra.

‘n Beskrywing moet die leser by die storie intrek anders is die beskrywing onnodig. Die protagonis in Sweepslag en Sindikaat is ‘n vlieghengelaar. ‘n Deel van Sindikaat speel langs die Zambezi af.Alhoewel ek van vlieghengel hou, het ek in die roman op die plot en karakters gefokus, want almal hou nie noodwendig so baie van vlieghengel soos ek nie. Onthou, die leser gaan nie noodwendig so mal oor sokker of

Ek glo dat verbeelding belangrik is. My jongste seun het eendag gevra ek moet Google en hom wys hoe die een of ander karakter in ‘n fantasieverhaal lyk. Toe ek hom sê om sy verbeelding te gebruik, want die karakter kan immers lyk soos hý wil hê dit moet lyk, het hy geprotesteer. Hy wou weet hoe die ‘regte’karakter lyk. Visuele media (TV/film ens.) voer ons en maak ons lui.

Beskryf tonele só dat die leser se verbeelding nie oorbodig raak nie.

Gebruik dinamiese woorde in veral fantasie en wetenskapsfiksie. Indien jy dinamiese woorde gebruik, sal jou sinne korter wees en kan jy terselfdertyd meer oordra. Kombineer die beskrywing met ‘n handeling. Sodoende slaan jy twee vlieë met een klap. “Die maerder tardigrada stoei by die trappe op. Die dierasie sukkel om met sy kloue vastrapplek op die houttrappe te kry, maar is nie dom nie. Die mutant gebruik sy kop en snoet, saam met sy agt pote om hom na bo te help.” (Spel, bl. 133)

Maak van die leser se sintuie gebruik. Wys, moenie vertel nie. “Gedurende die dooie ure van die nag het sy [Jolene] agter sy [Lukas se] rug ingeklim — voordat die tardigrada die heuninggevoel ven lepellê kom

Waar dit karakterbeskrywings aanbetref, moenie slegs op die uiterlike fokus nie, maar ook op die karakter se mannerismes en die innerlike. Watter aspekte van die karakter is belangrik? InThe Hunger Games kom die leser heel eerste te wete hoe Katniss Everdeen se stewels lyk. Hoekom? Want sy is ‘n jagter. Sy jag vir oorlewing. Voordat ons dus weet hoe haar hare en neus lyk, kom ons te wete hoe haar stewels lyk. Ek wil graag weer na die volgende voorbeeld rakende die belangrikheid van dialoog verwys (in hierdie geval is die tweede voorbeeld ook beskrywend).

“Vertel my van jou beste vriend.” Die polisieman staar na die bloedkol langs die liggaam. vs.

“Jou beste vriend was ‘n wetter, nè?” Die polisieman staar na die bloedkol langs die liggaam.

Wat is die verskil?

Gebruik die karakters se agtergrond (backstory) as deel van jou karakterbeskrywing, maar moenie inligting met ‘n skopgraaf op die leser afgooi nie. Gee dit drupsgewys deur en vervleg dit deur die storie.

Lees soveel as moontlik en kyk waarvan jy in boeke hou en wat jou frustreer. Hoekom frustreer dit jou? Ek hoop bostaande help.

Lekker skryf.

NOORD KAAP TUINE

Wenke van Welbekende Gepubliseerde Skrywer - Annerle Barnard

Hoeveel beskrywing benodig jy in tonele in jou kortverhaal of roman?

BESTANDELE

1 kg pak macaroni, opgekook en met koue water afgespoel

1 E olie 6 eiers

2 k melk Geurselsout (aromat) na smaak

1 pak gesnipperde spek (opsioneel)

3 k gerasperde cheddar kaas 8 skywe tamatie (opsioneel)

8 klontjies botter of margarien paprika (opsioneel)

INSTRUKSIES

Meng die olie deur

die gaar, afgespoelde macaroni. Die macaroni moet met koue water afgespoel word sodat die eiers nie skif wanneer jy dit byvoeg nie. Meng die eiers en melk goed en geur met die geurselsout na smaak (neem in ag die sout van die spek as jy gaan spek byvoeg). Meng die eiermengsel deur die macaroni. Voeg die spek (indien verkies) en die helfte van die kaas by die

macaroni mengsel. Gooi die mengsel in ‘n goed gesmeerde oondbak. Pak nou die 8 skyfies tamaties (een vir elke porsie bo-oor) en plaas ‘n klontjie botter op elke skyfie. Strooi die orige kaas en ‘n bietjie paprika oor en bak in die oond vir 1 uur teen 180˚C. Verwyder van oond en laat hom ‘n paar minute rus voor opdiening. Bron: Voortrekker Resepte.

