Christo Brand (second from right), Nelson Mandela’s former prison warder, took time to visit the Windsor Hotel’s kitchen to meet the team who will be cooking the Camphill Dialogue meals to be donated to the Love, Hope, Faith and Happiness Soup Kitchen run by Soraya Pieterse in Mount Pleasant. From left are: Carolyne Kakangula, Chef Bilal Javed, Sophie de Koker, Pauline Chateuka, Chef Rameesha Javed, Christo Brand and Chef Marinda Potgieter of Saffron Functions.
Camphill turns COVID-19 challenges to good account Writer Raphael da Silva
T
rue to its values, the Camphill Communities in Hermanus have turned the unfortunate consequences of COVID-19 into an opportunity to provide at least 600 – 700 meals this week to children from the Mount Pleasant community. “As a result of having to shorten the Camphill Dialogue Conference from five days to one, we have been able to turn a negative situation that is out of our control into a positive one,” said Geoffrey Weir, Chairperson of the Camphill School Board. Due to have taken place from 16 to 20
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March 2020, the five-day Camphill Dialogue 2020 Conference, which was last hosted in Hermanus in 2005, was supposed to be attended by 120 delegates from Camphills around the world. Instead, the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, as well as the declaration by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa’s national disaster status on 15 March, meant that the two host Camphill Communities in Hermanus, Camphill School and Camphill Farm Community, had to act quickly. The organising team decided to shorten the conference to one day and to donate all the meals and drinks that had been planned for the delegates over the next four days. The Windsor Hotel agreed that
their kitchen could still be used and the caterers, Saffron Functions, were willing to continue preparing the meals as planned. The 150 – 200 daily meals are being cooked each day and delivered to the Love, Hope, Faith and Happiness Soup Kitchen in Mount Pleasant. It is run by Soraya Pieterse, who provides at least one meal a day, seven days a week, to an average of 140 hungry children from the community. “It is wonderful to be able to give back to our community and it will be great to see the smiles on all the children’s faces when we bring them this food,” said Genevieve Linney, who manages public relations and fundraising for Camphill.
Our country will recover, says former Mandela warder Christo Brand, who was Nelson Mandela’s warder during his incarceration both on Robben Island and at Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town, says that President Cyril Ramaphosa is the right man to lead South Africa at this time. Speaking at the opening of the Camphill Dialogue 2020, a planned five-day international conference that had to be shortened to one day as a result of the Coronavirus epidemic, Brand said, “We must believe in our President and support him. Only then can things move forward in our country. I think that if we stand together as one nation, we can take hands and build our country together. We can make it work. I really believe that.” Brand also said that if Mandela were alive today during the Coronavirus epidemic, he would do exactly what President Ramaphosa is doing. “Like Ramaphosa, Mandela would have tried to calm the nation down and told us not to panic. He would have told us to follow the instructions of the medical people.” He reflected that “Mandela was very proud of Cyril Ramaphosa and tried to push him forward to become the president. At that stage, he was too young, but today Cyril must steer our country away from all the threats and things that have gone wrong in South Africa. "It is very difficult for him because there are still people in government who are corrupt. But Cyril will try to get rid of corruption so that investors will want to come back to our country. We are still in a healing process, but I am sure that our country will recover.” During his talk, Brand also recounted a number of the stories that are to be found in his book Doing Life with Mandela – My Prisoner, My Friend, which he co-authored with Barbara Jones. – Raphael da Silva
Mayor clarifies proposed liquor trading hours In a media statement released by the Overstrand Municipality last week, the Executive Mayor, Ald Dudley Coetzee commented on the proposed amendment to the liquor trading hours bylaw by stating that a number of rumours had been circulated regarding the consequences to licensees should the liquor trading hours, as proposed, be adopted by Council. “The current bylaw makes provision for a licensee to apply for consent to sell liquor for consumption on the licensed premises between times other than those determined by
the bylaw. There is also an existing tariff that is applicable for the granting of such consent,” according to the statement. “Should Council decide to amend the trading days for the sale of alcohol for consumption off the licenced premises, a similar clause will be added to the bylaw, allowing licensees who wish to trade on a Sunday to apply for consent to do so. There will also be an applicable tariff for this consent included in the Municipal tariff structure.” The mayor further emphasised that there
was no truth to the rumour that an additional liquor license application would have to be submitted to the Western Cape Liquor Authority. “The liquor license issued by the Western Cape Liquor Authority is valid for the hours and days approved by the municipality. Thus an application for deviation from the days and hours contained in the municipal by-law is to be lodged with the municipality and not the Western Cape Liquor Authority.” He went on to say that it had also come to the municipality’s attention that various bodies were offering to submit objections on
behalf of licensees at a cost. “It is naturally the licensees’ right to follow this route; however, a simple email to the municipality containing your comments will suffice,” he advised. Residents have until 23 March 2020 to comment on the proposed new liquor trading hours in the Overstrand. The document can be downloaded from www.overstrand.gov.za. Click on strategic documents, then click on bylaw and draft bylaw. Comments can be emailed to lwallace@ overstrand.gov.za
