THE JOY OF TOUCHING MY BABY BAOBAB TREE

 My two days old baobabTHE JOY OF TOUCHING MY BABY BAOBAB TREE Have you ever touched a three-day old Baobab tree? Not? Me neither; except for this morning, touching my own little big-tree. I now battle to think law, to think about my “mob-justice” matters and murder and serial rapists and so on. How difficult to think on the ConCourt’s latest judgment on the doctrine of common purpose; ten judges sitting; five in favour and five against. What...

Read More

Week 22 SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE?

 Hollow CityOn our way back from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Capetown, I decided to concentrate on Afrikaans literature for at least the next 12 months – and this is in my mind a very broad concept. It includes translations from other languages into my mother tongue; and it includes literature that originated on this huge continent called Africa. And it includes legal literature. And I am going for it. Having said that, I am also writing...

Read More

Week 21 DONKEYS

Plumtree, Zimbabwe Donkeys. Donkeys Strange animals those things and yet so useful and … My late dad used to tell the story that only the very poor people, during the Poor White Problem in South Africa, had donkeys. And they had. Early 2017 I visited our gardener in Zimbabwe to find out for myself how he is doing; the rumours I heard were that he was suffering from epilepsy and that is serious. Some years prior to him “retiring” to his home...

Read More

WEEK 20 LIFE IS DIFFICULT; LIFE IS A FANTASY; LIFE IS A MYSTERY

Video taken of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon during load shedding in South AfricaThe first three words in Dr. Scott Peck’s book THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED, are: “Life is difficult.” [My cursive] Well, well, if you buy that story, then I think you are precluded from complaining even in the face of load shedding in South Africa; maybe from life threatening illness? Why is that? I submit to you that these words LIFE IS DIFFICULT takes out...

Read More

Week 19 NAMES OF PLACES IN SOUTH AFRICA ON OUR TRIP TO CAPETOWN AND BACK

My note book with the place names we wrote down  How do I translate, or for that matter, how do I explain these names to a person not versant in Afrikaans or the Afrikaans culture? GANSBAAI? AGTERTANG? TIERPOOT? STOFKRAAL? SOPHIASDAL? WOLWEFONTEIN? BOONTJIESKRAAL? OORLOGSPOORTRIVIER? RIVIERSONDEREND? DWYKASTASIE? This is just a tiny, random selection of names of places we drove by, my wife and I jotted down in my notebook...

Read More

18 Week 18 Gansbaai and its second-hand shop

Tools in my garage that are similar to those in Gansbaai second-hand shopOld pliers in my garage similar to the one in Gansbaai second-hand shopRestoration in progress in my workshop - the bundle of white "string" is actually "riempies" for that half-size child's chair that I finished on 7 June 1991 During our roundabout road trip to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Grootbos Florilegium, Gansbaai, Willowmore where the "godless-boys" get whipped,...

Read More

Week 17 Middelburg Northern Cape Province. The wheels of trade and industry are turning at a frantic pace thru the open spaces of our country.

English Anglo Boer War blockhouse next to the national highway on your way to Capetown Detail of English Anglo Boer War block house next to the national highway to CapetownI am fascinated by these big trucks on the roads and I am writing again about these giants of the road. And the Anglo Boer War blockhouses that you can see next to the road.  Heavy duty trucks [20-wheelers!!] are lethal instruments on the SA roads. And as such we should...

Read More