uMngeni SPCA had a wonderful Mothers’ Day Fête at the SPCA Centre on 11th May. Thank you to all who helped make it a success.

In mid-June Jenna from Piggly Wiggly organized a Dog Walk on a Sunday and the event was well attended and raised R4000 for our SPCA. Thank you very much to Jenna and Piggly Wiggly for your thoughtfulness. It is hugely appreciated.

The annual Hill’s 1000 Paws Walk will be held at Hilton College on Sunday 14 July 2019. Please would you consider being a volunteer for the event and contact Mr Atholl Midgley on 083 520 5860 should you wish to render your services.

 The Caledonian Pipe Band will be at the Hills 1000 Paws Walk on Sunday 14 July at the Hilton College. Do come to the event and enjoy a day out together with your pet dog. 

uMngeni SPCA Annual General Meeting is to be held at a new venue, being the Amberglen Sanctuary at 2pm on Saturday 27th July. Please produce your ID or driver’s licence at the gate for access into Amberglen.

Extracted from uMngeni SPCA newsletter.

Crispy Bacon, Feta and Mushroom Risotto

Alex Poltera, executive-chef and co-owner at Fern Hill Hotel in the KZN Midlands has a lovely Winter warming recipe to share.

Winter is by far, my favourite time of the year, I just love the cold weather and the opportunity to eat warm, filling dishes in front of the fire whilst sheltering under a blanket with a glass of red wine. In preparation for winter, I will be doing some wonderfully wholesome, proper comfort food dishes. This is my recipe for a simple and delicious crispy bacon, feta and mushroom risotto – it feeds four people and should take five minutes of prep time, followed by thirty minutes of cooking time.

You will need:

1 onion, finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
100g butter
2 sprigs of rosemary
4 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed
½ cup white wine
½ cup red wine
1 cup Arborio or Carneroli rice (Risotto rice)
8 -10 portobellini mushrooms, quartered
6 rashers of bacon, diced
2-3 litres of chicken stock
50g butter
Parmesan cheese
Feta cheese

Start by heating your stock to a simmer. You can use homemade or shop-bought stock, but beware the saltiness of stock cubes. For convenient stock, I sometimes use the Woolworths liquid stock sachets as these produce a flavoursome and not over-salty result.
Heat a large saucepan and place your 100g of butter in to melt. Add the onions and the garlic and reduce to allow them to sweat. Finely chop the rosemary and thyme and add it to the pan.
Once the onions and garlic have become glossy and soft, raise the heat and add in the rice. Coat the rice evenly in the butter, onions and garlic and stir continuously until the rice begins to toast a little. Immediately add in the white wine and stir, allowing it to reduce. Add in the red wine and repeat.
One the liquid level from the wine has dropped below the level of the rice, add in two small ladles of stock so that it just covers the rice. Stir every fifteen or so seconds and continue this process by allowing the liquid to reduce and topping up, while testing the rice for its ‘doneness’.
You will probably have to top up about six – seven times during the cooking. On the fifth time, add in the quartered mushrooms and one ladle of stock, as the mushrooms will release a lot of liquid too.
In a separate pan, crisp up the diced bacon until it has rendered all the fat into the pan and the pieces are completely golden and crisp. Pour this fat into the risotto and stir in. Keep the crispy bacon aside. (I do it this way instead of in the beginning as I want the bacon to remain crisp and still let the flavour from the fat get into the risotto without resulting in soggy bacon).
Once the rice is just about done, you will notice that when you bite into a grain, there is a small white, firm centre. This indicates that the dish is almost complete. Add in a little stock and stop stirring as frequently.
Once done, add in the 50g butter and stir in. Season liberally with salt and cracked black pepper to taste. It is imperative that the dish is seasoned at the end as due to the process of reduction, the saltiness of the stock would have intensified, so make sure you taste along the way!
Add in a handful of grated parmesan and stir in.
To serve, sprinkle with feta, the crispy bacon, more thyme leaves and parmesan.

News supplied by Fern Hill Hotel.

Sakabula Golf Courses new membership year starts on 1 July 2019.

