Good news – despite uncertainty about what Covid restrictions would mean for public events, the Proudly Porterville Art Weekend, an annual event that has firmly made a name for  tself on the events calendar, will be taking place once again in the picturesque town of Porterville in the Swart- land from the 26th to the 29th of November.

This highly anticipated art experience – now in its third year – provides an opportunity for art lov- ers, foodies, families, outdoor enthusiasts and any- one looking for a city escape to get out and about, make memories, have fun and view and purchase a wide variety of art from acclaimed artists that have made Porterville their home.

Event organisers say that they are anticipating a bumper event this year as local South Africans are satisfying their wanderlust. Pent up demand for travel and experiences, which developed over hard lockdown has seen a welcome breath of life for small rural towns as South Africans clamour to get out and about after months of restrictions on movement.

Proudly Porterville (previously entitled “Pure Porterville” ) is in its third year this year and offer art enthusiasts, collectors, investors and interior decorators alike a weekend not to be missed. Be- sides the more “serious” business of viewing and purchasing art, there are many other activities on offer to make a long weekend of it.
The Porterville community has come together to produce an exciting and varied festival, and visitors can expect exhibitions showcasing art and handcrafted products in the form of paintings, jew- ellery, ceramics, bespoke tableware, woodwork, mosaics, crochet, quilting, beading and more. Lo- cal artists will also be facilitating ceramic and paint- ing workshops over the course of the weekend.
Well over ten group exhibitions will take place at various venues throughout the town showcas- ing the work of a myriad of artists. In addition to this many of the resident artists will be opening their homes and studios directly to the public for the weekend.
Something for everyone
In addition to the arts, there is something at Proudly Porterville for foodies, families, outdoor enthusiasts, young and old alike. Stock up on fresh local produce, preserves and many other delicacies at the Farmers Market. Enjoy a delicious meal at one of several top restaurants in town. Take part in one of the workshops being hosted during the weekend. Go mountain biking or running on the beautiful local trails. Relax and savour small town
These are just a few examples of what is on offer which allow visitors to experience the village life and immerse themselves in the many wonder- ful country town offerings that make rural living so appealing. Nearly all of the attractions are within walking distance from each other, so visitors can park and stroll through the  town,  enjoying  the art exhibitions, stopping for a meal, buying local fare – all with a beautiful mountain backdrop as Porterville  is  nestled  at  the  foot  of  the Olifants
 
Porterville is only 150 km’s from Cape Town and visitors are encouraged to stay over the entire weekend. There are many different accommoda- tion options on offer from more remote farm-stays to B&B hospitality in the centre of town, camping, self-catering accommodation and more.
Tickets are not required for the Proudly Porter- ville weekend as entry is free, but accommodation bookings, restaurant reservations and workshop bookings are recommended ahead of the time due to demand. For more information visit www.por- tervilletourism.co.za or contact Porterville Tourism Office (022-931 3732).
What: Proudly Porterville Art Weekend Where: Porterville, Cape, South Africa
When: 26 & 29 November 2020 – Workshops on the 26th, exhibitions open 27th.
Info: www.portervilletourism.co.za; 022 931
3732

Novembermaand bly ‘n bedrywige maand in ons tuine. Indien jy as tuinier mooi vooruit beplan het en bááie somerblommende eenjariges aangeplant het, kan jou tuin regdeur November en Desember steeds baie kleurvol wees.
Grasperke moet veral noudat dit warmer word, baie gereelde aandag kry. Dit sluit in:
1. Besproeiing; 2 Bemesting; 3 Omkruidbeheer; 4 Baie gereelde sny en 5 Siektebeheer.
2. Moenie jou grasperk “lui” maak deur dit te veel water onnodig te gee nie! Volgens jou tuingrond se tipe, moet dit nét genoeg water kry om dit mooi groen te hou.
3. Die korrekte bemesting elke vier tot ses weke kan dit in topkondisie hou: Vir die warmer maande bevel ons aan ‘n 4.1.1 of 3.2.1 kunsmis of ook “Bladerunner”van Neutrog wat ‘n organiese bemesting is.
4. Onkruide moet betyds en gereeld onder beheer gehou word deur dit uit te trek of met selektiewe onkruiddoders te bespuit – maar ASB kry hier tog die korrekte produk en advies!
5. ‘n Grasperk wat gereeld gesny word:  Een keer per week is die minimum. As dit buitensporig geil groei, is dit selfs tot twee keer per week. Moenie jou grasperk in die warm somermaande te kort sny nie, want dit gaan sonbrand opdoen. Onder die skadubome waar die grasperk soms sukkel om te floreer, moet jy ook nie jou gras so kort sny soos in die volson nie
6. Swamsiektes op grasperke kan ook nou, met die warmer weer, begin kop uitsteek. Daalderkol is groot sirkelvormige swambesmettings wat vinnig bespuit moet word met Odeon.
Bruinroes op die blaar is sulke swart poeieragtige kolle op die blaar wat aan jou vingers sal afgee wanneer jy daaraan vat. Bespuit dit met “virikop (koperoksied-chloried) of Odeon.
Ander peste is grasperk-ruspes wat met Karbaspray beheer kan word. Waterkrieke is nog ‘n pes, wat beheer kan word met Koinor of Meridian.
Miere en termiete kan behandel word met Kamikaze of sprinkle “Skatterkill for Insects”of ook Kombat Ants.
Begin sommer nou al die res van jou tuin voorberei vir die somer deur die beddings ‘n lekker dik deklaag met kompos en/of boombas te sprinkel. Dit bewaar die vog en voed die plante. Dit help ook keer dat daar nie so baie onkruide in jou beddings opkom nie!
Hou die plante fyn dop vir alle soort plantluise en ander insekplae soos witvlieg, rooi spinnekop, dopluise en meer.
Kom kry die regte raad en die regte produk, want anders kan jy dalk net jou geld mors en niks bereik nie!
Volgende keer (25 November) gee ons raad vir die somertuin in Desembermaand.