Residents in the Dikgatlong Municipality in Barkly West in the Northern Cape say they have been experiencing poor service delivery for years. PhelindabaTownship, Smith’s Mine and Haak and Steek informal settlements are among the areas that have no basic services. Residents in those areas have no water, electricity, proper roads and sanitation.

In 2022, SABC News visited the communities to document the appalling living conditions.

For almost 20 years, residents of Smith’s Mine have had no

proper sanitation.They rely on dilapidated pit latrines and a nearby veld to relieve themselves. Residents say they also have no running water –which forces them to get water from the same source as animals.

“We are just drinking dirt. Especially the kids have diarrhea because of the dirty water,” expresses one resident.

“In reality we don’t have toilets. The municipality is only providing movable toilets which trap germs inside. We want the Department of Water and

Sanitation to intervene in this matter,” says another frustrated resident.

In response to complaints by Smith’s Mine residents –DikgatlongActing Municipal Manager – BakiTsinyane –previously defended the municipality

“In 2021, we implemented a project where we provided the water purification package plant. We are implementing phase two of dry santitation toilets, which is a project that is approved by the Department of Water and Sanitation.The department approved the funding for 200 units in the current financial year. Smith’s Mine will be considered when we’re implementing phase three of the project,” says the municipal manager

PhelindabaTownship

Other residents that feel let down by the Dikgatlong Municipality are in the PhelindabaTownship. For more than 10 years – the community of about 50 households has

been getting water from one tap, which is situated kilometres from their homes.The residents say not having access to tap water in their homes is a struggle.

“We have to travel a long distance to come get water. Even when it is dark, we don’t have a choice and er are elderly people”

“The municipality and councillors must provide water to the people and not lie to us.The only know people when they want votes”, the residents say

Regarding the demands of Phelindaba residents – the Dikgatlong Municipality insisted that it is on top of the issue.

“The residents were informed that the municipality has a plan to install additional aps in the area once material is delivered. In the current financial year, we have made no provisions for household connections”, argued Tsinyane.

Months later – residents say this has not materialised. - SABC News

AlternativePolice NumbersDuring LoadShedding

Illustration to depict municipal services including electricity, refuse removal and potable water. Image: SABC News

Does South Africa Have A Water Crisis Or Simply A Water Problem?

significant contributor to the country’s water problem, load shedding disrupts the water treatment process and water pumping operations and stretches the ability of the existing water storage capacity to accommodate for these.

treatment systems, must be observed.

Performance levels of operation and maintenance services must be kept high, and any compromises to that cannot be entertained.

Irrespective of whether the country has a water crisis or merely a problem, South Africans must conserve water systematically and effectively

Aholistic countrywide educational strategy needs to be implemented and maintained to cultivate a culture of treating water as the precious resource that it is, writes Mohammed Nazzal, senior design engineer at GIBB.

While the majority of us may take water for granted every time we open our taps, we should refrain from causally and excessively consuming the resource simply because it is there, or think that it will always be there.

Although SouthAfrica has been blessed with a good rainy season so far in 2022, this merely helped replenish the storage capacity of many dams across the country The country would need at least the next two rainy seasons to register aboveaverage levels to achieve shortterm water recovery targets. Dam water levels are currently in good standing and for the majority of dams in the country, levels are higher than those recorded during the same period last year

While this is good news, we must remember that SouthAfrica has been in this situation before, with year-on-year changes in water levels merely a short-term view of the amount of water that the country currently has access to.This means that for most areas, the likelihood of imminent water-shedding on the back of water deficiencies is low, however, some regions will still be affected.

Water-shedding in SouthAfrica is fast becoming a reality, and while not taking place on a national scale as yet, the frequency of disruptions in water delivery systems due to water shortages is greatly increasing.

