A country of one-storey buildings

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Building materials yesterday had to be locally derived. Until the advent of the railway, there was no alternative. Compacted earth did the trick for the walls, lengths of bark (for tying), thatching grass for the roof and wood both for the roof and for the window and door frames with ochres being the locally derived equivalent of commercial paint.

These materials were used for building single chamber one storey round homes – rondavels. As used here, such materials would not have been suitable for anything higher.

But then there was no need and no demand for buildings of this kind. With the railway, however, came the first of the goods imported into this country, metal door and window frames, corrugated iron roofing, wire and probably most importantly, metal nails together with key tools such as axes, hammers and saws.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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