Tag Archives: Nelson Mandela

Come rain or come shine… we walk the city to discover our history

28 August 10 2 Comments

IMG_1415 - Copy

I took a group of 25 international journalists on a walking tour of the Cape Town Central City this morning. The weather was awful, a typical wet Cape winter’s day, but true to our motto – we walk, come rain or shine – we set off in good spirits. The group is…

Read More

Cape Town Squared (or how some of our most valuable public assets are not being properly used)

20 July 10 5 Comments

zebra2

Do you remember the popular zebra artworks dotted around public spaces in Cape Town during the World Cup? Well, they’ve now migrated to the Artscape Piazza on the Foreshore.

The 33 zebras form an exhibition entitled ‘Not all is Black and White’, by the World for All…

Read More

Fan Walk tradition continues as Mandela Day is celebrated in Cape Town Central City

19 July 10 2 Comments

Ubuntu5

Citizens spontaneously reactivated the 2010 Fan Walk yesterday to say no to xenophobia and happy birthday to Nelson Mandela. Bravo to Charly’s Bakery for taking the lead, and to everyone who took part.

The Ubuntu Festival in Upper St George’s Mall was also a great success. The Festival, which focuses…

Read More

Cape Town Fan Walk lives on through citizen action on Mandela Day, 18 July

15 July 10 0 Comments

Mandela Day2

Jacquie Biess is a Capetonian who enjoyed the experience of walking the Fan Walk during the 2010 World Cup. Now she is doing it again for a cause.

On Mandela Day, Sunday, 18 July, Jacquie and her three daughters, all of Charly’s Bakery in the East City, will be on the…

Read More

2010 World Cup: More of an afterglow than a hangover!

12 July 10 3 Comments

WC final Long St2

What better place to say farewell to the 2010 World Cup than in Upper Long Street? I watched the gut-wrenching final between Holland and Spain with friends and family at Long Street Cafe.

Long Street has been the epicentre of the Cape Town late night World Cup party for the…

Read More

“We won the French!”

22 June 10 1 Comment

You would swear from the reaction of the crowd in the streets after the Bafana-French match that we were through to the next round. Everyone was beaming, blowing vuvuzelas, and dancing up and down with great pride. My best moment was when a stranger came up to me in Long Street and shouted…

Read More

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…

Read More

Cape Town Central City: Reclaiming people’s spaces (part one)

03 December 09 5 Comments

When Jan Gehl, world-renowned architect who focuses on ’life between buildings’ visited in 2004, he described pedestrians in Cape Town as a ‘hunted race’. He was right. Thanks to grievous urban planning errors in the 1970s, a six-lane race track called Strand Street intersects with an eight-lane monstrosity called the Heerengracht, creating…

Read More

Strengths and convictions

25 November 09 0 Comments

Strengths and convictions

Queen Sonja of Norway today opened an exhibition entitled “Strengths and Convictions: The life and times of the South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureates” at the South African National Galley in the Company’s Gardens, Cape Town. The exhibition, which is curated by Gavin Jantjies, consists of portrait photographs, seven short…

Read More