Most recently, Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape fell

victim to this, with water shedding being implemented in June this year

This as construction contracts to integrate the city’s water reticulation systems were delayed for several years, coupled with political divide and jurisdiction disputes that further contributed to the city’s deteriorating water situation.

Water shortage is not the only road that leads to water shedding, with corruption, mismanagement, incompetence, poor planning, wasteful spending and political conflict all contributing to the problem.

If these factors – many of which are within society’s influence or control – were neutralised, South Africa’s water situation would not be where it is today

Aglimpse of how these factors have had a negative impact on the country’s water situation can be found in the 2022 Blue Drop Progress Report, which includes audited results from 144 water service authorities in the country The report found that 48% of SouthAfrica’s water supply systems are in the low-risk category, with 23% in the critical risk category and 11% deemed high risk.

While it is one thing to have access to water, it is equally important to have access to good quality water The contamination levels of the country’s rivers, streams and dams have been registering worrying trends. So much so, that many of these trends were captured in the 2022 Green Drop Report and indicated that of the 850 audited wastewater systems in the country, only 23 passed the minimum score of 90%.

This is a substantial decline from the 2013 audit, where 60 wastewater systems achieved the minimum score.

SouthAfricans are by now well aware of the impact of resource shedding, most evident in the form of load shedding.A

It is interesting to note that in the case of load shedding, alternative sources of energy can be made accessible, while with water shedding, alternative sources may not be as accessible or available.This means that a situation of water shedding can have more dire consequences than what we as SouthAfricans have already experienced with load shedding.

Identifying that SouthAfrica’s water situation has a problem is the first step to solving the problem, however, because of the nature of the problem, there is no quick fix. Well-planned and well-managed solutions are needed to address the situation on a long-term basis.

It begins with water-saving measures that all SouthAfricans can contribute to, and reducing the demand on the water system while there is still an allowable margin to do so is both sensible and necessary

Educating the public on the basics of the water cycle in relation to their own locale will help them better understand and appreciate not only the value of water, but also the infrastructure put in place to deliver the resource to them.The public will then recognise shortcomings in servicing and maintenance of the existing water systems in their areas and aid in enforcing accountability in respect of officials and politicians who may underperform.

While corruption in the system will continue to be a long-term battle, people need to be conditioned to fight against it rather than accepting it as a part of life in SouthAfrica.

Advocating simple principles of electing and employing those who qualify for the roles and responsibilities based on their technical merit and expertise will go a long way towards resolving some of the inherent problems currently impeding real progress.

Proper maintenance of all components in the existing water infrastructure, be it water treatment, delivery systems, wastewater collection or

To highlight the importance of maintenance, the 2017 benchmarking of water losses in SouthAfrica reported that 41% of municipal water does not generate revenue, while 35% is physically lost.

Dealing with balancing water supply and water demand requires comprehensive planning and implementation strategies, and while a National Water & Sanitation Masterplan is already in place, polishing these plans and managing them requires continued cooperation and participation of both the public and private sectors.

As such, local, regional, national and cross-border optimisation of water resources requires dedicated effort from all stakeholders.

The danger of informing the public that the country has a water crisis without a proper explanation will mean that the message will not be received seriously enough by most, which in turn undermines the efforts to source their effective participation in actions that should help deal with the problem. Words such as ‘crisis’ or ‘catastrophe’should be avoided while discussing the water situation. Instead, a better approach is to explain that there is a water problem and that there are many factors that contribute to that problem.

Depending on how we, as the collective population, address and deal with these factors, the water situation would then become better or worse. People can better relate to and are better motivated by issues they can perceive to be within their sphere of influence, something that doom and gloom messages simply do not deliver

At GIBB, our water experts are passionate about elevating the quality of life for the communities they serve and believe that with the collective efforts of all South Africans, the country’s water problem can be fixed for the long-term benefit and prosperity of all.

- By Mohammed Nazzal, senior design engineer at GIBB - businesstech

Northern Cape Department of Health Employs another 236 Interns BUT Residents Really Want Reliable Transport From Rural Areas

The Northern Cape Health department has kicked off the new year by welcoming a new cohort of medical interns, who will be placed at all five districts in the province.The 236 interns include medical doctors, radiologists and physiotherapists.

