Articles

Shotgun Tori aka Victoria Landey, drove through Smithfield recently on her way back from a gig in Aliwal North. She wanted a slot in our Platteland Preview festival, taking place in Smithfield June 21 – 23, and so we said: let’s hear you sing. And so she sang! We were...

A recent cold front passing over Smithfield showed itself in a dramatic sky; almost as though the cold had a colour and a shape:      

If you can’t go to Grahamstown this year for the National Arts Festival fringe, don’t worry – – – the fringe is coming to you! That’s the thinking behind our dorp’s new venture. We’re hosting a Platteland Preview of Grahamstown’s internationally respected fringe,...

WHEN criminal trials come unstuck because of technical failures by the prosecution, the public ought to worry. This week I was very worried indeed: two cases in completely different jurisdictions showed evidence of hopeless mistakes by the prosecution over such...

TWO experiences in our tiny platteland dorp today set me up for the judgment I’ve just read. We were running in the veld, the two dogs and I, when suddenly they stopped, alert, watching a cow and her still wet, new-born calf lying on the grass. The mother stepped...

We’ve just added eyelashes across the lean-to built along the length of our barnhuise. They are made of latte (thin wattle poles) and I love the shadow patterns they create. The view from the office isn’t bad either although the garden landscaping is a work in...

WHY don’t the media routinely list the legal representatives of parties at the end of news reports? It would help the public make better choices about who should represent them. This is an argument I’ve made before, but here’s another case in point. Judge NF Kgomo of...

IT looks like an attractive double-storey piece of real estate, but the Beau Vallon police station has an ugly reputation. It serves the most popular beach on Mahe, largest of the Seychelles islands which, judging from comments on the travel site ‘Trip Advisor’, most...

THE story reads like something out of Precious Ramotswe’s casebook; something for the No 1 Lady Detective to discuss with her devoted secretary, Grace Makutsi, over mugs of strong rooibos tea. It’s January 2007 and a five year old boy has disappeared from the remote...

ALL that anxiety we experience about buying property? – It’s well justified. As a case decided by the Supreme Court of Appeal this week demonstrates, there are indeed sellers willing to create fraudulent camouflage; who know, but disguise, a building’s serious faults....