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A tea towel on your lap, a thermos of coffee and a boiled egg for sun protection: 90-year-old editor Frans Hugo begins a 1,200-kilometer weekly trip across South Africa’s Karoo Desert to deliver newspapers. increase.
A cheerful old man is used to it. In this way, he can make the most of his time in this country and make the most of his time in the world.A population of 3,000 in the middle of this vast wilderness in the south of the country. A reliable sedan is needed for this long trip from Calvinia, a town of less.
If he stopped, his Afrikaans newspapers – The Messenger, Die Noordwester, Die Oewernuus – would probably disappear with him.
His little transistor mounted on a steering wheel, a car radio long since surrendered, he starts a loop northeast, then south … “I stop in every little town,” he said on a recent tour. I confided to AFP inside.
Departs 1 hour 30 minutes and returns 18 hours later. It’s time to deposit the battery in many areas with the help of a cane. Some of them have seen a recent influx of new residents, artists, loners, or originals escaping the hustle and bustle of the big city.
Like France, many here express themselves openly and simply. Living in such a remote location requires autonomy and resourcefulness. A little eccentricity doesn’t hurt.
In Karoo, we talk about a “pump donkey” which is a regular motion water pump that empties the tank. “I’ve become a Pondonkey myself. I’ll start every week like a metronome. I’ll stop when I can’t physically do it anymore,” he predicts.
Born in Cape Town in 1932, he worked as a journalist there for about 20 years, then in neighboring Namibia for 10 years. “We worked day and night. We moved to Karoo because we couldn’t handle the pressure,” he says.
– Surviving Decline –
“I was gasping when the owner of the print shop in Calvinia came up to me and asked if I was interested.My daughter was. I ended up not doing it,” he says with an amused wink.
Messenger was founded in 1975, and two other local newspapers were founded in the early 1900s. France, his wife and three of his employees continue this legacy at a time when so many newspapers around the world are struggling to survive in the digital age.
Written in Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s 11 official languages, these eight-page weekly magazines, inherited from Dutch settlers, sometimes carry English-language newspapers and advertisements.
With his white mane and face like an old sea dog, Frans is haunted by people who read his news online. “The newspaper’s circulation is declining, but he says there is still a need for his news locally, as he has 1,300 a week.
His newsroom looks like a museum with an old Heidelberg printing press and a guillotine (a paper cutting machine called a guillotine here) that has been abandoned in favor of computers for the past 30 years.
He says he’s not worried about the future of his small press group. “I don’t know what will happen in 5 years, 10 years, but I’m not worried.”
Actress Charlize Theron sparked a scandal in South Africa last November after claiming that only “about 44 people” speak her native Afrikaans.
On the contrary, the survival of his beloved newspaper shows that the isolated inhabitants of this semi-desert Karoo need to stay connected. Always receive news on
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