ALL the forecasts say this will be a shocker of a weekend: snow, rain and freezing weather around most of the country. On the way back from walking the dogs in the veld this morning we passed a little group of children with an older woman at the side of the road; they were picking up wood for making fires. One wore just a short sleeved T-shirt, wound round with a blanket. You’ll find similar groups all along the platteland roads. Impossible to escape the lock-down of poverty like this without education and jobs – Minister of Basic Education: are you listening!

Children gathering wood at the side of the N6 through the Free State – there’s a cold, wet weekend on the way