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City Views: Discover Cape Town as a Literary City, June 2012
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CITYVIEWSYOUR FREE CAPE TOWN CENTRAL CITY PAPER June 2012
Cape Town as a
>> page 10&11
The future of publishing
>> page 4&5
The local publishing landscape
Mapping our city’s stories
>> page 6&7
LITERARY CITY
CLEAN | SAFE | CARING
2 about town June 2012CityViews
Read the latest e-dition: www.capetownpartnership.co.za/city-views
Friend us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/CityViewsCapeTown
Follow us on Twitter:@City_Views
CITY VIEWS ONLINECORRECTIONS
The editorial team at City Views endeavours to ensure all information published is up-to-date and correct. Occasionally errors slip in, however, despite out best efforts. For May 2012, please accept our apologies:
Regarding the CTICC expansion, the principal architect for the existing CTICC is Revel Fox, not Anya van der Merwe. Visit www.cticc.co.za for more information
Prices for the Castle of Good Hope are R28 for adults, R15 for South African pensioners, R12 for children between 5 and 12, with reduced rates on Sundays. Contact 021 787 1260 for more details.
Keep it clean: Our urban management• Road maintenance team
attended to over 470 defects
• R44 000 fi nes issued for illegal dumping
• 59% of waste recycled (approximately 39 tons)
• 99 potholes repaired• 133 paving repairs• 149 road signs repaired• 45 drains repaired• 205 road markings sites
painted• Over 20 tons of waste
removed from stormwater drains
• 715 gulley drains cleaned
Show you care: Our social develop-ment initiatives• 10 individuals were reu-
nited with their families • 8 individuals were
assisted medically and escorted to hospital
• 14 individuals were referred to Straatwerk to one of our job programmes
• 9 children were assisted and referred to SAPS and the Department of Social Development
• 34 adults were assisted and referred to various NGOs for services.
Stay safe:Our securityinterventions• Our current
response time is, on average, 2 minutes 30 seconds
• 235 criminal arrests• 46 medical callouts • 45 vehicle assistance• 358 public assistance• Re-establishment
of the Company’s Garden security steering committee
• R650 000 law enforcement fi nes issued (most of which were traffi c related)
Mid-April we received the following letter from “a grateful pensioner” in Sea Point – thanking the team at Tiger Wheel & Tyre.
“Driving along Strand Street I got a fl at tyre, I parked and walked to Tiger Wheel & Tyre. They were very busy but a mechanic gave up his lunch hour and came and changed my wheel, driving the car back to check the alignment, etc. When I asked the manager for my account, he said, ‘No charge, it was only a valve. It’s been a pleasure to help you!’ What a wonderful service and what super people. Thank you, Tiger Wheel & Tyre.”
The Central City Improvement Dis-trict is a private-public partnership formed by the property owners of a defi ned geographical area to pro-vide top-up services over and above what the City of Cape Town provides. The CCID and its managing agent, the Cape Town Partnership, were formed when the City of Cape Town, the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other stakeholders came together to address issues of urban degeneration, disinvestment in the Central City and related social problems. The Central City’s rapid regeneration process has been built upon the strength and pillars of suc-cessful private-public partnerships at both operational and strategic lev-els, and a shared vision for a clean, safe and caring Cape Town CBD.
SAVE THESE NUMBERS ON YOUR PHONE
CCID Security Manager: 082 453 2942
CCID Deputy Security Manager: 082 442 2112
CCID 24-hour number: 082 415 7127
SAPS Control Room: 021 467 8002
Social Department:082 563 4289
CITYVIEWS
Reading City ViewsWe love knowing who our read-
ers are and what they think. If you enjoy your copy of City Views, why not mail a picture
of you reading it, wherever you love to read it (Your local coffee shop? On a street bench while people-watching?) telling us what you enjoyed most. If we
like it, we’ll run it. Get in touch: [email protected].
Telling your story in City Views
City Views does not sell advertis-ing or editorial space at this time. We are, however, always on the look out for city ownership sto-
ries: tales of people who love the CBD, who choose to live, work, study, invest, and play here. If you would like to be featured,
please send your story to [email protected]
for consideration. Please note that submission of a story doesn’t guarantee that it will be included.
Distributing City Views
If you’re an eager reader of City Views – and you know others
who would enjoy reading it too, consider becoming a distri-
butor. All we need is your con-tact details, address and how many copies you need each
month. Or, if you would just like to track down where you can
obtain your FREE copy send an email to Aziza Patandin on
Green economy: Does it include you?5 June is World Environment Day and this year’s theme is all around the green economy – an economy that is low carbon, resource effi cient and socially inclusive (which means it defi nitely includes you). The CCID is committed to doing its part to keep Cape Town CBD clean and green, but to do so we need your help:
Why? Around R200-million is need-ed annually to clean up rubbish that is dumped illegally across the city. In the CBD itself approximately half a ton of illegal waste is collected by the CCID each month – at hotspots such as Long, Loop and Bree Streets and between Hans Strydom Avenue and Buitensingel Street. Illegal dumping has severe practical consequences for the CBD, which include clogged drains, the attrac-tion of rodents, cockroaches and health hazards.
What can you do to help us?
Contain itThe City of Cape Town collects residential waste from the green and black bins once a week during weekdays according to a scheduled programme. Residents, please place your waste containers outside your homes by no later than 06h00 to prevent any waste pile up.
Drop it offMake use of the nearest community facilities where you can drop off ex-cess waste and recyclables for free. The nearest large drop-off to the CBD is on Tramway Road, just off Regent Road in Sea Point.
Arrange collection Retailers, corporates and businesses need to make arrangements for
waste collection either by signing a service level agreement with the City or employing a private collec-tion company – as stipulated by the City’s By-Law. You must have enough bins to contain all your waste until collection day, or make arrangement to increase the frequency of your refuse collection. To make use of the City’s refuse collection services, contact them at [email protected] or 086 010 3089. If you’ve made an arrangement with a private service provider, please be sure to fax a copy of the agreement to 021 400 6215 or email [email protected].
Report itYou can report illegal dumping by calling the CCID hotline at 083 300 8328. And if any of your bins have been damaged or stolen, please re-
port it to 086 010 3089 for replace-ment (do note, though, that a SAPS case number is required).
Finally, visit the City of Cape Town’s website for tips and techniques on how to manage your waste: www.capetown.gov.za/en/Solidwaste2/Pages/default.aspx
Yours in the green economy, Tasso EvangelinosCOO of the CCID
Gratitude Attitude
CARING CITY
Everyday acts of kindness help transform Cape Town, and City Views would like to recognise those individuals who would otherwise continue doing good, but without thanks.
Tiger Wheel & Tyre33 Bree StreetT: 021 425 4683www.twt.co.za
Is there someone who has transformed your experience of the city? Write to us and tell us about it.
Published by:The Central City Improvement
District (CCID)
Editor:Judith Browne: 021 419 1881
Deputy Editor:Benita Kursan
Website:www.capetowncid.co.za
www.capetownpartnership.co.za
Design: Infestationwww.infestation.co.za
021 461 8601
Setting the stageA lot of work happens behind the scenes to keep Cape Town clean, safe, caring and open for business. Here’s a snapshot of the work of the CCID in just two months – March and April 2012.