Sakabula offers great membership deals with flexible payment options and long running specials which really makes golf affordable.

The unique thing about Sakabula is that we are a full 18 Hole Golf Course – the only one in the Midlands. The two nines are very different from each other with the first nine featuring broad fairways, but with slope playing a part in the challenge. The second nine is over flat and level ground, around our dams and wetland, offering a new challenge. The Golf course is spread over 67 hectares of parkland, with views of the mountains in the distance and is privately owned.

We are only 2kms off the N3, exit 99, onto the R617 Underberg Road, so very conveniently located. The Golf Course is surrounded by the Sakabula Country Estate which are small holdings, with small scale farming, so seeing horses, sheep etc, creates a relaxed country atmosphere, before the Golf even begins. There are reedbuck and duiker as well as other small wildlife and a large variety of birds, especially in the wetland, which Golfers see on their way around the Course.

The Clubhouse offers all day breakfasts, toasted sandwiches and the like, which can be enjoyed on the balcony, with clear views of the 9th and 18th holes, the dams and mountains in the distance. From the top of the Course one can see Midmar Dam and all the way to the Drakensberg, with snow covered mountains in winter.

We have a practice Driving Range and Putting Green, with a bucket of balls costing a Visitor R50. Membership is available, which offers discounted rates for Golf and Cart Hire and the option of Unlimited Green Fees resulting in huge savings. Competitions are held each week with Senior Men playing on a Monday morning and a General competition on a Saturday morning. Monthly mug is played on the first Saturday of each month and Club Champs is in May/June. We have a League team participating once a month, in the Midlands League competitions, rotated through the Midlands Clubs. Our current Members range from the youngest (8 yrs) to the oldest (87yrs), covering all categories.

The Winter days are gorgeous, make the most of them, pop in soon and find out more.

News supplied by Sakabula Golf Course.

Amazing Animals Bush Daycare

Wessa Umngeni Valley Nature Reserve.

24th till 28th July.

8.30am till 12.30.

The cost is R525.00 for 5 days or R125 per day.

The price includes crafts, games,snacks,interesting lessons and an interactive lesson on global wildlif welfare hosted by FREEME.

Booking is essential.

News supplied by Wessa Umngeni Valley Nature Reserve.

WHAT CAN I DO?

No matter how small your action, Mandela Day is about changing the world for the better, just as Nelson Mandela did every day.
Every now and then we have to put back into our Howick Hospice House.
This year as part of our Mandela Wishlist we are asking local business and the community to help with this.

Our wishlist consists of this:
Upgrading our Remembrance Garden pavers, plants, bench, wooden screen.
An automated gate for our front entrance, shipping container for storage space.
Shelves for inside and paint for outside.
TLC for our kitchen- cupboards and flooring upgrades.

To help give back please contact
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

News supplied by Howick Hospice.

Eat at Andrew's are hosting a Father's Day Lunch.

Beef and Guiness Pot Pie served with chips and salad.

Booking is essential.

News supplied by Eat at Andrew's

Join Funda Nenja on the 15th June at 9 am for a short course on "How to make an eco-brick" at Zamthule School. 
Funda Nenja are building the first eco-brick house in the area to provide deserving children with a safe home.

Such an exciting project to be part of!

More info +27(0)61 467 6612.

News supplied by Funda Nenja.

The children at Heritage House Preschool have spent a very busy time with their teachers this term, creating wonderful South African articles most of which were made out of recycled material.

Their imaginative artwork was exhibited at the Royal Show and won many prizes: 2 x Special Awards, 18x 1st, 13x 2nd, 1x 3rd, 1x Highly Commended, 1x Best Exhibit using recycled material, The Louise Win Trophy awarded to Rorke Warren for runner-up in the craft section and The Leonard Line Junior Inter-School Floating Trophy awarded for the Junior School who won the most points.

Sadly not many Preschools take part in this anymore, it would be good to see more schools involved next year. Well done, we are very proud of all the children for their effort and enthusiasm.

Pictured above: Heritage House Preschoolers with their artwork.

News supplied by Heritage House Preschool.

