We’re getting great feedback on the Spring issue of Stellenbosch Visio is currently on the newsstand. Our editor France Beyers shares her thoughts on some of the people and stories that combined to make this instalment a celebration of the moment.
Stories that inspire. Mind-blowing inventions. Achievements that make your heart sing. When we started Stellenbosch Visio five years ago, we set out to find such stories and the people behind them. We wanted to celebrate the best from Stellenbosch and the Winelands, and also from other parts of the country.
This does not mean we wanted to deny the challenges and the hardships surrounding us. It means we are facing up to the tough issues of our time by finding our positive centre.
During the enforced lockdown, we probably all did some serious soul-searching. Inevitably, anxiety would steal up when least expected and bombard us with worries. Worries about the ability of our children to find jobs in a shrinking economy. Worries about our schools, inequality, corruption, racism, lack of global leadership, the environment.
Whenever I had those thoughts, reason would intervene and remind me of all the talented individuals, from artists to entrepreneurs, from poets to techies, whom we are privileged to feature regularly in Stellenbosch Visio.
This issue is brimful of these inspiring stories. Our own Gräfin, Marlene, Countess von Dürckheim, an accomplished painter, talks to Maggie Mouton about the need for constant innovation. It is also on art that we depend to transform the everyday into something spectacular, as the poem ‘Tuinier’ (p. 95) demonstrates.
Technological innovation, at the other end of the spectrum, is another kind of poetry, one that has the power to transform our world, and Stellenbosch is blessed with some of the brightest minds under the sun. In this issue, you can meet the young entrepreneurs behind AD-Tech (p. 22) who have helped Stellenbosch Unite with environmentally friendly solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Turn to ‘Fixes for the future’ on page 26 for more clever innovators.
Do you need your own special space, away from it all, now more than ever before? Richard Holmes found art, nature and time for reflection in those secluded spots in and around Stellenbosch so beloved by locals in the know. He shares some of the secrets on page 56.
We are not afraid to grapple with serious issues, but neither do we shy away from a dash of glamour, as you can see from our fashion feature on page 30 and my own pic (above).
Die spesiale verrassing in hierdie uitgawe is die eerste van ’n aantal bydraes wat Marlene van Niekerk, oud-Bloemhoffer en bekroonde skrywer, daar uit die verre vreemde spesiaal vir Stellenbosch Visio skryf (bl. 104). Ontspan, geniet, en leer selfs ‘die pitte lees’. Wie weet wat hulle vir jou te sê gaan hê!
Hierdie ‘verkwiklike opkikkers’ van Marlene is net ’n voorsmakie van wat jy vorentoe in Stellenbosch Visio kan verwag. En hier is ook jou geleentheid om vir ons te laat weet waarvan jy in die tydskrif hou en waarvan nie so baie nie.
Skryf sommer direk aan my by editor@stellenboschvisio.co.za – ook as jy van interessante mense en plekke weet. Ek hoor graag van jou.
Share your thoughts with Francé and send an email to editor@stellenboschvisio.co.za.