Between reunions and responsibilities, ODA, Paul Murray, was one of the invited speakers at the recent Etienne Van Heerden Literary Festival held in Cradock.  In the photograph above he is with Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi who together with Mpush Ntabeni, held a debate on the topic of "On land, constitutional law and social justice".

The Theme of the Conference/Festival was the land and agriculture in South Africa.  

The town Cradock situated on the Great Fish River is the venue each year.  

For a full list of persons participating and their bios, CLICK HERE.

Paul spoke on the topic of Cradock as a garrison town.  He discussed his topic from the perspective of Big History tracing the story back to the time when the Great Fish River was formed and how the area and land has subsequently been contested by the different groups who came there over the centuries. 

Other speakers included political analyst Christi van der Westhuizen, Associate Professor and Senior Researcher and head of the Research Programme at CANRAD at the Nelson Mandela University in Qgeberha (Port Elizabeth) and Frans Rautenbach, who spoke on the topic of "How to fix South Africa’s broken economy", author of Help Yourself South Africa. 

For the programme and to see if this might be an event you would like to attend next year, CLICK HERE.

Should you want an outline of this very interesting talk by Dr Murray, please email him at [email protected] for a copy.