A safe and beautiful Howick Falls area, having the wonderful potential to becoming a destination/ place of choice for tourists, visitors and local families, friends and individuals.

This is possible through voluntary participation in exciting and innovative projects between individual members of the community, the business sector, government, private security industry, churches, schools, media, non-profit organisations, community based organisations, and specific interest groups, etc.

A huge, positive difference can be made through 60 minutes or more of volunteerism, materials and supplies and/ or monetary donations (once off or monthly). Since November 2016, a number of action steps have already been taken to improve the area. Opportunities abound for further improvements.

The partnership projects identified are considered support to the uMngeni Municipality and South African Police Service, and not intended to replace or take over any service related function.

PROJECTS TO GET INVOLVED IN

Boom: For placement at the vehicle entrance to the grass area of Goddard Park to prevent unauthorised vehicles from entering and driving on the grass of the park. This is to ensure the safety of pedestrians: Donate or sponsor

Car-guards/ Vehicle parking attendants: A registration and monitoring system. Consideration can also be given for him/ her to be 'adopted', thereby helping to transform their life

Crime Safety ambassador: Serve as one

Green teams: Helping to improve the environment through landscaping, gardening, picking up litter, other identified action steps

Identification clothing for car-guards/ vehicle parking attendants, street patrollers, etc (specially designed): Donate or sponsor

Litter-bins: Donate or sponsor a litter-bin

Love Howick t-shirts for use by volunteers: Donate or sponsor

Magnetic stickers for vehicles used for street patrol, support: Donate or sponsor

Painting team for infrastructure upgrades

Pamplets/ brochures: Welcome tourists and residents to Howick Falls and publish requested behavior to ensure safety, order and beauty prevails. Donate or sponsor

Pamplet/ brochure distribution to visitors. Volunteers needed.

Patrols: Daytime, Monday to Sunday (walking, bicycle, motor cycle, vehicle, etc) to monitor, make observations, report unlawful, suspicious, dodgy behavior by persons and recommend solutions to minimise such behavior

Portable flashing amber lights for temporary use on patrol support vehicles: Donate or sponsor

Red flags: For use in conjunction with traffic cones - to warn approaching drivers of vehicles to exercise caution: Donate or sponsor

Renovate a verge/ 'adopt-a-spot'

Road safety: Identify and mimize risks

Rock: Supply and delivery of large rocks for placement between cement bollards of Goddard Park. This is to prevent vehicles from entering and driving on the grass of the park, thereby ensuring the safety of pedestrians

Shelters of crafters/ artists at the view-site: Renovation

Signage and display boards: Donate or sponsor

Toilets: Pay system and Renovation of existing building, namely roof

Tourism Safety Action Group (TSAG): Howick Falls precinct. A sub-forum of the Howick Community Police Forum (ongoing): Participation

Traffic cones: x 20, 750 mm height (10 x fluorescent, dayglo orange cones and x 10 fluorescent, lime-yellow cones, all with white reflective strips): To safeguard and cordon off areas when the need arises: Donate or sponsor

News supplied by Love Howick.

Care Bear Project's Lidgetton knitters have been really busy this month, they made 225 bears!!!
That’s over R11 000 paid to their community this month and 225 beautiful smiles from children who will receive these bears.

News supplied by Care Bear Project.

Midmar Building Supplies are proud to be supplying building material for the development of new property in St John's Village Lifestyle and Retirement Estate in Howick.

Their materials are being used by Tamasa Developments to construct new homes. MBS has supplied products ranging from blocks and bricks, to various types of stone for construction.

Midmar Group is the umbrella company for Midmar Crushers, Taylors Halt Quarry, Midmar Concrete Products, Midmar Building Supplies and Malleo Equipment.

Directly focused on the building and construction trade, our companies are able to provide building solutions from start to finish by producing a variety of stone products from our quarry Midmar Crushers, whom have been in operation for 20 years, as well as Taylor’s Halt Quarry situated in Edendale, Pietermaritzburg. Concrete products are produced directly from our Midmar Concrete Products yard, and our building trade depot Midmar Building Supplies provides a wide range of building materials and hardware products.

News supplied by Midmar Building Supplies.

