By Michelle October What a time to be alive, students revolting and the flames of rebellion licking at the doors of the colonisers. The Rhodes Must Fall movement’s reignited its efforts and burning historic artworks at the University of Cape Town. This activism could just as easily be airlifted and placed outside Parliament’s doors because […]
Cape Town
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle, Media, News/Politics, Tech
Mum and the stolen iPhone – iRest my case
(Continued from here) What I know is this: on January 12 2015 my friend the Diplomat left his iPhone unattended for five minutes, someone nicked the phone and a week later the “new owner” replaced the phone’s cloud data with his own phone book. Whoever is now in the possession of the phone has a […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle, News/Politics, Tech
Mum and the stolen iPhone
Over the weekend I met up with my friend the Diplomat and he presented me with an opportunity that I could not resist. We had not chatted since December when he spent his holidays in Cape Town and it was time to catch up. Although his time in the Mother city delivered on all the […]
Posted inEquality, General
Racism in SA is real and it matters
By Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar We have seen the distractions all around us. We have been confronted with a great deal of flash but not much substance: from the protection orders urgently brought (and then discharged), to the newsletters from Helen Zille to the battle between a Chester and Ms Zille. However, this sideshow distracts us […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
Naming, shaming and drug policy in Cape Town
Approximately six months ago, the City of Cape Town began a poster campaign, explicitly aimed at highlighting the prevalence and social consequences of drug use in the city. The posters all feature a stern-looking local celebrity – most often Chester Williams, Patricia de Lille, and Ian Bredenkamp – with the following bold words: I am […]
Posted inEquality, News/Politics
Confessions of a not-so-proud Capetonian
By Nicola Soekoe Okay, I said it. I’m from Cape Town and, sure, I love the place, but still my reply to the come-from question usually takes the form of: “My family is from Joburg, but I live in Cape Town.” Four years ago when I first went abroad alone Cape Town wasn’t the sexy […]
Posted inGender violence
The Cape Flats’ gangster women
By Dariusz Dziewanski Gangsterism on the Cape Flats is typically thought of a man’s game. But women have always played an important role in gangs — in the Western Cape and elsewhere in the world. Victimisation surveys estimate that 60% to 70% of serious violent crime on the Cape Peninsula may be gang-related. Authorities approximate […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
A small story of kindness
“My name’s Martin,” he said as we crossed Bree Street. It was around 9.20pm on Thursday night, and dark. In La Parada, the beautiful people were busy eating tapas and enjoying wine. I was neither beautiful nor successful; I had lost my parking ticket and I was a mess. A lost ticket costs R90 at […]
Posted inEquality, General, News/Politics
Protest and phatic communication: An account of a South African conversation
“Are you going to write about this week’s protests?”, the writer asks as the waitress takes away his empty plate from the table in the Newlands restaurant where they have been enjoying a sunny Cape Town Sunday lunch. “No”, the professor of private law replies tersely. “What’s the use?”, he thinks to himself, before continuing: […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
I love and hate Mitchell’s Plain
By Kirk Krotz This has been one of the most interesting weeks of my life. I posted a music video on YouTube last week about my experience of growing up in Mitchell’s Plain and, for reasons unknown to me, the video has gone viral with over 200 000 hits. For the first time in my life […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Neoliberalism: ‘Stop thinking because this is it’
“What is neoliberalism?” The young American student looks at me with faux innocence of the wide-eyed sort. She’s not sure what it is. “Can you explain?” Sniggers precede and succeed the question. With that little question-and-snigger, neoliberal hegemony re-iterates its reach across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, by way of that island that formerly […]
Posted inMedia
Free Mandela forever Cape Town
This last week, the fabulous young South African and increasingly world-renowned artist Faith47, posted an online petition to ask the City of Cape Town to please reconsider their decision NOT to restore the well-known and loved FREE MANDELA slogan on the wall of a cemetery in the suburb of Observatory. The slogan, that has been […]