They are expected to bring relief at public healthcare facilities. Local authorities say in a province where over 70%of the population has no medical insurance, the services of the young professionals will be impactful.

“This is a huge relief, because healthcare is about hands.You need extra hands it’s not about theory You need physical people to really help you. It enhances our work to speed up the backlogs we are having. Interns do work through the theatres, or at maternity, so the more hands we get at the health department is

always a relief,” says Northern Cape Heath MEC, Maruping Lekwene.

The Northern Cape health sector currently has a vacancy rate of 17%. Professional nurses top the list. It’s expected that the medical interns received in the province will help in rolling-out public healthcare services. Dr. UsamaAnjum and Dr Mpho Ratlhaga are part of the new cohort of medical interns, who will be placed at the five districts of the province.

“I’ve always been an impatient person, so I always thought helping people as efficiently as possible is the best way for me. I’ve been placed at General Surgery. For this year my place is to get as much exposure and experience, help the community”, says DrAnjum.

Meanwhile, an anxious Dr Ratlhaga says, “I hear that it’s not an academic institution so am really curious about what is going

to take place and it also makes me kind of anxious. But I look forward to it. I am excited and ready to take the challenge on.” -sabc

Aman was dropped next to the road by an ambulance and left to walk a few kilometres to his home in 30 deg C. He still had a raw wound from major abdominal surgery.

Photo: Thom Pierce

Here Are Three Tips To Help You Save Money When Shopping For Groceries

items.They say it is a simple way to save money while stocking up on your household pantry.

Buying in bulk is often cheaper because people will save money on the extra packaging making it environmentally friendly, too.

concern about delivery costs. However, in the long run, it might be the cheaper option.

THE RISE in costs for fuel and electricity, as well as increases in interest rates, are already signs that SouthAfrican consumers are facing tough financial times.

The above factors, plus the increases in the cost of food, leave consumers struggling to make ends meet. Due to these reasons, consumers need to find different and creative ways to save money when they do their grocery shopping.

Here experts show you how you can save money on your groceries and keep food on your table.

Bulk buying or stockpiling

The now-famous Facebook Group 1 Family 1 Stockpile uses its platform to support women by teaching them how to improve their lives through stockpiling. Described as a way to buy and store large quantities of items, stockpiling has become a good way to save money

People in the group highlight sales and specials so that when items are super cheap, you can buy them in bulk. It can save you hundreds of rand on goods.

SouthAfrican retailer Makro says you can also save money by bulk-buying non-perishable

How do you go about bulk buying so it’s supportive and not wasteful? Begin by tracking the number of items you consume in a month.This will make bulk buying easier because you will know how much is consumed in a month, so you will only purchase what you need.

Susan Steward, a spokesperson for Budget Insurance, says by buying more, at a lower price, “you’ll be able to stretch your rand and shrink your monthly shopping bill”.

Online shopping

Here are three reasons why online shopping is a cost-saving option when grocery shopping:

•Travelling costs: instead of going shop to shop, you save petrol money by doing online shopping from the comfort of your home.There might be a

• Buying only what you need: sticking to a monthly budget is important step in preventing people from overspending. Make sure you have a groceries column in your budget. Sebastian Alexanderson, founder and debt counsellor, National Debt Advisors, says when you budget, you know exactly where all your money goes and where you can make adjustments to save even small amounts.

• Loyalty programmes: take advantage of the loyalty programmes that retailers offer Being a member of the programme could allow you to get discounts as well as incentives.

Research is key

Do your research before you go to the grocery store, and don’t be fooled by ‘sale’or ‘special’signs. With the research, you will know where to get the best discounts.Your pocket will thank you. - IOL Business

“The Silence, those moments before the long wait through the harsh endless brutal desert sun, of the first rain, the first life, the first hope, for the next season, a miracle “