Siwa Mkosi from Tiger Wheel & Tyre
A CCID maintenance team member at work
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3 about town June 2012 CityViews
CV What was Ingenuity’s primary mo-tivation for purchasing Newspaper House, and how have Capetonians responded to the sale? The property has always been a strategic component of the publishing industry and St George’s Mall, and it’s an integral part of Cape Town’s heritage, but it needed a facelift, and we were attracted by the opportunity to upgrade existing offi ce space, and convert what is main-ly old industrial space into an attractive retail and offi ce space. Overall the response from Ca-petonians has been extremely positive.
CV Newspaper House is a won-derful heritage building. How important has it been to retain the character of the building? We’ve added some modern twists that will endure and complement the rest of the premises, but our core focus was to main-tain the building’s distinctive character.
CV Apparently Independent News-papers will lease the top three fl oors of the building for the next twelve years. How important wasit to you to retain the publisher of the city’s oldest newspapers – the Cape Times and Cape Argus – as a key tenant?We defi nitely didn’t want to see the news-papers move out. So many cities lose their hearts when business moves out. It’s impor-tant to us that Newspaper House remains an integral part of the city’s unique landscape.
CV Could you talk us through some of the features of the development?The ground fl oor – which was previously the printing works – is being converted into
a retail space that will include an attractive double-volume mall. This area will house origi-nal artefacts from the building and points of interest relating to the city’s history of newspa-per publishing. We’re in discussion with some major national retailers for the bulk of the re-tail space, and a few selected niche players for the balance of the area. Part of the building is being redeveloped for parking and there’ll be a new walkway linking Greenmarket Square and the Mandela Rhodes complex.
CV Where is property development in the city centre headed? What is your vision for Cape Town in 2040?There has been a dramatic change to the face of the city over the last few years and a num-ber of key developments are still planned. The transport and infrastructure has been upgrad-
ed, making the city a unique place to work and play. It’s a city of great beauty and character. The city offi cials have certainly played their part to make things happen and to ensure that we will have a sustainable and attractive des-tination for people to work and live in. I hope that many corporations will recognise this and choose to make the city their place of choice.
Ingenuity is also the property group behind the Atlantic Centre on the Foreshore.
For more information, fi nd them on-line: www.ingenuityproperty.com
PUBLISHING HUB
Sandy Naudé, acting general manager of Independent Newspapers Cape, speaks about the signifi cance of the Cape Argus and Cape Times editorial teams staying in the city centre:
“The Cape Argus is more than 150 years old, and the Cape Times nearly 130, so it goes without saying that they’ve been
fundamental to the evolution of the city and its publishing industry, and it makes sense for their headquarters to remain in the city, at Newspaper House. Around 300 members of our editorial, advertising and management staff have stayed on in the building, while our presses have moved out, and printing has been outsourced to a plant in Parow.
We are very pleased to be staying in the city where our journalists have easy access to the provincial and city government buildings, the High Court and
Parliament, and advertising staff can walk out into St George’s Mall and rub shoulders with their clients from the business world.”
Watch the transformation of Newspaper House for yourself at 122 St George’s Mall, and take the opportunity to pick up a Cape Argus or Cape Times for yourself, and read it cover to cover at a local coffee shop.
Work has already begun on the historic home of local press
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Ingenuity CEO Arnold Maresky encourages businesses to make Cape Town their place of choice
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“We defi nitely didn’t want to see the newspapers move out. So many cities lose their hearts when business moves out. It’s important to us that Newspaper House remains an integral part of the city’s
unique landscape.”
Sandy Naudé says the Cape Argus and Cape Times editorial teams are delighted to be staying in the city
The historic home of local press looks to the future
Newspaper House
Built in 1836, Newspaper House has been at the centre of Cape Town’s journalism and publishing network since the 1850s. Last year, Independent Newspapers sold their headquarters to Ingenuity Property Investments for R86-million – and there was some speculation over what would happen to the resident newspapers. Since then, Ingenuity has invested a further R150-million to redevelop the complex. Ingenuity CEO Arnold Maresky gives the inside story on their plans for the building.
4 about town
CAPE TOWN’S publishing landscape
The start of Cape Town’s publish-ing industry coincided with the arrival of the colony’s fi rst
printing press from Europe in 1800. An offi cial newspaper press was established and the government or-dered the publication of the weekly Cape Town Gazette and African Ad-vertiser. In those days, freedom of the press was forbidden, and anyone who attempted to publish independently was faced with a heavy fi ne. Despite this, the South African Commercial Advertiser launched in 1824, laying the foundation for a tradition of vig-
orous resistance to government or commercial interference in the press, and in 1828, freedom of the press was recognised at the Cape, heralding the launch of the Cape Argus (1857) and the Cape Times (1876). “The uniqueness of Cape Town’s pub-lishing industry lies in our place in South Africa’s history. As the site of the fi rst colonial settlement and the fi rst confl icts with indigenous people, the development of the nation can be traced back here, and as publishers we’ve tracked that development,” says Sandy Naudé, acting general manager of Independent Newspapers Cape, the publishers of the Cape Times and the Cape Argus today. “South Africa’s fi rst newspapers were published here and have been keeping people in-formed and telling the city’s story for over 150 years.”Foreshore-based Naspers, Africa’s leading publisher, printer and distrib-uter of newspapers, magazines, books and related digital products also has its roots here: “Naspers and Cape Town’s media landscape are synony-mous. The group’s history dates back
to 1915, when De Nasionale Pers was established and the fi rst print publica-tion, De Burger – now Die Burger – a daily newspaper under the curatorship of DF Malan, saw the light, and 1916, when the fi rst monthly, De Huisge-noot – now Die Huisgenoot – was pub-lished,” explains Esmaré Weideman, CEO of Media24, Naspers’ print and digital media arm.
Cape Town was also the fi rst South African city to embrace book im-ports, and this is how the country’s fi rst book publisher – Jan Carel Juta – started out in 1853. “He recognised the need for local publications (partic-ularly books that documented legal in-formation and readers for school chil-dren), supported local authors, and helped to create a book buying pub-lic,” says Lynn du Toit, CEO of Juta and Company. Juta has come a long way since it’s fi rst shop on the corner of Burg and Wale Street: Over 160 years later, it continues to play a vital role as South Africa’s largest pub-lisher of legal and regulatory informa-tion, textbooks and other educational material.
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OPEN FOR BUSINESS
THE PAST
“Naspers and Cape Town’s media landscape
are synonymous ... Despite its extensive
global footprint, the group remains
headquartered in Cape Town and continues to play an instrumental
role in the economy of the country as a whole.”
Esmaré Weideman
June 2012CityViews
The Mother City has a vast publishing landscape, that spans books to newspapers, magazines to digital
With a book publishing industry that accounts for approximately 70% of South Africa’s total, translating to more than 140 publishing houses and a net turnover of more than R2-billion Cape Town is one of the biggest publishing cities in Africa – and that’s not even counting newspapers, magazines and digital publishing. Here’s a rough guide to the city’s publishing establishment and the landscape in which it operates.By: Benita Kursan
5 June 2012 CityViews
Members of the publishing estab-lishment seem to agree that two things are vital if Cape Town is to
remain South Africa’s publishing hub: the ability to continue developing and nurtur-ing local creative talent, and the ability to harness new technologies effectively.