Have you got a special birthday or important anniversary to celebrate?

Evening functions in Fern Hill Hotel's stunning Orange Tree Room are always beautiful.

One of our most popular venues by far. Perfect for small to medium functions.

For more information contact Lulu on 033 330 5071.

News supplied by Fern Hill Hotel.

With systemic poverty and unemployment on the rise in our community, the Love Howick Dream Centre was birthed to break the cycle of poverty, by equipping and empowering the unemployed with employability and entrepreneurial skills needed to support themselves and their families. Using the ‘Work for a Living’ programme developed by Siya Sebenza, the Dream Centre runs various training programmes aimed at addressing the barriers to entering the job market, as well as overcoming the skills deficit present in our labour force. Through lectures, role playing, assignments and mentorships, this programme has a proven track record around South Africa of producing employable adults who have strong work ethic and a passion for excellence, integrity and commitment in the workplace. Some examples of courses on offer include: merchandising, cashiers, computer literacy, waitering, barista training, welding, office management and entrepreneurship. Please see www.siya-sebenza.co.za for further information on courses and see for yourself how students graduating from this programme are sought out by industry leaders.

As the Dream Centre celebrates its first anniversary this month, it has been incredible to see how many lives this project as impacted:
• Total of 140 students have completed the Work for a Living Job Readiness Programme with the biggest class recorded being 27 students in June 2019
• During the 3 week Work for a Living programme, each student completes a total of 24 volunteer hours. This means that a total of 3360 volunteer hours have been served by our students to support the local economy
• Of these 140 students, 55% of them have managed to find employment with many positive reviews from employers about the calibre and integrity of our students
• 50 students have completed the Computer Literacy Course
• 50 students have completed the Office Administration Course

We are excited about the future and thank all our volunteers for their generous support of this project. We are looking to increase the number of Job Skills Courses we offer in the coming months, with the addition of training for waiters, merchandisers and cashiers.

The Dream Centre is in urgent need of good quality computers for its various training programmes. If you would like to find out more about these programmes or how you can support us, please contact Ray Gumbo (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

 News supplied by Love Howick.

Funda Nenja is very excited about a groundbreaking community project initiated by Rene Morcom, a final year social worker placed with our organization. Rene is facilitating a team who will build an ecobrick house for a deserving Funda Nenja family who live in extreme poverty.

Last Saturday an ecobrick workshop was held at Zamuthule Primary School and was attended by a large number of enthusiastic people from both near and far.

Preparation of the building site has started and most of the items needed have been sourced. However, we are still needing about 1000 2l plastic bottles so if you have any lying around please drop them off at one of our collection points.

Back of the Rotunda in Hilton.
Mingle Mousse Pmb.
Howick Small Animal Veterinary Clinic

News supplied by Funda Nenja.

As we move into fire season , please remember our wildlife.

FREEME KZN is on hand to assist with any animals that may find themselves injured through this coming fire season.

Please give us a call should you need assistance in this regard.

FREEME KZN - 033 330 3036

News supplied by FREEME KZN.

Security Advice for the holiday season
• Advise the KSS Control Room if you are going away and ensure that you supply all the necessary information regarding key holders and emergency contacts.
• If you are hiring a house sitter, ensure that you teach them how to use your alarm system correctly. Also advise the KSS Control Room who they are and what their contact name and number is.
• Inform your neighbours of your plans.
• Stop all newspaper deliveries and ask a friend or neighbour to collect your post.
• Double check that you have locked and secured all windows and doors before leaving home. Always set your alarm.
• Ensure that all your out-buildings (garage, cottage, garden shed) and veranda are secured.
• Ensure that external PIR beams are in working order and cut away excess foliage near these external beams so that false alarms are not triggered.
• Have good exterior lighting, preferably on a timer or movement sensitive.
• Make sure that your gate motor and battery are secured.
• Make your property “less desirable” to break into than those around you. Deflect the crime away from you.
• Create extra layers of protection around your house. Put up security gates, glass “smash” sensors on large panes of windows and external beams that can also be active while you are at home. All these options slow down criminals and also allow for early warning and detection.
• Be responsible for your OWN safety and security.
• Support local community crime projects or initiatives like the uMngeni Community Safety Initiative (UCSI).

