John Rantyisi Maqabangoa se Aftreeding

John Rantyisi Maqabangoa was gebore op 11 November 1942 te Aberdeen as die agste oudste van 10 kinders.
Hy het sy skoolopleiding aan die Bantu-Mission School Aberdeen ontvang. Op September 1960 was hy by die Anglican Church gedoop.
Na sy skoolopleiding het hy skeerwerk gedoen en later wol geklassifiseer. Toe het hy sy werk verander en as ‘n voertuigbestuurder vir sy ouboet se winkelbesigheid begin werk. Hy het ook as a padbouer gewerk in Bloemfontein.
Op die 3 Januarie 1972 het hy met Sophia Thandeka Jacobs in Aberdeen in die huwelik getree. Hulle het 7 kinders gehad.
Op 12 Desember 1967 tydens ‘n Godiens te Thembalesizwe, was hy opgeneem in die Nuwe Apostoliese Kerk. Op 13 Maart 1977 het John die Heilige Verseeling ontvang deur Apostel A.A. Mitas.
Op 10 Augustus 1977 is John verorden in die Onder-Diakenamp en op 20 Julie 1980 in die Diakenamp. Op 8 Desenber 1982 was hy in die Priesteramp ontvang.
Saam met Priester Skosana, en later Gemeente-Evangelis Jacobs, het John gehelp om die Here se werk in Thembalesizwe te bevorder. Hy het ook sendingwerk in Klipplaat en Steytlerville gaan doen.
In 1998 het John die Herderamp ontvang om as Gemeenteleier God se kinders in Thembalesizwe te versorg.
John se, “Die kinders van God lê baie na aan my hart, en die werk van die Here is vir my ‘n vreugde en sal vir my ‘n vreugde bly.”

Artikel Deur: Joan Tinker

Andries Smit’s Traditional French Craft

Andries Smit, a cane and raw hide weaver of note, grew up in Middleburg and lives in Adendorp just outside Graaff-Reinet. He demonstrated the art of weaving chair seats with cane and raw hide (also called riempie) at the Agricultural Show in Aberdeen.
Andries was trained in this technique of curing the raw hide for weaving into chair seats by his grandmother who is from French extraction. In France they used the hide of cattle and goats. Andries is the only person using this specific technique in South Africa. It takes fourteen days to accomplish this curing. The hide is cut in the old fashioned way and all the work is environmentally friendly. Eland hide is used for long benches. Work done on a Colonial type chair takes a day to weave.
Andries has fixed customers all over South Africa and also sends the specially cured riempie to Perth and London. When sending riempies out of South Africa, special treatment is done on the hide, and is accompanied by a Veterinary Certificate. Andries sells almost 10,000 riempie lengths annually.
Andries also builds donkey carts with padded seats. He sells these carts together with all the reins and leather work for the donkeys. These donkey carts are sold all over South Africa. This art of chair seat weaving, which Andries perpetuates, is traditional to all beautiful old Cape furniture, and the riempie used is very strong and lasts up to 20 years.

Article By: Joan Tinker

“Lemon And Lime” Biking Waitresses

About 80 “Harleys” took the day off from Graaff-Reinet to take the scenic ride to Aberdeen on Thursday 25th September. It was quite thrilling for Aberdeen to resound to the full throated roar of these beautiful black and chrome gleaming motoring monsters.
They rode slowly around the main street of Aberdeen giving the locals a vision of motor cycle mastery, and parked outside the various watering places in the local C.B.D. to the fascination of children and adults alike. I am not sure what was admired more, the bikes, the shining black leather outfits, or the blondes inside the black leathers.

At the “Lemon and Lime” where coffee, pancakes, and the famous lemon meringue was totally sold out, two of the hardworking waitresses decided to try out the motor cycles. Their visit was a great success.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Aberdeen Agricultural Show

Aberdeen Showgrounds Friday 26th September 2008

This morning I went to the Agricultural Show in Aberdeen. I found the main hall to have a very few stalls, and none of any particular interest, in fact it looked as though each stall had taken about five minutes to set up, and with no real enthusiasm.

