Welcome...

This weblog is a portal for news and items of general interest from the town of Aberdeen in the Camdeboo area of the Cacadu district of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The weblog's overiding purpose is to publicise the town and promote tourism in the region.

If you wish to make any contributions, please send an email to webmaster@aberdeen-sa.co.za and it will be considered for possible inclusion in the weblog.

Articles of a personal or vindictive nature will not be entertained on this weblog, nor will inflammatory religious items or those of a racial, inciteful, derogatory or party particular political nature. Please feel free to exercise your right in this regard on your own website or weblog - if you don't have one, you can easily create one. If you still feel extremely strongly about such issues or don't agree with the views here, you are most welcome to get up from behind the safety & sanctity of your keyboards and out & about in our town, where you can proactively change things - if you have the necessary will, intellect, integrity, perseverance and ability to deliver.

Thanks to our many readers and supporters from all around the world for their words of encouragement - enjoy the news from Aberdeen.

The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the Webmaster.

http://www.aberdeen-sa.co.za/

Thursday, April 1, 2010

South African Library Week : March 22-27

Peter Shaw of ABC handing the books to
Mrs Val Denham, the Aberdeen Librarian

The theme of the South African Library Week this year was “Reading Changes Lives”. To mark this week, Aberdeen Books and Crafts donated a parcel of books to the Aberdeen library.

Included was a copy of "Nelson Mandela – A Life in Cartoons", which is required reading for students of modern history. ABC has a few copies left.

Article By: Peter Shaw

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Masters Of Our Mouths

Once upon a time an old man spread rumours that his neighbour was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After being released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.
In court the old man told the Judge: "They were just comments - they didn't harm anyone."
The judge, before passing sentence in the case, told the old man: "Write all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence."
Next day, the Judge told the old man: "Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday."
The old man said: "I can't do that! The wind spread them and I won't know where to find them."
The judge then replied: "The same way, simple comments may destroy the honour of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. If you can't speak well of someone, rather don't say anything.”

Let's all be masters of our mouths, so that we won't be slaves of our words.

Author Unknown

‘The Plains Of Camdeboo’ Launch - Aberdeen Section

On Monday 15th March 2010 journalists representing newspapers of the Eastern Cape and tourism magazines of South Africa for example ‘Explore SA’ arrived in Aberdeen with the Camdeboo Local Tourism Office Chairman, Mr Roy McLaughlin. This was the first phase in a new tourism route named ‘The Plains of Camdeboo’. This is the first project of the CLTO recently established under the guidance of the Cacadu District Municipality through public consultation.
Mr McLaughlin welcomed the journalists and explained that the establishment of ‘The Plains of Camdeboo’ has been made possible through financial assistance of generous donations from five guest houses in Graaff-Reinet, The Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and the Cacadu District Municipality. He explained that this route, which includes Graaff-Reinet, Aberdeen and Nieu-Bethesda, will hopefully stimulate tourism and through this, growth in the area. ‘The Plains of Camdeboo’ will act as a platform for small and local businesses to market themselves, and will add momentum to the local tourism offices. A route map will be produced, showing street maps of each town, and posters will be available to guest houses, restaurants and fuel stations. Route content training will be given by the CLTO to hospitality staff, petrol attendants amongst others.

The journalists were shown the beautiful N.G.Kerk where Mrs Estelle Snyman gave an enlightening and some times amusing rendition on the making of the famous wall hangings and the women who had made them in 4 months. These wall hangings are found both in the church and in the ‘Kerksaal” (Church Hall). Estelle said there was nothing to compare with these wall hangings on this scale, as each wonderfully depicted biblical scene is 5metres in length.
Mr David Miller told of the ‘Font’ in the church which was donated by the congregation in 1858, and the magnificent chandeliers that were once lit by gas but were now converted to electricity.

In the grounds of the church one enormous olive tree was shown to the journalists. This tree was grown from a cutting given to South Africa from an olive tree in the ‘Garden of Gethsemane’.
In the Kerksaal, where breakfast and coffee was served, the full beauty of the wall hangings could be seen. Here Mrs Marguerite Beneke had her designs of glass plates and wall plaques on show, on which pictures depicting Karoo scenes have been painted. These are truly beautiful, and Marguerite’s work is widely known around South Africa.
Miss Thembisa Nonnies, the officially trained tour guide for Aberdeen, took the journalists on a walkabout showing the Carmen Villa Residence, Villeria, the Post Office and Magistrate’s building which is a magnificent structure to The Aberdeen Heritage, Archive and Tourism Bureau.

