Growing skills and community roots in three Karoo towns
Through the valuable work of growing food, the programme will create spaces where young people can learn together and begin exploring what they might build in their own communities.
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The water that built Loxton, and the flood that broke it
Read together, the channels and the surviving cottages offer a fuller understanding of Loxton. It is a town where water made life possible, floodwater damaged homes, and yet the village endured.
The living crust under our feet
The lesson is easy to miss because biocrusts are so small. We notice a damaged shrub or a deep vehicle rut. We are less likely to notice the thin living layer between them, or recognise a pale, bare patch as something that used to be there.
Who built the Great Karoo’s mysterious corbelled houses?
The most valuable work may be to keep studying the buildings themselves. They can tell us a great deal about how people adapted to the Karoo, even as the identity of the first builder goes unknown.
The businesses built around a farm, without owning one
A Karoo farm runs on mechanics, fencing teams, shearers and vets, all of whom bring skills a farmer needs, often at just the right moment. This article looks at the people whose work keeps a farming district going.
Why the Karoo smells so strongly after rain
This change is stark and noticeable in the Karoo. Long dry intervals leave a sharp before-and-after: warm stone and dust one moment, damp soil and vegetation the next. Rain reaches bare ground and shrubs in different ways, bringing out different notes as you travel through the veld.
Karoo roads damaged as search continues near Oudtshoorn
The full extent of the weekend’s damage has yet to be established. There is no confirmed regional repair bill, and road conditions could change as floodwater recedes and authorities inspect bridges and gravel routes.
31-year-old faces murder charge after woman’s death on Philippolis farm
A court date had not yet been confirmed at the time of publication. The circumstances surrounding Van Wyk’s death remain under investigation.
📽️ When a town raises its children
This morning, runners braved the cold and rain to cover 60 km from Colesberg to Philippolis, with an entire community rallying behind two local schools.
Small towns, hidden violence: The Karoo’s GBV service gap
Can a woman reach help without having to ask her abuser for petrol money? Can she take her children with her? Is there somewhere safe for her to stay after dark? Will a police vehicle come if she lives on a distant farm? Can she receive medical care without travelling halfway across a province?
What the Karoo’s new wind-energy corridor means for Murraysburg and Richmond
The Karoo's contribution to the easing of the national grid, and the positive environmental impact of sustainable energy production, is now well under way.
De Rust plants its comeback with support from Leon Kluge
De Rust still needs its road and it will take time to erase the losses caused by months of isolation. But the malvas represent a new reason to come to De Rust long after the road is open.
Why Japanese designer Ryota Iwai looks to South Africa for kid mohair
Auralee’s international popularity gives South African mohair valuable visibility, associating a Karoo fibre with a fashion business admired for the seriousness with which it treats materials.
SALT joins international effort to study rare supernova
An alert from a space telescope led to observations across several continents. From its position in the Northern Cape Karoo, SALT contributed an important part of the record of a star’s final explosion.