Roekelose Taxi Laat Kind Erg Seer Val Oranjeweg Upington

Tragedie het oor die naweek op Oranjeweg Upington plaasgevind toe 'n roekelose taxibestuurder probeer het om 'n ander voertuig verby te steek, wat die voertuig voor uit die pad laat uitswaai het. In die chaos het 'n jong seun van die agterkant van 'n bakkie en op die pad geval. Die seun se naam is aan Hadeda News bekend

en sy toestand is tans onbekend, maar getuies sê dat hy erg beseer is in die val. Die voorval het die gemeenskap in skok en hartseer gelaat, aangesien inwoners sukkel om vrede te maak met die verwoestende gevolge van die bestuurder se roekelose bestuur.-SNB

n the summer of 2009, I came to Norval’s Pont to see the longest bar counter in the Northern Cape. Within the space of five minutes and one double Jameson, I was more interested in David Kramer’s electric guitar and the smoking crocodile under the old dial-up telephone than anything else.

I also liked the bumper stickers around the Glasgow Pont Hotel. The first one read: “Where the $#%# is Norval’s Pont?”

The second: “Norval’s Pont: Not as Kak asYouThink”.

I made myself dizzy — and a little sad — walking around the pub, reading the signs, looking at the old pictures of the Gariep Dam (then called Hendrik Verwoerd Dam) and the tintypes of the concentration camps where so many Boer women and children died.

Even the Going Nowhere Slowly TV crew had clearly been here and left their party graffiti: “Don’t fall off the wagon. Fall off the Pont.” — Viv Vermaak.

“All three-headed policemen are invisible.” — Ian Roberts.

Going Nowhere Slowly once had a bit of a cult following as it covered the rambling progress of a band of off-beat travellers roaming SouthAfrica in a 1966 Chevrolet Impala that went by the name of Chilli Pepper

Was this David Kramer’s old guitar?

Hotel owner Rod McGregor Mann arrived: shoulder-length grey hair, piercing eyes and lots of confidence; about the blue Gallo electric guitar behind the counter, he says: “I found it in Edenburg on a farm, in its case but covered with crap.This is

actually David Kramer’s old guitar, last used when he played during his Budgie and the Jets era in 1982.”

McGregor Mann said he got hold of Kramer, who couldn’t believe he had found it. How much did he want for it? Nothing, replied McGregor Mann. Just come and get it and play a few songs. I finished my lunch, swigged back my drink and left — that’s the last I saw of Rod McGregor Mann and the Glasgow Pont Hotel. I often wonder if Kramer ever made it out here. I sometimes also think about that smoking crocodile. But when it comes to Norval’s Pont, I mostly think about an enterprising Scot and his two brothers who came to these frontier lands to make combs and hats.

The enterprising Norvals Fresh out of Glasgow in 1848, James Norval bought a farm called Dapperfontein on the south banks of the Orange River from one Petrus Brits and, instead of embarking exclusively on the normal agricultural practices of the district, went out looking for tortoise shells in the veld.

Somehow he and his kin had discovered that this part of the Karoo was well populated by the leopard and the berg varieties of tortoise — back then, combs were fashioned from tortoiseshell.

Having cornered the local market for combs and widebrimmed hats, the Norvals did not stoep-sit and dream for long. They soon became part of the mega-sweep of southernAfrican history as the interior of the country lit up with discoveries of gold and diamonds Everyone, it seems, from prospectors to soldiers to

salesmen and many more souls, wanted to cross the mighty Orange in their wagons and head north.Apparently, the idea of a pont across the Orange came to the Norvals via the BritishArmy commander Harry Smith, who moved his troops across in inflatable rubber boats at the height of flood season.

Once the military crossing had been made, James Norval acquired the inflatables and went into business ferrying travellers across the river. Shortly after the rubber perished in the Karoo sun, a permanent wood and cable crossing was built and the spot became known as Norval’s Pont. For one pound, everyone, wagon and oxen included, was safely ferried over into the Orange Free State.

In the meantime, the Norvals had also set up a bar with some overnight rooms and, in honour of their roots and new moneyspinning line of work, named it the Glasgow Pont Hotel.Ahardy little sheep farm had now been transformed into a thriving village that hummed with northsouth-north traffic, mainly drawn by beasts of some description.

The kit-form British bridge Then along came the railways, and by 1890 a bridge spanned the Orange and steam locomotives were chugging across it.The 500m-long marvel of steel and concrete arrived in kit form from “the workshop of the world”, England, and was assembled on site.