I saw no local artists of which Aberdeen have many, no stalls belonging to local businesses, and the only stall of real interest belonged to a Mr Andries Smit who is very kindly allowing me to do a future article on his riempie and weaving work on antique chairs. In fact there was no reason for anyone to be there at all except to enjoy a good cup of coffee. I sincerely hope that next years' organizers will put a little more effort, thought and organization into this event. I was at the same show last year and the difference was very apparent.

Outside an enormous jumping castle looked unused, it was almost an insult to the total lack of “happy children” that should have been playing on it. I tried to blame the extremely windy weather, but as I walked around the corner of the building I was quite entranced by the well organized pens of wonderful healthy looking sheep and beautiful Angora goats.

Judging was taking place, and I was fortunate enough to acquire the learned advice of John Watermeyer on all the different aspects of sheep and goat farming in this area and explanations of the different types of sheep and goats on show. I was shown how to look for the difference in the types of wool, how it was graded, the highs and lows of sheep and goat farming, in fact I am so intrigued by all the aspects, that John has agreed to give me all the information for a much needed article on sheep and goat farming for the “Aberdeen Website”, which is presently having about a thousand “hits” a week. I must thank John most sincerely for very kindly standing outside in very windy conditions giving me in depth explanations to my questions, and if the day had been more pleasant, I would have spent a lot longer than the 2 hours. The photographs are an example of very successful farming.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Desmond Coetzee - An Inspiration

This afternoon Desmond Coetzee a genuine Aberdonion and previous Mayor of Aberdeen and a stalwart supporter of the community, offered in depth information about sport in this area. Desmond wears many hats. He is the Chairperson of the Camdeboo Sub-Structure of the ANC, Convener of the sport structure of Ward 1 (Aberdeen), and a previous executive member of the Eastern Province Rugby Union, a Chairperson of Karoo Sub-Union Rugby he is also presently head coach and executive member of the Aberdeen Rugby Club and a teacher and sports master of the Kamdebo Primary School.
He is a mine of information about all sports in Aberdeen and is very much aware of the triumphs and the desperate needs of sports here in Aberdeen, Lotusville and Thembalesizwe.
Despite the lack of facilities, lack of funds for transport, sport equipment and sport clothing, Aberdeen has produced one of the first Springbok woman rugby players Saloma Booysen. She played in the World Cup held in Canada in 2005, showing the talent and standard of woman’s rugby in Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen men’s rugby has produced players who have played for Eastern Province Country and District’s Teams. The senior rugby team is presently the 2008 rugby champions of the Karoo Senior Rugby Union. They were runners up in 2007 and the 2005 champions.
The Everton Soccer Club players of Aberdeen play league outside the Camdeboo area in the Eastern Province and are a very active and strong team with regard to talent and enthusiasm. Here again, due to financial constraints their activities are limited. In fact there are five soccer teams in Aberdeen who play league against each other as traveling costs are prohibitive.
There are tennis courts and a swimming pool, but these have not been utilized for some time and need contracts taken out with the municipality who could assist financially the clubs formed to organize these sporting activities so that these facilities can be made available to all.
There is a golf course which is partially maintained by both the local golf players and the municipality, again golf equipment is costly. The squash court is evident on the same property as the golf course, but as yet it is not used by the local youth.
Mini athletics is another sport enjoyed by the youth of Aberdeen and a competition is being held between the Aberdeen schools, Aberdeen Primary, Kamdebo Primary, Luxolo Primary and the Graaff-Reinet schools Volkslaer and Narsing Street Primary on the 29th October 2008 at the show grounds in Aberdeen.It must be recognized that all sporting structures should be centralized under the sporting structure of the Aberdeen Ward Committee in Aberdeen.

Article By: Joan Tinker