Here an introduction to the Bureau was given by Mrs Dallis Graham who presented the journalists with a CD prepared by the Bureau on life in Aberdeen and printed information of the Bureau’s official launch of the Diarama of the Aberdeen Cemetery. Mr Carlos De Sousa had his very famous ostrich eggs on display and local craftsman Mr Dirk Goeieman also displayed his craft work.
Mayor Daantjie Japhta addressed the gathering with regard to the changing face of tourism. He said tourism must change, that a difference could be made, and spoke of tours into Thembalisizwe, the “Freedom Route” in Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe’s grave, and said "we must integrate and work together" he reiterated again that we should ‘stand together as friends or perish as enemies’.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Sunday, March 28, 2010

‘Hurricane-Like’ Winds Hit Central Aberdeen

On Friday evening at approximately 6.30pm, a wind force of great magnitude coming from the direction of Beaufort West on the north-west side of the town, hit Aberdeen. A dark cloud traveling at a phenomenal speed moving low over Aberdeen became the forerunner to either ‘hurricane’ or ‘jet stream’ velocity winds. The incredible force of a ‘jet stream’ wind is able to sheer entire forests. The devastation to Aberdeen was quick and could not have lasted longer than 10 minutes and was followed by driving rain.
This ferocious wind appeared to curve in and out of areas of the town, as though it was bouncing around and not following a straight direction. The pathway of destruction began at the top of the Fonteinbos, moving across the golf course and uprooting massive trees in the Aberdeen Hospital grounds which are close to the exit from Aberdeen in the direction of the R61. In the photograph shown, it is awesome to see a person standing next to the height of the tree roots, pulled out of the ground by the wind’s sheer force of strength. The wind then followed an easterly direction towards the municipality grounds on the corner of Parliament and Porter Streets where Aberdeen’s power station is situated. Here the wind took off the roof of a building, breaking down walls, and uprooting an enormous gum tree which fell on top of the power station causing a general power outage to the town and surrounding areas.


The wind then seemed to divide, blowing in a south easterly direction, through Porter Street doing damage to trees, and in Murray Street, opposite the N.G. Kerk, a tree was blown over next to the Kerksaal. Winds then appeared to bounce over the N.G. Kerk and uproot an enormous tree and concrete slabs in the grounds of the Aberdeen Heritage Archive & Tourism Bureau grounds. The force of the wind going south-westerly seemed to divide and find two pathways, one towards the cemetery on the south west side of town, where a wall was blown down and one south-easterly towards the corner of Rabie and Darling Streets, where telephone poles and trees were blown over. In Cathcart Street two enormous fir trees were uprooted and fell, narrowly missing two separate houses by centimeters.

In Brand Street the wall of the Karoo Moons was blown over, leaving trees growing alongside the wall still standing! In Thembalisizwe it was reported that a roof was blown off a house.

Due to the destruction caused by the tree falling onto the power supply lines on Friday 26th, electricity was only restored to parts of Aberdeen and surrounding areas on Saturday evening 27th between 6pm and 1am on Sunday 28th.
Mr Geoff Seamen and his team from the municipality with assistance from Graaff-Reinet municipality, worked throughout Friday night and all Saturday until power had been restored. This commitment to the town of Aberdeen, Lotusville and Thembalisizwe was gratefully appreciated.

The uprooted tree in the municipality grounds also caused damage to water pipes on Friday 26th, and the flow of water to Aberdeen and surrounding areas was only resumed on Sunday 28th at about midday. Here too, Geoff Seamen assisted by municipal staff from Graaff-Reinet, were to be thanked for their ongoing work. It is remarkable that the severity of the wind did not cause injury to residents of the town.
As climates are changing over the globe, freak weather patterns are emerging world wide, and here in the Karoo, Willowmore, a two hour drive from Aberdeen, recently experienced 100mm of rain in 37 minutes causing extreme flooding to the area.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Willowmore Flooding (10-Mar-2010)
A flash flood hit the town of Willowmore with 85mm of rain in 30 minutes.

Images Courtesy Of Justin Miles

Photo of Willowmore at the time of the flood taken
by Danie Liebenberg from the tower on Aasvoelberg