Ten years later, retreating Boer forces paid this massive bridge little respect when they dynamited it. In no time, however, British sappers set up a pontoon bridge at Norval’s Pont and carried on operations. Long after the end of hostilities in 1904, a sturdy railway bridge was built at this spot across the Orange.

After my bar lunch and the Jameson that accompanied it, I found myself at Norval’s Pont Concentration Camp Cemetery in that late-afternoon light that brings on a wave of sadness in baboons and those who drink whiskey too early in the day; experts call it Hesperian Melancholia.

Norval’s Pont Concentration Camp

The sign itself was enough. Even though Boer rights campaigner Emily Hobhouse classed Norval’s Pont as having

“the best woman-camp” of them all, complete with school for 500, fountain-fed water source and an initial abundance of fresh vegetables, conditions soon became dire as the camp filled and supplies dwindled.

In the case of the SouthAfrican War, the concentration camps were established to cut Boer guerilla fighters’supply lines by removing their women and children from their farms — which they mostly then burnt to the ground. It was part of Lord Kitchener’s plan to end the ebb and flow of battle in the South African hinterland.The Brits held the major cities, but the platteland was another story

Another segment of the Kitchener Plan was to establish nearly 8,000 blockhouse fortifications running right across SouthAfrica and along the major rail routes.These would be manned and the spaces between them patrolled.

Military life in a blockhouse The standard Orange River blockhouses were three storeys high, of dressed stone and lowpitch corrugated iron roofs. Steel firing boxes jutted out from the sides, water was stored on the ground floor which was separated from the first-floor sleeping quarters by a thick steel trapdoor, and the top floor was where you kept watch and shot from. Many blockhouse firing loopholes were numbered so that as a British soldier, presumably, you were assigned to a specific position.You were watered and fed by passing trains or, if stationed out in a veld blockhouse, via water carts and supply wagons.

Barbed wire, especially the much-prized eight-strand variety, was spanned between blockhouses right across South Africa. Spare a thought for the blokes in the blockhouse, some fresh from an English village, others from a faraway rural kraal, now in the middle of a very dry nowhere, living the typical army dream of “hurry up and wait”.

Someone in the bar on that day in 2009 told me there was still a blockhouse left standing here at Norval’s Pont, but after my brief visit to the concentration camp cemetery I had simply run out of steam.

Civilian life in a blockhouse In the midsummer of 2019, we

The Norval’s Pont bridge was rebuilt in 1904 after being blown up by retreating Boer forces. Image: Chris Marais

follow up on the Norval’s Pont blockhouse lead — and it’s not a minute too soon. We’re about to meet the only living people to have taken an old SouthAfrican War blockhouse and converted it into comfortable living quarters for themselves.The ultimate military treehouse, if you will.

The guy who had owned the Glasgow Pont Hotel just before Rod McGregor Mann was Paul Johns. While living and working at the hotel, Johns decided to expand into vegetable and fruit farming. He and his wife, Suzette, bought an irrigation farm on the Orange River. He adored the place, the wild vegetation, the rush of the river, the toot of the trains crossing the bridge.

On the land he’d bought was an

old British blockhouse, a sturdy fort made of stone and steel. Its twin had once stood on the other side of the river. Both had shooting slits and housed soldiers who guarded the bridge against the Boers. Not well enough, as it turned out.The twin fort on the other side of the river was dismantled by a farmer decades ago, its stones used to build a piggery

From a fort to a dwelling Suzette’s father (she was from Venterstad) encouraged Johns to fix up the old blockhouse, then falling apart. He did more than that: he saw it commanded a glorious view of the river and decided it would be a splendid place to live.

And so the sturdy old blockhouse was to be transformed into a modern home. His first job was

to clear out the snakes and rats, then make a doorway at the bottom.The British soldiers had used a ladder that led to a narrow entrance several metres up.

Turning a mini-fort into a modern-day dwelling was a work of love, construction genius and very crafty interior plumbing.The kitchen and living areas were at the bottom, with a fireplace that heated up the three storeys above it. He and Suzette thrived there for 45 years and raised four children in it. It was as snug and colourful as a Gipsy caravan. But for Paul Johns, the best thing was the view over the river, which he adored.

