People

Town residents

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Around 1 000 residents make their home in Nieu Bethesda,. Sixty or so live in the central area and about 900 in the township extension, Pienaarsig. Nieu Bethesda is home to a growing [...]

Athol Fugard

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Athol Fugard (1932-) is a playwright, novelist, actor and director, best known for his anti-apartheid plays. His most renowned plays, including “Boesman and Lena” and “Sizwe Bansi is Dead”, have been produced internationally. [...]

Bruce Rubidge

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Prof. Bruce Rubidge is director of the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research at the University of the Witwatersrand. Bruce inherited his passion for fossils from his grandfather, Dr. Sidney Rubidge, who farmed [...]

James Kitching

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Palaeontologist James Kitching (1922–2003) was considered one of the world’s best fossil finders. Kitching grew up in Nieu Bethesda, where his father was a road gang supervisor. At the tender age of 6, [...]

Frans Boekkooi

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Frans Boekkooi was introduced to sculpture at the age of fourteen and won his first major sculpture award (ATKV) at sixteen. He received the ‘Best on Show’ Award at the 2000 EPSAC Annual [...]

Princess Irene

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Princess Irene Emma Elisabeth of the Netherlands (1939-) is the sister of current Dutch monarch, Queen Beatrix. In 1999, the nature-loving royal bought a farm outside of Nieu Bethesda and turned it into [...]