Tuingroete
George Retief

On 21 October 2020, The Western Cape Minister for Health, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo officially opened the reconstructed, state-of-the-art Swartland Hospital in Malmesbury.
In March 2017 about 70% of Swartland Hospital, was destroyed in a fire.
The fire destroyed the Emergency Center, X- rays, Rehab wards, theatre, CSSD, kitchen, linen store and several offices.
The reconstruction purpose was to reinstate clinical services by re-purposing and re-distributing various clinical, administrative and support service functions within the remaining buildings on the site.
The reconstruction process started in 2018, with renovations being done in phases and now concluded at a cost of almost R120 million.
Swartland residents will no longer have to travel to Paarl and Westfleur Hospital for health- care benefits, they now have their own hospital.

The following has been restored and in use:
• New 24-bed prefab wards
• Emergency Center
• Admin Building: CSSD, Theatre Unit, Clinical Staff Offices
• Reception

• Dental Clinic
• Dining
• Kitchen and linen room,

“We are here today because we understand the plight of Swartland people.
Despite the intense financial pressures, the consequences of COVID-19, our aging infrastructure, unfunded mandates and statutory requirements, we remain committed to the people of this province.
The reconstruction of Swartland Hospital is in direct response to the community’s needs and that is why we pride ourselves in what we offer our patients.
We continuously strive to offer the best services to all our clients in the best possible facilities. We are giving them an almost brand- new hospital, with better services and state-of- the-art equipment, which they can be proud of.
This is their asset – I hope they take pride in it and treasure it.
I continue with #OperationVulimpilo, a campaign where I ensure that healthcare services that were suspended during the COVID-19 peak are re-instated. I will be visiting more facilities to re-instate more healthcare services.
To our staff, thank you for all your hard work and I hope that you will continue to serve the community with passion and dedication.”

What can you do about a market event, correc- tion or shock after the fact? The best course of action, is to view it as a learning opportunity, and take action to ensure your risk profile, in- vestment strategy and asset allocation have all been determined correctly.
It’s important not to approach this in a knee- jerk manner. Rather, it requires you to do the legwork, re-evaluate your portfolio and its ob- jectives soberly, and only make changes where they are clearly called for. It is also a good op- portunity to consider changes to your portfolio to preserve capital by controlling downside risk. Research has shown over and over that your own behaviour negatively impacts your returns
over the long term.
Ask yourself how many of these investment transgressions you are guilty of:
• reacting emotionally to market news – sell- ing or buying without proper research or strat- egy
• forecasting the market’s every move
• getting greedy and trading for short-term gains based on gossip
• starting with a structured portfolio, but soon ending up with a mess due to undisciplined buying
• checking your portfolio value daily
• hiding in cash when markets get turbulent
• forecasting binary event outcomes and structuring your portfolio accordingly
• forgetting about the tax conse- quences of your decisions until it’s too late.
The wise investor remembers that long-term investment princi- ples prevail:
• Equities (growth assets) out- perform inflation over time, despite short-term volatility.
• Diversify, diversify, diversify
• Cash is not a suitable long- term investment
• No single asset manager has  a monopoly on asset management skill
• Research pays exponentially. Moreover, the wise investor understands that there are things they can control, like their own behaviour, and things they cannot control, like the ups and the downs of the market. If you find you have been guilty of any of the invest- ment transgressions described above, the best defence is putting a strategy in place to remove the temptation from your investment equation and to ensure you focus on the element you can control: your behaviour.
A qualified investment adviser can help you to do so in a disciplined manner by developing a tailored strategy to help you take the emotion out of your investment decisions.
We know beyond a doubt that the invest- ment market will have many ups and downs in the future.
Use the current opportunity to understand the triggers that make you act impulsively and ultimately cause value-destroying behaviour, and ensure your portfolio is well diversified in line with your risk profile. By taking these steps today with the help of your adviser, you can en- sure your portfolio is robust and better able to ride out the next big market event.