It was your typical Huckleberry Finn or Wind in the Willows kind of life for the Johns.The kids swam in the river and caught barbel (catfish) and often slept

outdoors.They moved into a regular house nearby only when Suzette had a hip replacement and could not climb the blockhouse steps for a while. But now it was time to go.

“One of our sons has been nagging us to come and live with him on his farm outside Bloemfontein,” says Johns. “We’ve decided to move there now because I am over 80 years old and tired of farming. But I told him we would have gone sooner if he could divert the river there. I’ve loved so much about living here, the blockhouse, the farming, the veld. But it’s the Orange River that I’ll really miss.”

And just like that, another light goes out at Norval’s Pont. But the legends will shine on forever DM/ML

Rod McGregor Mann and the David Kramer guitar he rescued from a farm. Image: Chris Marais

Nearby Lake Gariep in the rainy season. Image: Chris Marais

The blockhouse at Norval’s Pont — home to Paul and Suzette Jones for 45 years. Image: Chris Marais

By 1890 a bridge spanned the Orange and steam locomotives were chugging across it. Image: Chris Marais

Engaging with the past — the Norval’s Pont concentration camp cemetery Image: Chris Marais

Norval’s Pont Bridge after being blown up by Boers during the South African War. Image: Supplied / Chris Marais

Eerste vir STAAL

It’s Cold, Overcast And Summer.... It’s Port Nolloth

“ It’s totally overcast when you wake up, the sun is nowhere to be found, and it’s summer You make a quick coffee and get the beanie and the tracksuit pants to go for that lovely morning walk all the way to the caravan park along the beach. You will find seaweed and pink flamingos’s in the shadows of the mist, the constant lapping of the waves just easing your morning mood” Mcdougals Bay a very special place in the hearts of Northern Cape residents

Leaders Never Stop Learning....

Accredited Training Centre

- Photo From Mcdougals Bay Accommodation -Jennipher Hammond 23 December 2022

When Mihir Bendre first arrived in Botswana over the summer, the UTAustin sophomore and vegetarian was in for a rude awakening. In that part of the Kalahari Desert, growing crops is nearly impossible. So, for every meal: wildebeest, kudu, springbok, impala (all different species of antelope that call Africa home), and on one night, mopane worms. “They were pretty bad,” Bendre says. “They had an odor to them. The game was good, though.”

For months leading up to the trip, Bendre had been living off the salad bar at Kinsolving Dining Hall. Which, incidentally, is exactly where the idea that took him to the Kalahari was first discussed.

The idea—an app to help ranchers in Botswana make data-driven decisions about grazing allocation on their land—grew from that first discussion among friends at Kinsolving into the student-run startup company Gazelle Ecosolutions. It’s taken Bendre, along with sophomoresAmod Daherkar and SiddharthThakur, across the globe, from the national Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge competition in San Diego to six weeks of intensive research and field testing in Botswana. And most importantly, to finding an even larger solution to ecological restoration and sustainability inAfrica’s Kalahari Desert.

Bendre has had a singleminded focus for the environment since he stepped foot on campus in the fall of 2021. “Last year, if any event had the word ‘sustainability’on it, I went,” Bendre says.After one such event, Bendre met Thakur while he was skateboarding outside. When Thakur approached him about participating in McCombs’ Texas Sustainability Innovation Challenge (TSIC) later, Bendre was game. So were Daherkar and former team member Ben Breed.

But they still needed an idea to pitch. “The competition isn’t really about how hard you try The idea comes first,” Bendre says.

Then Bendre met with geography professorThoralf

Meyer, who has been working inAfrica since 1996 and has taught the university’s study abroad program in Botswana since 2012, where Meyer noticed a problem.

For most of the people in the region, ranching is the only way to earn an income off the land, where growing crops is nearly impossible. “The bitter reality is that they need to make some money off the land, and that has led to situations where land has been overstocked,” Meyer says.That leads to overgrazing, which contributes to the loss of wilderness areas inAfrica and a dwindling resistance to the changing climate.

Meyer told Bendre about his dream for a tool that could calculate carrying capacity—the number of animals, usually livestock or game, that can sustainably be supported on a rancher’s land.