New Media Publishing’s Andrew Nunne-ley elaborates: “The big issues at the mo-ment are around fi nding different ways of delivering content and different ways of monetising that content. But, even more important, is the issue of understanding our readers better. We have so many more advanced ways of un-derstanding our read-ers now and they have much higher expecta-tions of us. It’s up to us to make sure that we understand our read-ers far better than ever before and fi nd ways to give them just what they want, at a time they want it and on the channel they want it. If we can get this right then we can extend our offering beyond content and into physical products. With Cape Town at the forefront of our industry, these changes will be driven from here.”
Media24’s Esmaré Weideman concurs: “The wider Naspers group has ventured into pay television and the internet to become an integrated multinational media group and one of the ten largest media companies in the world. Despite its extensive global foot-print, the group remains headquartered in Cape Town and continues to play an instru-mental role in the economy of the country as a whole. We’ll continue to invest in our employees as well as in technology and in-novation, and community upliftment pro-jects to enrich the lives of Capetonians.”
Brian Wafawarowa, executive director of the Publishing Association of South Africa (PASA), feels that Cape Town’s publishing industry has not yet realised its full poten-tial: “Globally, when you talk about publish-ing it refers to the likes of media, fi lm, music and gaming, not only books. This is not true for sub-Saharan Africa. We have a great opportunity to grow the industry here, but fi rst we need to look at issues of cultural development, particularly literacy and the lack of reading activity in townships; tech-nology and publishing’s transition to digital,
and government policy around copyright laws.”
Independent News-papers’ Sandy Naudé reiterates the issue of literacy: “South Africa is a bit behind the rest of the world and that has quite a bit to do with the fact that many South Africans do not read or have access to electronic media plat-forms.”
Organisations like PASA and the South African Book Develop-ment Council are doing their bit to address the issue with initiatives like National Book Week – which takes place from 6 to 13 Sep-tember this year – and aims to increase awareness around literacy and promote publishing industry skills. The Centre for the Book, and NGOs like Help2Read and Equal Education’s Bookery, aim to motivate literate Capetonians to help children from underprivileged communities to learn to read, or donate books to help stock school libraries.
Juta and Company’s Lynn du Toit sums up what lies ahead: “The publishing industry in general is undergoing a quantum shift and local publishers are evolving in line with their counterparts internationally. The
purist notion of book publishing is no long-er the norm, and the industry is now, more than ever, connected to the global industry. Publishing talent will evolve apace to meet the challenges of the future. It’s exciting and fi lled with opportunities. Publishers with content that readers need will contin-ue to prosper in the digital space – and Cape Town will remain a publishing hub.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Afrikaans only started appearing in newspapers in the Latin alphabet around 1850. Until then, it was written mainly in the Arabic alphabet.
Jan Carel Juta, the founder of Juta and Company, was married to Louise Marx, the sister of Karl Marx.
In its early years, Die Burger, as mouthpiece of the National Party, supported apartheid, but in 1990, the National Party was offi cially informed that the paper would no longer serve as their political mouthpiece. The disaffi liation has continued and in 2006 Henry Jeffreys became the fi rst black editor of the paper.
about town
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THE PRESENT
THE FUTURE
“Cape Town is unique as a backdrop to any kind
of hard-working lifestyle. Magazine people work under harsh deadlines, so they’re often under
pressure and when they do take time off it makes a huge difference to be
able to do so in such great natural beauty. People say
that Capetonians don’t work hard, but I don’t believe that’s true.”
Julia Raphaely
June 2012 CityViews
Given that printing presses were too heavy and expensive to move fur-ther inland, Cape Town’s publishing
industry continued to thrive for some time, attracting international publishers to set up offi ces in the city, and supporting a web of local suppliers – from printers, to writers, illustrators and designers. The internet and advanced technology might’ve eroded that advantage, but Cape Town is still known for being home to an abundance of creative tal-ent – and it’s for this reason that many of the biggest publishing houses in South Africa continue to be based here.
“The magazine industry adds a great deal to the fabric of the city. It employs an amaz-ing variety of talented creative people who are generally inquisitive and have a yearning to know more about the world around them. And the industry benefi ts greatly from being in Cape Town’s unique CBD environment – it’s practically convenient in terms of location and transport, and boasts some of the best locations and talent, including writers, photographers, stylists, illustrators and models,” says Andrew Nunneley, business development manager of Bree Street-based New Media Publishing, the country’s leading custom publisher.
Lynn du Toit of Juta and Company adds, “The publishing industry refl ects the mind and soul of the nation and the people who are drawn to it. They’re committed people who want to make a contribution. This is what makes Cape Town’s publishing industry unique.”
Other industry professionals agree: “Cape Town is unique as a backdrop to any kind of hard-working lifestyle. Magazine people work under harsh deadlines, so they’re often under pressure and when they do take time off it makes a huge difference to be able to do so in such great natural beauty. People say that Ca-petonians don’t work hard, but I don’t believe that’s true,” says MD of Gardens-based Associ-ated Magazines, Julia Raphaely.
Elan Lohmann, MD of Avusa’s digital arm, lives here and travels to Joburg for work most weeks, and although he acknowledges that “one often has to travel to Joburg to clinch the deals,” he’s quick to add that “there’s a defi nite concentration of digital skills, talent and inno-vation in Cape Town. The coffee bar culture and outdoor lifestyle is conducive to young en-trepreneurs and digital publishers wishing to pursue a Silicon Valley-type lifestyle while they generate cool products.”
Want to read more about Cape Town’s publishing potential? Turn to pages 10 and 11 for an insight into four exciting publishing ventures.
Would you like to help grow a new generation of readers and writers? Get in touch with these great organisa-tions:
South African Book Development CouncilT: 021 914 8626www.sabookcouncil.co.za
Centre for the Book62 Queen Victoria StreetT: 021 423 2669www.nlsa.ac.za
Help2ReadT: 021 685 8085www.help2read.org
The BookeryT: 021 461 4189www.equaleducation.org.za/bookery
“The publishing industry in general is undergoing a quantum shift and local publishers are evolving in
line with their counterparts internationally ... Publishers with content that readers
need will continue to prosper in the digital
space – and Cape Town will remain a publishing hub.”
Lynn du Toit
Places like the Centre for the Book (top) and the National Library (bottom) are important anchors for Cape Town’s literary and publishing industries
BARNHAM
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green point
gardens
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district six
VREDEHOEK
the fringe
oranjezicht
bo-kaap
tamboerskloof
WOODSTOCK
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oranjezichtoranjezichtoranjezicht
tamboersklooftamboerskloof
6
Open book, open city
Explore our city streets through the pages of a book — using this literary map of Cape Town
LITERARY
FACESAuthors who’ve lived in and loved the city
1Former President Nelson Mandela famously read Ingrid
Jonker’s poem, The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga at his inaugural address to South Africa’s fi rst democratic Parliament, on 24 May 1994.