– Jac de Wet CFP® MComm Wealth Manager PSG Wealth

Madi Pieterse

WEST COAST – To adhere to the regulations set by the Government regarding the Covid 19 pandemic, the Saldanha Bay Water Quality Forum Trust (SBWQFT) delivered the yearly State of the Bay report via webinar on Thursday even- ing from Juffroushoogte Guest Farm just out- side Vredenburg.
Only a few role players, some Trust members and members of the media were present in per- son while dr Barry Clark presented the findings of the past year as well as comparing statistics over the past few decades, availability permit- ting.
Barry told that it was an amazing experience collecting samples on the beach in Langebaan during the lockdown period with not a sole in sight.
What the report essentially is is an annual assessment of anthropogenic impacts to and ecological health of Saldanha Bay and Langebaan Lagoon, composed of 3 broader components:

1) Anthropogenic impact:
– Activities and discharges affecting the
health of the bay;
2) Physical health:
– Water quality parameters, temperature, sa- linity, oxygen, nutrients, currents and waves and groundwater inflow;
– Concentrations of contaminants (eg trace metals, bacteria) in seawater, sediments and liv- ing organisms in the bay;
3) Ecological health:
– Organisms themselves, the animals that live in the bay that are affected by the health of the bay, using a number of indicators through sedi- ments to living organisms, all operating on dif- ferent time scales, giving an indication how the health is changing over time;
– Changes in community structure and abun- dance of living organisms (macrophytes, inverte- brates, fish and birds).

Activities and discharge

In previous years huge growth in popula- tion and urban and industrial development was observed in and around the bay. This year, how- ever, little progress was made on some of the larger developments proposed by the IDZ, LPG/ LNG imports, export of iron ore and manganese, phosphate mining, fish processing and desilina- tion, although some exceptions (Aquaculture Development Zone and Powership) does exist.
A few other factors also contributed to lesser
activities impacting the health of the bay:
– Unfortunately, some industries, like Arcelor
Mittal, has closed down;
– Shipping traffic and ballast water discharges
are both down;
– Numbers of visitors to West Coast National Park are down;

The exception here is at the Saldanha Waste Water Treatment Works,  where  discharge  is up again due to the fact that waste water was historically taken up by ArcelorMittal and is not used at this stage, which is an unfortunate set- back. This might change soon as other industries has shown interest in making use of the waste water.
A second exception is the government spon- sored ADZ, with mussel production growing

since 2012 and thirdly new initiatives that are coming in line now, eg Powership (the production of electricity proposed for Saldanha Bay).
Aquaculture Development Zone The aquaculture footprint in the area grew from 464ha to 884ha, but all has not been taken up yet, as only 36% of the new lease area has been taken up. Around 60% of this 36% is actually being utilized to date, which means about an 11% increase in aquaculture production in the last year.
The ADZ is subject to environmental authorization and fairly strict conditions provided by Environmental Affairs (EA). These include EMP, CF and AMC programs to monitor environmental impacts. They can only continue expanding as long as indications show the impact on the bay is not significant.
The ADZ does a lot of additional independent monitoring, including monitoring of the water quality in the bay.
Reef area in Big Bay One of the most surprising findings through the ADZ’s monitoring program was the identification of some extensive reef areas in Big Bay, that was not picked up during the Environmental Impact Assessment process. Knowledge of the reefs has however been in place since the 1970`s when Bogart Fleming highlighted this fact in a publication in 1977.
From Barry`s perpective this is a bit of a concern as reef areas tend to harbour high bio- diversity . Another concern is that the monitor- ing program for the ADZ was structured around soft sediment impact, habitats and how these might change when affected by mari-culture operations. Monitoring programs currently in place are however not really appropriate for assessing impact on the kinds of habitat surrounding reef areas. The Department of Environment, Fisheries and Forestry already started taking action to address the matter.
Groundwater