The moment Bendre stepped out of Meyer’s office, he called Thakur, ready for the first of many Gazelle meetings. “I just remember Mihir calls me with such enthusiasm,”Thakur says. “He goes, ‘This professor—he’s great, he’s sustainable,’and Mihir goes on and on about how (Meyer) needs this app. I was like, ‘How are we going to code an app? None of us have ever built an app in our life.’”

It didn’t take them long to learn. “Three weeks [after that first meeting], these students walk into my office and have actually built an app,” Meyer says. “I was blown out of my chair, because I had forgotten about this.”

By then, the team of the four students knew Gazelle could become more than just a nifty idea to win a pitch competition. But the problem of actually implementing the app with ranchers loomed large. “[The ranchers] have been doing this for generations,” Daherkar says. “Why are they going to listen to some stupid smartphone app that says, ‘You need to kill three more cows?’”

That’s when Gazelle grew beyond an app to solve overgrazing for cattle ranchers. During one of many long

Incentivizes

nights, the team came to its “aha! moment.” Instead of trying to market their app to ranchers as a paid service, they realized their actual business model didn’t have anything to do with an app.

Instead, they realized Gazelle could use carbon offset projects to earn its revenue. Carbon offset projects can take many forms—planting trees, offering cleaner appliances to a community—but each project ultimately reduces greenhouse gas emissions or prevents future emissions.That reduction is measured and sold as a carbon credit to companies to “offset” their own emissions.

Their first carbon offset project became the first ever registered in Botswana in October and is projected to prevent over 214,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in its lifetime.

The money generated then funds the app and offers the ranchers money to use the app, which can be used offline.

“If we can put a more sustainable twist on land management, compensate the farmer who is at an economical loss, [and make] the entire operation more environmentally resilient, then we would not only kill two birds with one stone; we kill three birds with one stone,” Meyer says.

Armed with the new business model, the team won first at the TSIC inApril, qualifying for the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge competition in June. At the national pitch challenge

in San Diego, Gazelle again won first place.

The team was soon ready to take their talents past pitch competitions to the real world: Meyer’s research hub in Botswana, where Bendre, Daherkar, and Breed spent six weeks starting in July through UT’s Global Career Launch Student Internships program.

“There’s generally a distrust of the Westerner coming in because they think they know what’s best. So, we wanted to avoid that as much as possible,” Daherkar says. “Living with those people for a month and a half, in more or less the same conditions that they live in on a day-to-day basis …You develop a human relationship, and that was one of the most important things we accomplished in our time there.”

Setting up the carbon offset projects took most of the team’s time. When they weren’t taking painstaking measurements in the field during the day or eating wildebeest, the team pitched Gazelle to local ranchers, politicians, and other community stakeholders that offered crucial feedback.

That work is ongoing: Meyer was in Botswana during the fall semester, and on one October morning in 2022, the team woke up before sunrise in Austin to present to the First National Bank, one of the largest bankers in the Botswana area, over Zoom.

Adrone shot of the research facility and living accommodations at the Kalahari Science Institute nearTsabong, Botswana.

Bendre, Daherkar, andThakur are adept at pitching Gazelle by now.That same presentation that was used to win over judges is also crucial to getting ranchers and politicians in Botswana on board, whose support is needed as the team anticipates returning next summer to develop more carbon offset projects and fully launch the app.

And at the heart of presentations is what makes Gazelle special: the idea.After all, the idea comes first.

“No one ever really thinks of the little guys to be part of the

sustainability picture, but they are such a big part,”Thakur says. “If every rancher stopped overgrazing, millions of tons of carbon dioxide would not be released from the earth.”

But Meyer did think of the little guy, and the Gazelle team has taken his dream and made it reality

“It is rare for students to pull through with an idea, and it is very, very rewarding for me to watch these young guys just make things happen,” Meyer says. “It’s actually unbelievable that students that have essentially just started at UT are doing what they are doing.” - CREDITS: Courtesy Gazelle Ecosolutions

Gazelle roam the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where the aptlynamed Gazelle Ecosolutions team spent its summer

Bendre, Gazelle’s chief sustainability officer, practices field measurement techniques inAustin before the team headed out to Botswana, March 2022.

The audience listens as the Gazelle team presents to local stakeholders in Botswana.