Parliament90 Plein Streetwww.parliament.gov.za
2Writer Richard Rive, known as one of the foremost District Six
writers, was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street, and grew up in the area.
3 Nelson Mandela Foundation Chief Executive Achmat Dangor
lived in a room above Hanover Street (now Keizersgracht) and attributes this time to the beginning of his writing career. His prose collection Waiting for Leila is set against the backdrop of the demolition of District Six.
4 Bessie Head – considered one of Botswana’s most infl uential
writers – lived in District Six (on William Street) in the early 1960s, during which time The Cardinals was written. Novelist and leader of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation Alex la Guma also lived in District Six. Active in politics and publishing, he also created a political cartoon strip called Little Libby: The Adventures of Liberation Chabalala published in the newspaper New Age.
District Six Museum25 Buitenkant Streetwww.districtsix.co.za
5 Richard Rive and Alex la Guma – as well as “Jewel of District Six”
Cissie Gool – all attended Trafalgar High School. (Cissie Gool was tutored by both Mohandas Gandhi and Olive Schreiner).
Trafalgar High SchoolBirchington Roadwww.trafalgarhigh.com
6 Playwright Athol Fugard’s only novel, Tsotsi, was famously
made into an Academy Award-winning movie by Gavin Hood.
The Fugard TheatreCorner Caledon and Lower Buitenkantwww.thefugard.com
7 Alexander Bar is an old-world style venue co-owned by local
playwright Nicholas Spagnoletti – which itself looks like the set for a play.
Alexander Bar76 Strand Streetwww.alexanderbar.co.za
8 Crime writer Margie Orford lives in Oranjezicht, and many of
her novels take place in Cape Town, apparently because the city is made
for walking – and walking the city streets has long been part of crime fi ction.
9 Cape Town playwright and arts activist Mike
van Graan works from Commercial Street as executive director of the African Arts Institute.
African Arts Institute25 Commercial Streetwww.africanarts-institute.org.za
10 Cameroonian writer and DJ Ntone Edjabe
launched and continues to publish Chimurenga – a
magazine to stimulate original perspectives on the contemporary African experience – from the Pan-African Market.
Pan-African Market76 Long Streetwww.chimurenga.co.za
11 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award
winner Lauren Beukes lives in Tamboerskloof, and her fi rst novel, Moxyland, is set on the streets of Cape Town.
12 Poet Imraan Coovadia lives in
Gardens, and recently
published The Institute for Taxi Poetry, a tragi-comic whodunit of taxis and poets.
LITERARY PLACES
Moments from literature set in the city
13 Richard Rive’s short story, The Bench –
which takes the story of civil rights activist Rosa Parks and imagines it in apartheid era South Africa – startson the Grand Parade during the 1952 Defi ance Campaign.
14 Alex la Guma’s third novel, The Stone
County, is set in and was based on his time in the Roeland Street Prison, now the Archives.
72 Roeland Streetwww.national.archives.gov.za
15 André Brink’s apartheid-era thriller
An Act of Terror looks at one man’s plan to assassinate the president outside the Castle of Good Hope. Herman Charles Bosman’s A Cask of Jerepigo includes a chapter on doing a tour
of the castle.The Castle of Good HopeCorner of Darling and Buitenkantwww.castleofgoodhope.co.za
16 Rayda Jacob’s novel, Sachs Street, is set in
contemporary times in the Bo-Kaap, while Gabeba Baderoon’s poem A Prospect of Beauty and Unjustness walks along the streets of the CBD, ending in Wale Street.
17 Patricia Schonstein’s novels Skyline and
Banquet at Brabazan are both
set in Long Street, while Deon Meyer’s 13 Hours starts with the discovery of a body at the Lutheran Church, St Martini. South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys also used to live on Long Street, and his play No Space on Long Street is a celebration of the area.
18 JM Coetzee’s Age of Iron includes a
memorable Mill Street scene.
19 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature winner JM
Coetzee’s novel The Life and Times of Michael K features
Make sure you’re in Cape Town from 20 to 24 September 2012 for the second Open Book Festival, featuring everyone from Alan Hollinghurst to Joanne Harris, Lionel Shriver to Kiran Desai.
CHECK IT OUT:www.openbookfestival.co.za
OPEN BOOK FESTIVAL
on the town
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foreshoreforeshore
central citycentral city
district sixdistrict six
bo-kaapbo-kaap
7 on the town
and hosts many of its own events.
Central LibraryCorner of Parade and Darling Street
28 Select Books deals in rare, out of print and
new books about southern Africa.
Select Books232 Long Streetwww.selectbooks.co.za
29 The Bookery is a depot where books
suitable for either primary or secondary school learners can be donated – to furnish understocked school libraries.
The Bookery20 Roeland Street
30 UCT’s Hiddingh Campus is the
seat of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, which features many poets, playwrights and literary scholars as part of its debate series.
Hiddingh Campus31-37 Orange Streetwww.gipca.uct.ac.za
31 Badilisha Poetry X-Change celebrates
and platforms poetry – in a diversity of languages, cultures and styles. Check out their ongoing podcasting radio project online.
Badilisha Poetry X-Change28 St George’s Mallwww.badilishapoetry.com
32 The Alliance Française organises
different cultural events ranging from cine-clubs to exhibitions, concerts and lectures.
Alliance Française155 Loop Streetwww.alliance.org.za
set in Long Street, while Deon Meyer’s 13 Hours starts with the discovery of a body at the Lutheran Church, St Martini. South African satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys also used to live on Long Street, and his play No Space on Long Street is a celebration of the area.
18 JM Coetzee’s Age of Iron includes a
memorable Mill Street scene.
19 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature winner JM
Coetzee’s novel The Life and Times of Michael K features
a De Waal Park gardener, Michael K, who sets out from Cape Town for Prince Albert with his sickly mother in a wheelbarrow. The children’s book Bonsai and Geronimo Go to the Park by Jean Weinstein is also set in De Waal.
20 Writer and poet Stephen Watson –
who lived all his life in Cape Town, and had a strong literary relationship with the city – refl ects on a lover’s experience living in the CBD during the 1980s in his short story Buiten Street.
21 Playwright and academic Jane
Taylor’s whodunnit Of Wild Dogs starts with the murder of an artist in the South African Museum.
Iziko Museum25 Queen Victoria Streetwww.iziko.org.za
LITERARY
BASESPlaces to plug into Cape Town’s literary life
22 Cape Town Book Fair happens
biennially at the Cape Town
International Convention Centre (15 —17 June 2012)
Visit www.capetownbookfair.com for details.
23 The Book Lounge is the headquarters
of Cape Town’s annual Open Book Festival and hosts numerous book readings throughout the year.
The Book Lounge71 Roeland Streetwww.booklounge.co.za
24 Clarke’s Books carries new,
second-hand and out of
print books – and has whole shelves dedicated to Cape Town. Both Deon Meyer’s Trackers and Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light feature the establishement.