Not much time was spent on groundwater in the past, although it is an incredibly important commodity in the area, particularly the West Coast that is quite an arid area with not much surface water around.
A new partner, GEOSS (Ground Water and Earth Sciences) came on board the State of of the Bay program. GEOSS is a company special- izing in groundwater assessment and work and have contributed a new chapter to the State of the Bay report this year, providing some context for the groundwater resources in the area, the sensitivity of these resources and the impor- tance there-of and highly contributed to the equality of the lagoon.
Groundwater in the area is classified as a con- trolled area by the Department of Water and Sanitation.
GEOSS reported that the total usable ground- water exploitation potential in the area is 15.2 cubic meters per annum without compromis- ing other habitats or fauna and flora that are dependant on it. This includes groundwater outflow to Langebaan Lagoon.
Commodities utilizing groundwater are ag- riculture and three well-field developments, Langebaan Road Aquifer, Hopefield Well-field and Elandsfontein Well-field.
Elandsfontein Well-field is associated with Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine, where ground- water abstraction is designed to enable mining. Essentially they are de-watering a mining pit and re-injecting that water back downstream. Groundwater flow typically is coming from the aquifer system down towards the lagoon and   is sustaining plant and animal communities around the lagoon.
GEOSS recommended these well-fields only to be used during times of severe drought and kept as full as possible in non-drought times and in fact should be recharged during non-drought times if at all possible to ensure that the water supply to the lagoon and ecosystems along the aquifers are not compromised.
As part of the State of the Bay monitoring work Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine has funded some monitoring of water quality parameters at the head of the lagoon, specifically temperature and salinity. Monitoring at this stage is focused on baseline data collection, establishing a base- line of what conditions are like in the lagoon.
Data produce really interesting trends with graphs showing changing temperatures through the seasons, also touching on tidal variation and spring leap cycles. Salinity (salt content in the la- goon) also show clear seasonal patterns. Normal seawater is about 34,5g per 1000l in winter and rising up to quite a high level of 40g per 1000l in summer.
Microbial data – recreational limits

This data gives an indication of the safety for recreational use of the bay. The method to collect this data is used all over the world.
Data for recreational limits has been collected by the SBWQFT since its inception in 1999 at a series of sites in the parameter of the bay. Studying the graph clearly indicates that the water quality in the bay has improved dramatically. Towards the beginning of the 2000`s conditions were mostly poor and unsuitable for recreation due to high inputs of treated waste water and problems with the waste treated works in Saldanha. The breakpoint came in 2005/6 where a dramatic improvement started and is largely sustained to the present day.
There are however a few problem areas, for instance near Hoedjiesbaai Hotel and in Pepper Bay, but by enlarge conditions in Langebaan Lagoon are safe for recreational use.
This success story is testament to information sharing and information made available to authorities and taking the necessary steps to address any problems.
Trace metals in shoreline mussels
Trace metals, sometimes known as heavy metals, are sometimes toxic to people and animals. Data collected from shoreline mussels in Small Bay suggest it is not safe for human consumption as levels are mostly above safety levels, although things have improved in recent years.
Cadmium levels are slightly better, although data shows times and places where levels exceed safety levels.
Data on manganese was included for inter- est sake because of a recent program to export manganese from the Multi Purpose Terminal.
Manganese levels have increased in mussels in the bay.
Importantly there is no safety or maximum permissible level for consumption of manganese in seafoods.
Trace metals in farmed mussels and oysters
Looking at graphs from data collected by mariculture farmers, it is encouraging that trace metal levels are much lower than those on the shoreline.
To view the full 2020 State of the Bay presentation with graphs visit the Saldanha Bay Water Quality Forum Trust website at www.sbwqft.org. za
Any comments of the report will be attended
to.

Kom geniet ‘n aand se ontspanning saam met vriende, familie, kollegas en sakekenisse, en uitoorlê mekaar in “oumens albaster” . En as die gogga jou byt, sluit aan en maak rolbal jou sport vir die toekoms!
Die wat reeds in die verlede deelgeneem het kan nie uitgepraat raak nie.
Die wat nog nie deelgeneem het nie, wil nie hierdie keer uitgelaat word nie!
Sien julle daar op een van die aande van jou keuse.
Vlak 1 Covid-19 regulasies sal geld:
Register word gehou van almal teenwoordig, saniteer gereeld (bring eie saniteerder saam), 48 spelers op perk toegelaat (12 spanne per aand), maskers af tydens spel, maskers op in die klubhuis en op die terrein, handhaaf sosiale distansiëring.
Kontak Roux Vermeulen by 0224821228 of 0834789616 met navrae.