Weenen

If you head out of Mooi River along the Greytown Road past Bruntville, then turn off to Middlerus and trundle along, you eventually get to Weenen. The drive is magnificent. A good dirt road through bushveld and past rural homesteads. This is tough country and I am always astonished at how people survive in this…

Qaphela Dlamini

How do you choose between a career as a professional basketball player and a teacher? You do as Qaphela Dlamini has done – become an excellent teacher and a brilliant sports coach! When Qaphela was four years old, he lost the use of his legs. Undeterred, he crawled around the mealie fields helping his mother…

Liphina Zondi

A little house on the edge of Lidgetton Village is abuzz with happiness. It’s the day the Care Bears will be collected.  A beaming Liphina Zondi, has put out tables and chairs for friends and neighbours who arrive with bulging bags stuffed with colourful bears.  There is much laughter as they admire one another’s work…

Spring Grassland Flowers

While Namaqualand gets all the publicity, the spring flowers of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands grasslands are an absolute delight for those who don’t follow the crowds. Only one in six plant species in grassland is actually a grass, with most of the perennial plants living for many years – re-sprouting annually, rather than seeding.  This means…