Clarke’s Books211 Long Streetwww.clarkesbooks.co.za
25 The National Library of South
Africa is also a legal deposit library – meaning it has a copy of every book, newspaper, government publication and printed item published in South Africa since 1842.
National Library 25 Queen Victoria Streetwww.nlsa.ac.za
26 The Centre for the Book
promotes a culture of reading, writing and publishing in all local languages – and often hosts lunchtime writing workshops and book clubs.
Centre for the Book62 Queen VictoriaStreetwww.nlsa.ac.za
27 The Cape Town Central Library is
the biggest library in town,
Perhaps the fi rst major recorded literary reference to Cape Town is in the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões’ epic, Os Lusiadas, which features Adamastor, the devilish spirit of the Cape. Other works set in Cape Town include zombie apocalypse novel Deadlands by mother and daughter duo Sarah and Savannah Lotz, Zoë Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town and David’s Story, Kabelo Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents and The Quiet Violence of Dreams, Nigerian architect and writer Yewande Omotoso’s Bom Boy, Liberian Hawa Jande Golakai’s crime novel The Lazarus Effect, Henrietta Rose-Innes’s Nineveh, Jonny Steinberg’s The Number and When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes by Greg Lazarus.
MORELITERARY LEADS
STUCKERIS
This literary map is the product of multiple contributions from both individuals and organisations – all of whom are thanked – and is a work in progress. If you notice anything missing, please do mail the editor at
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8 CityViews June 2012about town June 2012CityViews8 around
Cape Town Book Fair is back
This year it coincides with one of the biggest events on the global publishing calendar: the 29th Congress of the International Publishers’ Association, being held in the Mother City for the fi rst time, and in Africa for the fi rst time in over 100 years. Brian Wafawarowa, executive director of the Publishing Association of SA (PASA) and Book Fair executive chairperson, gave us a few good reasons to check it out.
Cape Town Book Fair is happening at the CTICC from Friday 15 June until Sunday 17 June. Entrance costs R60 per day for adults, R30 per day for students and pensioners, and is free for children under 12.
Tickets are available at the door or via www.computicket.com.
Go to www.capetownbookfair.com for more information.
CV What are some of the main attractions that will appeal to the public at this year’s Cape Town Book Fair?
Apart from it being a fun ex-periential outing for families, visitors will be able to get lost in, and shop for, a huge vari-ety of books. There’ll be over 200 events – book launches, signings, interviews and workshops with authors, poetry readings, a dedicated ebook digital zone, a cook-book corner featuring a chef theatre, and a kids’ zone – that will appeal to serious bibliophiles and anyone who
likes to read. I’m also pleased to report that one of the top authors in Africa, Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, will be one of our guest authors.
CV Cape Town is host-ing the 29th Congress of the International Publishers’ Associa-tion (IPA) a few days before the Book Fair. What’s this all about?The IPA is a global body com-prised of publishers from all over the world. The congress is held every four years and it’s a platform to identify, interrogate and deal with is-sues facing the industry.
CV Are there any par-ticular issues you’re hoping to address at the IPA Congress?I’m looking forward to government and industry taking the opportunity to engage and strategise over policy-making. Also, host countries are encouraged to promote their own publish-ing industries, and with 600 to 1 000 delegates from 100
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“Outside Egypt, Cape
Town is the top publishing city
in Africa, and it’s South Africa’s capital city of the book, so it
makes sense to host the
Cape Town Book Fair here.”
countries attending the con-gress – including many local and international publishing heavyweights – it’s a great opportunity to showcase our city, and what we do, to the world. That said, delegates will undertake township tours and explore book-poor areas around the city and this might help to address is-sues around literacy.
Brian Wafawarowa outside the Centre of the Book
Cape Town, the Western Cape and South Africa are all engaged in developing
a collective vision and implementation plan that paves the way to a better
future for all. Here’s a quick overview of these
plans, and how they relate to one another:
Envisioning
our future
Cape Town 2018:
Central CityDevelopment Strategy
Co-authored by the City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Partnership, the Central City Development Strategy iden-tifi es fi ve key outcomes for the Central City by 2018.
To transform the Central City into:
A premier business location A high quality sustainable urban
environment A popular destination for Capetoni-
ans and visitors A leading centre for knowledge,
innovation, creativity and culture in Africa and the South
A place that embodies the heart and soul of Cape Town
Where can I go to fi nd out more? www.capetownpartnership.co.za/programmes/strategy/
CV Why does Cape Town host a book fair?English-speaking sub-Saha-ran Africa needs a concentrat-ed place where book people – readers, writers, publishers, printers, policy makers, dis-tributors and designers – can meet to share ideas and trade. Outside Egypt, Cape Town is the top publishing city in Africa, and it’s South Africa’s capital city of the book, so it makes sense to host the event here.
CV So is the Cape Town Book Fair aimed spe-cifi cally at the trade? It’s defi nitely not totally trade-oriented. If anything, this platform was created to demystify the publishing in-dustry. We’re far more geared towards the public than our London and Frankfurt coun-terparts, and this year we’ve made a special effort to make the event even more accessi-ble by providing communities and educational institutions that are likely to have not experienced the event before with free tickets.
LITERARY CITY
Future Cape is a pro-cess, facilitated by the Economic Develop-ment Partnership and informed by key role-players in the economy, that will ultimately result in a long-term strategic plan for the Western Cape to ensure that, by 2040, we achieve higher rates of economic growth, while ensuring a more inclusive and resilient economy.
The point of the Future Cape process is to:
Develop a shared vision of where we want to be as a regional economy
Identify the current obstacles that stand in the way of achieving our vision, the things that we need to do differently, and the set of choices and decisions we need to make to give effect to the vision
Develop a common economic agenda, a set of strategies and a spatial economic development framework to realise the vision in practice
Make recommendations to improve the perfor-mance of the economic development system
Make recommendations for the future work of the EDP and economic roleplayers
Where can I go to fi nd out more?www.wcedp.co.za/our-work/future-cape-2040
Western Cape 2040:
Future Cape
The National Planning Commission has captured the challenges South Africa faces if it is to become a truly prosperous and equal society by 2030 – including the fact that we need to drive GDP growth (7% average over ten years) while reducing our carbon emissions (45% by 2025) and still improving our human development index (from 0.6 to 0.8 by 2025). Their diagnos-tics report is currently being turned into an implementation plan – and in turn informing the Future Cape plan for the Western Cape.
9 actions South Africa has to take:
Create jobs and livelihood Expand infrastructure Transition to a low-carbon economy Transform urban and rural spaces Improve education and training Provide quality healthcare Build a capable state Fight corruption and enhance
accountability Transform society and unite the nation
Where can I go to fi nd out more?www.npconline.co.za
South Africa 2030:
National DevelopmentPlan
CV Perhaps he felt intimidated by our hipster culture?Hipsters are the real unsung he-roes of the city. They transcend all demographics, classes and shades. They’re like punk rock revolutionaries. They take the best of all the belief systems in the world and keep what mat-ters. They’ve also helped to make pulled pork the new sundried to-mato, unfortunately.
CV How do our hipsters compare to hipsters in Joburg?In Joburg they don’t have as much traction because there aren’t enough of them; they don’t own spaces in the city like they do here.
