Waar Ruwe Rotse

Waar Ruwe Rotse ("where ragged rocks") is the title of an Afrikaans poem by C.M. van den Heever ()[], about a father who is forced to shoot his own son when they cannot free him from a crevice he has fallen into.

The tale appears to have been based on a well-known legend in various mountainous areas of South Africa. The basic theme of the poem has been dramatised and used in novels and stories a number of times.

There have been at least two dramatised versions:

Waar Ruwe Rotse a stage play by Valerea Jonker (circa 2000)

The original text

A stage version of the tale, set in a courtroom where Ben Stander, is being tried for the murder of his son. The play was written as a playwriting exercise in the drama course of the Stellenbosch Drama Department. A copy of the text was found in the departmental archives in 2022.

Kolskoot Visagie, a radio drama by Christopher Joynt (2018)

The original text

A fictional radio drama, that tells the tragic story of Barend Visagie and his son Willie set in the Swinburne region in 1948.

Originally written by Christopher Joynt as a short story for his grandchildren, which he then reworked as a radio drama for RSG.

The play was broadcast by RSG 14 Junie 2018, directed by Renske Jacobs, with Paul Luckhoff, Luan Jacobs, Ria Smit, Jacques Bosch and Lochner de Kock.

Sources

https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waar_ruwe_rotse

A copy of the text of the Jonker play, found in the Stellenbosch Drama Department archives in 2022.

"Aangrypende ‘Kolskoot Visagie’ is geskoei op tragiese volkslegende", RSG archival website[1]

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