Koringberg is a lovely place, yet somewhat odd. You’ll find no fuel, banks, police station, sewerage system, tourist destinations, quaint spots for browsing, restaurants or coffee shops here – that’s if you don’t count the Desert Rose Farm Stall at the turn-off from the N7.
But everyone who appreciates vast, open vistas falls in love at first sight with the beautiful view across the Swartland wheatfields towards Piketberg. It is a landscape that compels you to notice every season: In winter, lush green waves of wheat stretch into the distance; in late spring, they transform into yellow breakers of ripe wheat ears, and in the scorching, dry summer and autumn, the apocalyptic brown stubble fields haunt your feverish dreams, in which you yearn for a thunderstorm to bring some relief.
Wheat, sheep and cattle are farmed in the area, together with wine and export table grapes along the Berg River, about 8km north of Koringberg. In the village itself, there are only two small general stores (one with a slow ATM), operated by Bangladeshis, a basic liquor store, grain silos, and an Omnia factory and depot. Newcomers are usually horrified in spring and summer when several “Biblical plagues” strike the village – from midges, flies and stinkbugs that turn up once the wheat has been harvested, to scorpions, red romans (haarskeerders) and other spiders, and snakes.
“What the hell does one do here?” is the question most often heard by Koringbergers, and most have learnt to reply: “Absolutely nothing – or anything that you want to”.
On the eve of the 100th birthday of both the local NG church and the town, Koringberg certainly is a far more cosmopolitan place than 100 years ago – people from the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Malawi, Bangladesh and Malaysia have made their homes here.
Yet by far the majority of inkommers are still South Africans from Cape Town or other provinces – and the number are bound to increase fast, warns Johann Bester, who bought the Desert Rose Farm Stall in 2019, along with his wife, Ancil, and his sister Karin Bester. At the time they had been considering emigration. (The farm stall was voted runner-up in the radio station KFM’s farm stall competition last year, and the Besters have also bought the historic Dunn’s Castle Guesthouse outsite Piketberg.)
The Besters, who all grew up in Theunissen in the Free State, have owned the Port St Johns River Lodge on the banks of the Umzimvubu River on the Wild Coast for more than 15 years.
Many National Geographic photographers have stayed there while capturing the annual sardine run, and the place is currently on the market.
“I get the feeling that people in the Western Cape live in a naïve bubble, because they don’t understand what it’s like to live without water for seven weeks. They don’t know about the scale of the potholes and decay, the break-ins and beggars at traffic lights that people in other parts of the country want to avoid. All these new arrivals will place massive pressure on the infrastructure,” Johann says.
On the other hand, he can’t understand why people complain about newcomers who may do things differently but bring money and opportunities with them, which is an asset to any town or