CV Some visitors say that Cape Town feels different to the rest of Africa. You’ve travelled the continent extensively, how does the city compare?Cape Town feels like any great seaside town in Africa. People say it’s too European, but there are loads of cities in Africa where French is the language of choice! Yes, many people living here aren’t from here, but the city is cosmopolitan in an African way. For example, I was watching soc-cer at a bar in town the other day and a guy from the Ivory Coast was sitting next to me shouting for Chelsea.
CV Do you think people idealise Africa when they make these comparisons?To idealise Africa is one of the biggest mistakes someone can
9 9 around town June 2012 CityViews
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Chris Roper outside YOURSTRULY in Long Street
LIVEABLE CITY
make. To say that Cape Town isn’t black or African enough is bigotry, although racism is still a problem here, as in the rest of SA. I think it’s diffi cult for young black people who aren’t born here to move here and live in Cape Town, because they don’t have the traditional support structures – like family – that they have back home.
CV You live between Cape Town and Johannesburg. How does each city infl uence the way you work?Both cities are inspirational in different ways. When I’m here I work from an offi ce near the CTICC, and I have meetings at cof-fee shops like Origins in De Wa-terkant. I don’t know if it’s just in my industry, but people seem to work much harder here.
CV Do you have any favourite books set in and around the city by local or international authors?The Life and Times of Michael K by our Nobel Laureate JM Coetzee, poet Stephen Watson’s Song of the Broken String: After the /Xam Bushmen, and anything noir-ish by Deon Meyer and Mike Nicol.
CV What are some of the things you miss about Cape Town when you’re away?I love that people still skateboard down Kloof Nek Road. In Decem-ber, Adderley Street is packed and crazy, but I love the traditional Christmas lights, and the Compa-ny’s Garden is great if the squir-rels don’t attack you.
CV Is there anything you don’t miss?The fl ower sellers on Adderley Street. They can be aggressive. Tourists think they’re quaint local colour but they’re really hardcore businesspeople. I wouldn’t replace them for the world but I don’t have to like them.
CV Do you have any favourite places to eat in and around the city? Cape Town eateries are fi ckle. They tend to come and go. Mill-er’s Thumb has been around for years and their menu hasn’t changed. A Joburg couple that
have been here so long they’ve become Capetonian owns it, and they do really good caught-this-morning fi sh. The Pot Luck Club in Woodstock is brilliant. I also like the bar at the top of the Ritz Hotel in Sea Point and Twankey Bar at The Taj.
Visit the Mail & Guardian Online at www.mg.co.za and fi nd Chris online at www.chrisroper.co.za and on Twitter: @chrisroperza. You can also experience Chris Roper’s Cape Town for yourself:
Origins Roasting28 Hudson StreetT: 021 421 1000www.originroasting.co.za
Miller’s Thumb10B Kloof Nek RoadT: 021 424 3838www.millersthumb.co.za
The Pot Luck Club and Gallery375 Albert Road, WoodstockT: 021 21 447 0804www.thepotluckclub.co.za
Twankey Bar at The TajCorner Wale and Adderley StreetT: 021 819 2000www.tajcapetown.co.za
The Top of the Ritz Revolving RestaurantRitz HotelMain Road Sea PointT: 021 439 6988www.ritzrestaurants.co.za
As editor of Mail & Guardian Online, no two days are the same for Chris Roper, and that’s precisely why he loves his work, and living between Cape Town and Joburg. We interrupted his “digital tomfoolery” to talk about Capetonians, the city centre and his favourite local authors.
“I love that people still
skateboard down Kloof Nek Road.
In December, Adderley Street is packed and
crazy, but I love the traditional
Christmas lights, and the
Company’s Garden is great if the
squirrels don’t attack you.“
CV What made you decide to live in the heart of Cape Town?I’ve always lived in or near the city centre. My grandfather lived in District Six in the 50s. I grew up mainly in Woodstock and Green Point, and lived in Obs before we bought in Adderley Street in 2004. We looked at other developments, but settled on Cartwright’s Corner in Adderley Street because we liked the clean lines and simplicity of its design.
CV What are some of the things that make the city special?I come from a seagoing family. My dad had a boatbuilding factory on Hout Street. Cape Town is unique because it still has a lot of crafts-
men – people who do one thing really well.
I love the history of the city and its architecture. The other day I was standing on the corner of Wale and Bree, looking up and admiring the buildings, and a guy came up and asked if I needed directions. It was unsettling being mistaken for a tourist in my own city, but cool to see our locals are tourist-friendly.
CV Do you think Capetonians are generally aloof?I’ve always found Capetonians friendly. Then again, I once met Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay when he was in Cape Town shoot-ing a music video, and he said he couldn’t understand why nobody would speak to him.
Central CityI live in the
“Hipsters are the real unsung
heroes of the city. They transcend
all demographics, classes and shades.
They’re like punk rock revolutionaries. They take the best
of all the belief systems in the world
and keep what matters. ”
CV What sets Mahala apart from other local youth culture publications?Our unrestricted approach to edito-rial and the fact that we’re entirely focused on, and embedded in, original South African creative culture. Also, our primary touchpoint is digital. We
venture into print because I come from a print background, but we’ll always be a digital platform pri-marily with real world extensions like print, events, books, etc.
CV How has Mahala taken off in South Africa?We’ve had a lot of fun and built up a solid online audience of around 45 000 unique users a month. Our print mag is much loved, but hard to get hold of, which is not a bad thing. Generally the over-all response has been positive, although our audience seems to challenge and contest us at every step of the way.
CV Your largest audience is in Gauteng, so why are you based in the Mother City?I’m based in Cape Town because of the ocean. And you have to do some-thing constructive when you’re not surfi ng, eating or making babies. But Mahala has a strong national
focus and our writers are spread around Mzansi’s metropoles.
CV How independent is your editorial content? It’s entirely unrestricted and in-dependent. There’s no imperative to be warm and fuzzy to create
an environment that’s more pal-atable to advertisers, and that’s made it hard for us to attract a lot of the mainstream advertising. We’re a bit too edgy. CV What are your thoughts on Cape Town’s publishing landscape?Everyone’s kind of slogging away and there’s not a lot of collabora-tion or assistance offered. I think that’s a competitive South Afri-can thing. There’s certainly no government or NGO support or intervention. And that’s how it goes. On the fl ipside, at an indi-vidual level, all the writers and photographers we work with are incredibly supportive, un-derstanding and willing to help. They’re just all broke.
Find Andy and Mahala online: www.mahala.co.za
“We’re on the tip of Africa down here, which is cool
because stuff takes a while to
fi lter down and that buys us a bit more time to respond.
The next big thing in digital publishing will be a model that
actually works, or the apocalypse –
whichever comes fi rst.”
about the fringe CityViews April 201210 April 2012CityViews1010 from
local publishing initiatives Meet four Cape Town-based initiatives – and the people
behind them – who are navigating the new frontiers of the publishing industry
future-forward
Arthur Attwell has developed a website that turns anyone with a printer and internet connection into a print-on-demand bookstore. He gives us his expert opinion on digital publishing in South Africa.