UCSI NPC
Knight Security Solutions is PROUDLY affiliated to and working alongside the uMngeni Community Safety Initiative (UCSI) NPC. The UCSI has had numerous successes in the community with over 12 criminals and vehicles (stolen and other) being arrested and impounded since March this year. Without these ANPR SNIPR camera mounted gantries at our community access / egress locations, we would not have been any the wiser as to these criminals coming into our space.

Don’t become a victim of a crime where a vehicle is involved. Become a contributing member to the UCSI so that this local community camera network can continue to grow. Go to www.ucsi.org.za or like their Facebook page.

NOTE: Debbie Preston is NO LONGER employed at KSS (since October 2018) and has been working full-time on the UCSI community project. The UCSI is encouraging ALL Security Companies in the Community to come on board and affiliate to the UCSI so that TOGETHER with Law Enforcement we can ALL tackle crime.

Rotary Club of Hilton and Howick
The Rotary club of Howick and Hilton is working with the Rotary Cycle Project in South Africa, together with Bicycles for Humanity in the United States. A container of about 500 pink bicycles (20inch) has arrived by container in Durban and is ready to make its way up to Howick for us to distribute to our community schools.

But we need help. There are various costs involved in getting the container cleared at the harbour and then transported from Durban to Howick. Knight Security Solutions is going to donate R1500 towards this bicycle project with The Rotary Club of Howick and Hilton.

KSS would like to appeal to our clients (Private and Business) to come on board and help contribute towards getting this container of bicycles delivered to Howick. Rotary, together with the uMngeni Community Safety Imitative (UCSI) and KSS will ensure the safe distribution of bicycles to the various community schools.

The banking details for donations are:

Acc Name: Rotary Club of Howick
Bank: FNB
Br Code: 220725
Acc No: 52530790247

For more information, please contact Glynn Harborth on 0825744155 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

SAPS
Please report all incidents to SAPS – no matter how small.
The public are also encouraged to attend monthly CPF meetings:
• Mpophomeni – 1st Thursday of the month at 5pm at Mpophomeni Tourism. Next one 4 July 2019
• Hilton – 3rd Thursday of the month at 5.30pm at the Hilton Lions Hall. Next one 21 June 2019.
• Howick – Last Thursday of the month at 5.00pm at the Howick Police Station. Next one 28 June 2019.

For more information on any of the above, please contact Gary on 0828947628 and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Keshen on 0833935265 and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
News supplied by Knight Security Solutions.

Christmas in July - 28th July

Christmas in July is on the horizon and bookings are already filling up. We will be festively theming the entire carvery lunch and offering delicious Christmas treats such as turkey, gammon, mince pies, Mrs Poltera’s famous ginger vacherin.

Arrival drinks and live music will also be included. Price per person is R340, R320 pensioners and R170 kids aged 5-11 years old. Payment upfront is required to secure your booking.

To book please call us on 033 330 5071.

Email addresses are required to send invoices and menus to you.

News supplied by Fern Hill Hotel.

The Rotary club of Howick and Hilton is working with the Rotary Cycle Project in South Africa, together with Bicycles for Humanity in the United States. A container of about 500 pink bicycles (20inch) has arrived in Durban and is ready to make its way up to Howick for us to distribute to our community schools.

But we need help. There are various costs involved in getting the container cleared at the harbour and then transported from Durban to Howick. Knight Security Solutions is going to donate R1500 towards this bicycle project with The Rotary Club of Howick and Hilton.

KSS would like to appeal to our clients (Private and Business) to come on board and help contribute towards getting this container of bicycles delivered to Howick. Rotary, together with the uMngeni Community Safety Imitative (UCSI) and KSS will ensure the safe distribution of bicycles to the various community schools.

The banking details for donations are:

Acc Name: Rotary Club of Howick
Bank: FNB
Br Code: 220725
Acc No: 52530790247

For more information, please contact Glynn Harborth on 0825744155 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

News supplied by Knight Security Solutions.