Heat olive oil and butter in a potjie or Dutch oven, and braise onions and red peppers until translucent. Remove from the pot and set aside. Add more oil and butter, if needed.
Next, roast ginger, rosemary, garlic cloves, Marsala, nutmeg, saffron, turmeric, whole cloves and cinnamon sticks in the pot until aromatic. Add brown sugar to caramelize, heating and cooking slowly with sugar, butter, oil or water until lightly browned, then remove from pot and set aside.
Add oil and butter as needed to brown lamb shanks. Add spices, onions, peppers and broth to shanks in the potjie and cook until almost tender—two to three hours. Add the dried fruit, chutney and orange peel, and cook until the meat is very tender.
Salt and pepper to taste. Add cold butter, the apricot jam and thyme. Serve with cooked rice.