by Rudi Riek

This past weekend the Northern Cape gave us a taste of its people’s excitement for the BLOODHOUND project. On Friday 17 September the Northern Cape held its tourism excellence awards in Upington and the BLOODHOUND representatives attended as honoured guests. MEC (Member of the Executive Council) John Block, the MEC for Finance, Economic development and Tourism and the current chairperson of the ANC in the Northern Cape, also known as ‘Mr BLOODHOUND’, was the host of this event.  He singled the BLOODHOUND project out as one of the most beneficial projects the Northern Cape has ever hosted.

Having been treated as near royalty at the gala event, we were quite speechless when we travelled to the annual spring celebrations on Saturday morning held on Hakskeenpan for the first time in history.

When travelling from Upington one drives over many Kalahari sand dunes before reaching the pan, and having travelled this road many times I got an instant lump in my throat when I saw the pan appear over the last dune because unlike the expected vast expanse of nothing one normally sees, we were greeted with a sea of activity in the distance.

Marquee tents, no less than six busses, hundreds of vehicles and in excess of three thousand people had gathered on the pan. About five hundred children of all ages were running around with toffee apples and other sweets, all wearing BLOODHOUND T- Shirts. In the one corner there was a donkey cart car park with ten or so donkey carts and not too far from there an area where horses used as transport to reach the event were kept. Many jumping castles for the kids and informal traders with locally produced curios and food lined up along the fence. In the centre of the area was a thirty foot screen specially brought in to display the BLOODHOUND animation. A beautifully decorated VIP catering area with Kalahari red sand as flooring and grass walls sat adjacent to the marquee tent that had seating for about one thousand people.

There was an instant tangible buzz present from the moment we climbed out of the car. These people, the people of Mier, had never dreamt that their pan, always there and not really of much use to them in the past, would now become a beacon of hope, an asset that will put them in the eye of the world, and a way to put food on their tables for many years to come. You could see it on the faces of the smallest little boy and the oldest granny. They knew that this event marked the beginning of the inevitable change that is on its way. The project is real, and even though America or Russia might have seemed light years away before, you could see that they knew that soon every Russian and American and Brit will have to learn how to pronounce “Hakskeenpan”

If ever anyone doubted the Northern Cape government’s commitment before, this event was a clear indication that they are not only willing and able to produce the goods, but that they understand the enormity of this project and what it will mean to its people.

Local celebrities entertained the crowds and many of the Northern Cape cabinet members attended including the MEC for Finance, Economic development and Tourism (‘Mr BLOODHOUND’), the MEC for Environmental Affairs and Nature Conservation, the Speaker of the Northern Cape legislature and many other honoured guests.

One of the highlights of the day was an aerial display by Skydivers with BLOODHOUND banners attached to themselves. The community has embraced BLOODHOUND and I felt truly honoured to be part of such an amazing upliftment opportunity. In the months to come we will employ close to 50 people in the fence erection phase and more than 300 people in the stone and dirt road removal project. The guest houses and lodges and filling stations and supermarket and local artists and just about every other community member are all gearing up for 2012. In addition, with the help of the Northern Cape Education department at least two students from the Mier community will join the group of twelve school children throughout the Northern Cape that will be flown to Bristol next year to see the construction process of Bloodhound.

The budgets have been approved, the Environmental management plan is in progress and we will without a doubt have the fence erected and the dirt road removed before the rain season starts. As soon as the pan is dry enough in 2011 we will start the stone removal and we will be ready for the hound’s arrival in 2012.