Farmers, communities, environmental organisations, geologists and water specialists are up in arms about global energy and petrochemical company Shell’s application to explore for shale gas over 90 000km2 in the water-stressed Karoo. The proposed exploration method, called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, involves drilling boreholes 4-5km deep, followed by the introduction of a mixture of chemicals, [...]
Ronnie Apteker has not slept. He went to bed at three am and was up at five. That’s normal for this Wits alumnus (MSc 1994 cum laude) who describes himself as a nerd and who was one of the founders of Internet Solutions in 1993. […]
The unprecedented ‘land grab’ for mining in South Africa poses a direct threat to the headwaters of the Vaal, Tugela, Usuthu and Pongola river systems. This key water production area spanning the high altitude grasslands between KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and the Free State, provides clean, potable water for Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal, including several [...]
Johann Zietsman offers 25 years of sustainable cattle production to show South African cattle farmers how to double, triple or quadruple their cattle numbers while improving the quality of their veld. […]
Down on the farm we recycle scrap tyres. A nip here and a tuck there and we transform them into rubbery bowls for cattle licks. Passers by might not realise what they are. Catching a glimpse of thirty or more tyres scattered in the veld as they whiz by on their wheels, they might think [...]
When we’re on Facebook, BBM’ing, Internet dating or sms’ing, we can be whoever our fantasy wants us to be and the people we meet online can become our fantasy relationship. Heather Dugmore explores the role of Facebook and other social media in extra-relationship affairs. […]
Two years ago Heather Dugmore swapped her life in Sandton for a farm in the mountains of the Karoo, where the cattle low and the only lights she sees at night are the lights of the stars above. […]
MERINO SA President Julian Southey talks about the need to be adaptable and to change your farming practice from that of previous generations in order to rise to current economic challenges and benefit from the knowledge available today. […]
Business is a key driver in keeping the global temperature rise below 2-degrees, which is the overall requirement of a new global climate order and the aim of COP17 in Durban. […]
Beads are beautiful, aesthetic and one of the first expressions of human thinking. The oldest known beads in the world were found in the Blombos Cave on South Africa’s southern Cape coast. They date back 75 000 years ago when a human being walked the beach, collecting 60 shells of the same size, which were [...]
