Korean in Calitzdorp. Food, that is, including up-market takes on traditional street food – and more. A tale of falling in love, also with this Klein Karoo dorpie, and selling up to pursue a golf-food-lifestyle tourism project.

“We fell in love with the town, with the people, with the lifestyle,” says Sun Hee Baek, whose partner, Ed Holding, is a PGA Master Professional.

Calitzdorp was the surprise destination after moving from Jozi and spending a few months in Stellenbosch a couple of years ago to set up the high-end tourism project. It’s within easy reach of some of the top southern Cape Garden Route golf courses.

Baek, who in 2018 published My Romantic Africa (in Korean), runs Sunnyhuis restaurant using much local produce, from outside what she calls a “fairy tale town”.

Tourism is up after the end of Covid-19 restrictions. Visitors coming through Cape Town International Airport in September 2022 are at 71% of the September 2019 levels, and the Karoo National Park near Beaufort West stands at 93% full over this period, ­according to Finance and Economic Opportunities data.

But dampening prospects are sustained rolling power outages, set to continue for at least another 18 to 24 months. Also not helping are rising food prices, linked in many ways to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the rising cost of oil, wheat and fertiliser.

Visit Daily Maverick’s home page for more news, analysis and investigations

Word is that it’s cheaper to drive about 453km to Cape Town for salmon than to George – that’s about 95km away. 

Perhaps that’s an indication of the skyrocketing southern Cape prices as Joburgers and others trek there for remote working.

Or maybe it’s middlemen and retailers raking in the cash. Because capitalist principles of supply and demand don’t seem to apply, as is shown by the price of blueberries not dropping despite the glut.

Farmers are not getting better prices.

As politicians, parliamentarians and policymakers remain schtum, it’s ordinary people who continue to step up to do what they must, determined to keep going.

That could be opening up outside opening hours for a gin tasting at Grundheim, outside Oudtshoorn, where the boegoeblits and African botanicals-infused vermouth is something else. 

About the same distance as Calitzdorp from Oudtshoorn, but the other way, in De Rust, rugby great Morné du Plessis was part of Sunday lunch at Pluim.

It was a buffet, a very far cry from that mayonnaise-laden 1980s abuse of taste buds, in the restaurant, art gallery and lifestyle venue started in December 2021 by a local farmer’s son, Andries Schoeman, who returned to the area with partner Jan Berand Badenhorst to help boost the local economy and jobs. And that’s what happened, stretching also down the value chain as Pluim is already some two-thirds of the way to using 100% local produce. This from-farm-to-­table approach epitomises local is ­lekker.

But in October, the dorpie’s state of affairs took a turn for the worse – 16 jobs were lost when the local general dealer closed. And the two ATMs operated by separate banks apparently were removed post-haste. The ripple effect is multifold, and devastating in ways the politicians, parliamentarians and policymakers cannot, or wish not, to consider.

De Rust grant recipients must now find the money to travel to Oudtshoorn – a 70km round trip – to access the support, as little as the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant. Depending on the transport, that trip can cost up to 40% of the grant.

Not only is less money available to put food on the table, it also means less money in circulation for the De Rust economy that extends from the posh main road into the dusty back streets.

But people make plans. And those who can, do so not just for themselves and their dreams, but also for jobs and an impact in their communities. 

That must be celebrated. DM168  

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.