John Rushmere is an Honorary Professor of Architecture at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. He is also the recipient of a gold medal from the internationally acclaimed S.A. Institute of Architects.Theresa Hardman has a Master’s Degree in Architecture. Her post-graduate studies focused on Karoo farm houses.
Both of these talented academics were in Aberdeen at the invitation of the Camdeboo Municipality to view and assist in the possible renewal of the Fonteinbos environmental area, and other architectural projects around Aberdeen.
John Rushmere was on the steering committee in the Ciskei, to assist in a cultural project on “Ntaba Kandoda” (The Mountain of Men), a mountain between Alice and Kingwilliamstown, venerated by the national bard S.E.K. Mqhayi. Unfortunately due to political upheaval in the Ciskei around that time, the project had to be abandoned.
Theresa Hardman spent two years traveling in the Karoo under the auspices of the Simon van der Stel Heritage and Conservation Organization. She witnessed that heart rending era where farmers vacated their lands due to the crippling drought, the wool crises and the failure of the banks to assist them. Homes were just abandoned overnight as the farmers, who after generations of living on the land had no hope and no future.
Theresa, as far back as 1992, came to the conclusion that the only way to rescue all the small towns and the forgotten areas of the Karoo, was to establish tourism.
This foresight of Theresa’s is very much apparent in her desire to re-establish the wonders of the Karoo.
Together with her insight and knowledge of the Karoo, the valuable experience that John Rushmere has to offer, the support of the Camdeboo Municipal Council and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, this, and other projects promise success.
Article By: Joan Tinker