Opening night is for lovers of South African jazz, with a big band experience directed by Silent Revolution Music. The spectacle includes several guest instrumentalists, and follows last year’s acclaimed Winter Jazz Series.
On Friday 6 July, groove to Closet Snare, complete with a 12-piece string section and guest Inga Beckmann, before vocalists Joe Nina and MXO take the stage.
A contemporary African music
session wraps up on Saturday night, with the driving maskanda of Madala Kunene.
A project of Creative Cape Town, City Hall Sessions is made possible through the support of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
Visit www.cityhallsessions.co.za for more details and bookings.
A sound revolution at City Hall City Hall Sessions is back, with a three-day minifest launching on Thursday 5 July 2012, to add a little heat to your Cape Town winter.
CV What is Paperight and how does it differ from traditional book publishing?Traditionally books are printed in advance of people buying them and they sit in a warehouse wait-ing to be ordered. With Paperight the book only exists as a digital fi le until the moment a customer wants it. Then it’s printed right
in front of them – they can even choose to print only some of the book to save costs, since most students only need part of a textbook. Also, publishers don’t decide exactly how the book will look in a customer’s hands. The customer and copy shop decide that based on what they can offer and afford.
CV What kind of material is currently available on Paperight?Past Matric exam papers, setwork novels and plays, classic science fi ction, philosophy and psychol-ogy, classic children’s books, healthcare textbooks and even sheet music.
CV Are Paperight books cheaper than conventional books?On average a book is 20% cheaper at a Paperight outlet than in a South African bookstore. Custom-ers pay the cost of printing the book out at the copy shop outlet, plus any rights fee the publisher charges the outlet.
CV What inspired you to develop Paperight?In 2006 I started my own company and researched the best ways to use technology to publish and dis-tribute books in developing coun-tries: ebooks, the mobile web, and print-on-demand. The problem was always: people need books, yet the existing publishing industry isn’t meeting that need, so how do we fi x that? Our research made it clear that photocopy shops – ubiquitous in Africa – distribute more books than any other channel, only they have to do so as illegal photocopies. If publishers could see copy shops as their allies and agents, rather than their enemies, we could print books for people anywhere.
CV What is Paperight PAPERIGHTPAPERIGHTARTHUR ATTWELL
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Andy Davis, editor of Mahala
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“In Cape Town we’re lucky to have amazing bookshops like The Book Lounge close to where we live and work.” With Paperight, Arthur Attwell aims to make
books accessible where bookshops don’t exist: “Everyone should be able to fi nd books within walking distance of their home.”
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June 2012CityViews
The editor of South Africa’s fearlessly opinionated music, culture and reality magazine, Mahala – who’s been based out of Roeland Street for the last two years – tells us how he’s managing to stay online, in print and afl oat.
ANDY DAVISMAHALA
“If you are imaginative enough
to fi nd ways to sell books to the 40 million people
who’ve never bought a book
before, you’ll do well, and
South African literature will get stronger on the back of that.“
Find Paperight online – www.paperight.com – then fi nd out more about Arthur online: www.arthurattwell.com.
When you’re done, be sure to visit Paperight’s print shop partners in the CBD:
The Bookery20 Roeland Street021 461 4189
Rainbow Copy82 Sir Lowry Road021 461 0125
11 June 2012 CityViews
CV Cape Town is South Africa’s publishing hub. Is it the mobile publishing hub too?It is. It’s also the pioneer city for mobook or cellphone story pub-lishing in SA, with credit due to Michelle Matthew’s Novel Idea project, Karen Brooks’ publication of the fi rst book sold on Mxit, and Steve Vosloo’s Yoza.mobi, a teen cellphone library, for kickstarting the industry.
CV How does mobook publishing differ from conventional book publishing?Mobooks are published on mo-bisites and partner platforms like Mxit. There are costs to this, but not in the league of traditional print publishing. A mobook is typically published one chapter per day and readers vote and com-ment daily as the story rolls out live, which is exhilarating and nerve-wracking!
CV Isn’t it diffi cult to read a novel on a mobile phone given the size of the screen? Not for teens. A recent story was the equivalent of an 80-page pa-perback and had more than 7 500 complete reads in its fi rst month on mobile.
CV Apparently Yoza’s pilot project attracted 300 000 complete reads in its fi rst year? Yes, Yoza’s uptake fi gures refl ect the undeniable hunger for good reading material in SA. Millions of people can’t afford books, but want to read stories of every kind. Free stories accessible on cell-phones make this possible.
CV Do you think access to these free stories will positively impact literacy in South Africa?There is a direct link between the amount of books a child has direct access to and their achievements in later life. Yoza’s 38 constantly read books make a small contri-
bution here. Yoza advocates that access to books is not an elitist luxury, but a human right – and has set an example of how this can be practically addressed through mobile. The project has had a knock-on effect, with newer projects mobilising for the same cause. A thriving local mobook culture with more mobooks in more languages for more people would make a profound impact on literacy in SA.
CV What types of stories are currently available on Yoza.mobi and who creates these?Genres include romance, action, drama and horror – everything
that appeals to emotionally in-tense teenagers. Contributors have included the likes of local literary stars Lauren Beukes, Sam Wilson and Charlie Hu-man. I also recently ran a story workshop for teens in Khayelit-sha and we collaboratively plot-ted and developed a mobook set there.
Check out Yoza.mobi online: www.yoza.mobi
CV Your vision for the South Africa-based version of Live magazine – the UK youth culture magazine you founded – won you the British Council’s UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2010. How close are you to making this vision a reality?We’re in year one of a three-year project and it’s going well. Twelve of our contributors have landed full-time jobs and nine have gone
on to study full-time. Our core team is a mix of kids from diverse areas like Khayelitsha, Mannen-berg and the Northern Suburbs. Some were unemployed and un-employable, some involved in drugs and crime, or in prison, or doing nothing, before they came to us, and it’s been awesome to see how they’ve changed.
CV Who puts the magazine together and what are the logistics of recruiting people to work at Live SA?In the past year around 85 con-tributors have worked on the fi rst three issues. There’s usu-ally a core team of around 25 kids per issue, recruited through a call to action in the magazine, and through targeted physical outreach via a network of local partners. We’re inundated with people wanting to get involved so we safeguard opportunities at the magazine for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds that need the opportunities the most.
CV What are some of the similarities and differences you’ve encountered between running the initiative in the UK and here in SA? Young people defi nitely have simi-lar aspirations but there’s a gulf be-tween the levels of aspiration here and in the UK, with South African
kids facing far greater challenges and obstacles. There’s sometimes a sense of apathy here – the kids aren’t nearly as competitive as I’d like them to be – but they’re sur-prisingly open and unencumbered by the previous generation’s issues.
CV What made you decide to base the initiative in the city centre, as opposed to within the communities where most of the young people taking part in the project live?We intentionally decided to establish Live SA in a neutral space in the CBD to help pre-pare kids for the reality of work-ing in the city. We were fortu-nate enough to be offered space within BBDO’s De Waterkant headquarters, and it’s been cool to see our mainly township-based contributors integrating with the traditional ad agency world.
