Tag Archives: Johannesburg

A Ripple of Hope – Reflections on Robert Kennedy’s 1966 visit to South Africa

13 August 10 0 Comments

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For many years, an old LP recording of a speech by Robert Kennedy in Cape Town in 1966 lay around our family home. I never realised its significance until I saw RFK in the Land of Apartheid – A Ripple of Hope at the opening night of the…

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2020 Olympic Bid: Next big thing or red herring?

29 June 10 2 Comments

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Cape Town is already a popular global and local events city – think Design Indaba, Cycle Tour, Jazz Festival, CT Carnival, World Economic Forum, Mining Indaba,  etc - and we have strengthened our reputation by helping to host a successful Football World Cup. We need now to be planning how to bid for more sporting and cultural events in…

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Our Cities Ourselves

25 June 10 0 Comments

Our Cities Ourselves is the title of an imaginative new exhibition that opened yesterday in New York, which shows visions for ten cities, mainly in the developing world, from ten leading architects. The exhibition, which is organised by the respected Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, is themed around sustainable transport…

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Don’t write off the Joburg inner city

17 May 10 0 Comments

It’s become convention wisdom in certain quarters to write off the Johannesburg inner city, especially amongst those who haven’t been there for a long time. I’ve got a meeting next week with Lael Bethlehem, who heads up the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) and her team, so I’m hoping to catch up on…

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Why Cape Town works

09 May 10 1 Comment

The Cape Town Central City features very positively in a recent article by Alan Cameron at iafrica.com entitled ‘Why Cape Town works’. The article is based partly on comparisons between the Cape Town Central City and the Johannesburg and Durban CBDs.

Many of the subsequent responses from readers to the…

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Mandela’s release February 1990

08 February 10 0 Comments

Twenty years ago, on 11 February 1990, I watched Nelson Mandela’s release on a small TV in our rented house in Isidingo Road in Yeoville, Johannesburg. I had moved from Cape Town to Johannesburg in 1989, with my wife Nike Romano to work for an NGO called Planact. I remember getting highly irritated with…

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