CV What plans are being put in place to make Live SA sustainable?We’re set up as an NGO funded pri-marily by the Shuttleworth Foun-dation, but we’re working towards generating our own income through advertising revenue. We’re current-ly distributing 50 000 copies per is-sue throughout urban and township areas nationwide, but with SA being so mobile rich, we’re launching our mobi site too this month.
Editor-in-chief of Yoza, SA’s fi rst cellphone library launched in 2009, tells us about Yoza.mobi and why teens reading books on a cellphone is a good idea.
11 April 2012 CityViews 11
LOUISE MCCANNYOZA
“Until now, print publishing hasn’t
managed to reach or make a consistent effort
to empower young people, so we’re trying to
connect with and infl uence them in a meaningful and
positive way.”
Live SA is a magazine written, designed and produced by South African youth, many of them from previously disadvantaged backgrounds, with the help of industry mentors. Founder Gavin Weale explains how this project is helping to bridge the gap between town and township, and create opportunities where there seemed to be none before.
LIVE SAGAVIN WEALE
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Louise McCann, editor-in-chief of South Africa’s fi rst cellphone library
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Gavin Weale looking out from the BBDO headquarters in Cape Town
11 11 about
SA is book poor and mobile rich Louise explains:
of urban youth own their own cellphone – hence the birth of the made-for-mobile book in SA
The fiercest mag for all SA youth
FREE!Summer ‘12Issue Two
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June 2012 CityViews
Find out more about the Live SA team by reading the backpage interview with editor Ndu Ngcobo. Then visit the publication online at www.youtube.com/livemagSA and learn more about Gavin’s work at www.livityafrica.com.
BUT
of public schools in South Africa have functional libraries
of households own no leisure books
of households have more than 40 titles on their bookshelves
town
8 CityViews April 201212
Straatwerk has job rehabilitation
projects for men and women.
021 425 0140
Salesian Institute Youth Projects
provide education, skills training and rehabilitation
to vulnerable youth. 021 425 1450
The Haven’s vision is to get the homeless home.
021 425 4700
The Homestead provides residential care and family integration for boys.
021 461 7470
Ons Plek provides residential care while undertaking reunification process for girls.
021 465 4829
The Carpenters Shopprovides rehabilitation services and skills training for adults.
021 461 5508
Many children and young adults living on the streets have severe drug addiction problems. More often than not, the money they receive from begging is used to buy their next “fix”.
The CCID therefore requests that members of the public do not give money or handouts directly. If you would like to help, please contact one of the listed organisations mentioned.
Contact the Central City Improve-ment District’s (CCID’s) Social Development Department for further information or assistance.
www.capetownpartnership.co.za
Pat 021 419 1881 | Dean 082 928 3862Headman Sirala-Rala 082 262 0113 Mark Williams 082 262 0112
June 2012CityViews
CV Tell us how you got to be the editor of Live SA. Did you always want to work in publishing?I made a vision board three years ago and one of the things on it was my desire to be an editor. When I was little I used to make storybooks and magazines about Barbie for my family, and I recently took up blog-ging because there is just so much to write about. My friend told me about Live SA when it started up and I’ve been there since the fi rst issue, so yes, I guess I have always wanted to be in publishing.
CV It’s amazing that you manifested that dream. What are some of your other hopes and aspirations for the future?I aspire to be an inspiration to young girls; to be a positive person and chal-lenge people to think out of the box. Things aren’t black and white and I love challenging people to see the colours in between. I would love to travel the world. I’m fascinated by different cultures and how they’re depicted. I would love to pen novels: one about my Zulu culture, and a fi c-tion novel or three. I would love to see my blog progress and evolve into an online zine or something. I love the magazine world and the crea-tive process behind it. Perhaps one day I’ll be a quirkier version of Kh-anyi Dhlomo, the founding editor of Destiny magazine.
CV What do you love most about living in Cape Town?The freedom to be yourself. There’s something in the water here that makes you want to be true to your-self. From the creative vibes we get from nature, to seeing the creative types hanging out in coffee shops – there’s always something going on to thrill a part of your soul. And the sushi is amazing too.
CV What are some of the stories about Cape Town you’d most like to tell? My issue with a lot of stories set in the
city is that they’re about upper class whites and impoverished blacks. I feel that there aren’t enough stories that cater to middle class black peo-ple. I would love to read and write stories about people like me.
CV Talking about stories, what are you currently reading?I’ve just picked up Zoo City by Cape Town author Lauren Beukes.
CV How would you describe the smell and taste of the city to a foreigner?It smells of dreams and mermaids, and tastes like ambition and red vel-vet cupcakes.
CV Talking about taste, where do you go for excellent affordable food?The City Bowl Market on a Saturday for everything fresh, including free-range meat and fat-free ice cream that’s too amazing for words. I’m also a fan of Beluga’s half-price sushi, and Active Sushi’s all you can eat, and Rafi ki’s is my favourite laid-back spot to go with mates.
CV And fashion?Babette Clothing is a must, although I’m more of a fl ea market and second-hand store lady – but not over-adver-tised secondhand stores; the ones you stumble upon by accident and wouldn’t even tell your best friend about – and I’m always on the look-out for vintage sales and antiques markets.
CV Is there anywhere special you go for inspiration?I walk around the city looking up. It’s amazing what the tops of buildings look like – the old alongside the new, with the mountain peeking out from behind can spark crazy ideas that lead to interesting blog posts. When I read I like to hear waves crashing, so I’ll often take a book and head to a secret seaside spot.
CV Make believe you’rethe mayor of Cape Town for a day. Is there anything you’d change?I’d create more bicycle lanes and a recycling initiative with vans travel-ling around the city to pick up house-hold recyclables.
CV What kind of Cape Town do you imagine for 2040?I see a place where everyone speaks at least four languages. Where art is a way of life not a pastime, and look-ing after the environment is some-thing that comes naturally to us.
My Cape Town: Ndu Ngcobo
“There’s something in the water here that makes you want to be true to yourself.
From the creative vibes we get from nature, to seeing the creative types hanging out in coffee shops – there’s always something
going on to thrill a part of your soul.”
Find Ndu on Twitter (@ndufairy) and experience her Cape Town for yourself:
Active SushiFirst Floor, Nedbank Centre63 Strand StreetT: 021 422 0462www.activesushi.com
Babette Clothing41 Church StreetT: 021 424 4457www.babetteclothing.co.za
BelugaThe Foundry, Prestwich StreetT: 021 418 2948www.beluga.co.za
City Bowl Market14 Hope StreetOpen Saturdays from 09h00 to 14h00www.citybowlmarket.co.za
Rafi ki’s13 Kloof Nek RoadT: 021 426 4731www.rafi kis.co.za
Ndu grew up on a cattle farm in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands before making a snap decision to relocate to Cape Town. Now, when she’s not cruising the neighbourhood around
her Buitenkant Street apartment, you’ll fi nd her editing the latest issue of Live SA at the
magazine’s Cape Town headquarters.
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Ndu Ngcobo at the Stepping Stones Pre-school playground on Harrington Square
my town
