Mother City News 28 September - 25 October

WARNING: May contain strong language

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28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Holding power to account

‘Superbugs’ breed in city’s polluted waters

Children play at the Zandvlei estuary mouth in Muizenberg despite the vlei being closed for recreational use since 25 May due to sewage pollution.

Steve Kretzmann • The ongoing and widespread pollution of Cape Town’s waterways is contributing to antibiotic resistance, which is a growing and serious global health problem, according to pre-eminent scientists.

• The pollution is caused by sewage spills, human and chemical waste being discarded into the storm water system, and poorly treated effluent released from waste water treatment works.

• It is well documented that pharmaceutical compounds, including antibiotics, are found in sewage.

• As a result, bacteria exposed to low levels of antibiotics and other persistent chemical compounds, develop antibiotic resistance, leading to the emergence of ‘superbugs’.

Widespread pollution For the first time in Cape Town’s history,

all its popular recreational water bodies – Zandvlei, Rietvlei, Zeekoevlei, and the Milnerton Lagoon – have been closed for months due to ongoing pollution, largely related to chronic sewage inflows.

More on Page 2

Mother City News

28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

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From Page 1 In the past, these water bodies have been individually closed for short periods due to temporary pollution incidents that pose a health risk for even intermediate contact use such as kayaking, sailing, and fishing, but never all of them together or for such an extended period.

Zandvlei at Muizenberg, plagued by numerous sewage spills resulting in temporary closures last year, was closed for recreational use on 25 May. Rietvlei near Milnerton, which in the past five years was only closed for a week in 2019 due to a toxic algal bloom, was closed to public use on 24 June due to water quality tests revealing e.coli – a bacteria indicating faeces in the water – being above the acceptable limit.

Ongoing sewage spills then resulted in Zeekoevlei being closed on 15 July. At the time of writing, all three of these water bodies remained closed.

Meanwhile, pollution of Milnerton Lagoon, which receives effluent from the Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works, resulted in the Green Scorpions (the provincial environmental management inspectorate) issuing a directive to the City of Cape Town in November last year, ordering the City to clean it up.

The directive was appealed by the City but legal project manager at the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, Andrea Korff, says the City submitted their response to the Green Scorpions on 27 August. Korff said OUTA has requested sight of this response but have as yet to receive a copy.

Korff said last week the City stated they would receive feedback from the Green Scorpions in two weeks time.

Meanwhile, head of the Milnerton Central Residents Association environmental portfolio, Caroline Marx, said the City’s own tests showed “shockingly high” levels of e.coli in the lagoon.

She said as a result, the lagoon remains closed for recreational water users.

Drug resistance In June, Mother City News reported on a recently published peer-reviewed scientific paper revealing the antibiotic Sulfamethoxazole is present in False Bay’s water. It, along with other pharmaceutical compounds, was present in the sediment, seaweed, and marine invertebrates such as mussels, limpets, sea snails, sea urchins, and starfish.

The study by scientists Cecilia Y. Ojemaye and Leslie Petrik from the University of the Western Cape’s Chemistry Department showed Sulfamethoxazole and other pharmaceutical compounds such as Diclofenac (Voltaren) were accumulating up the marine food chain.

The pharmaceutical compounds enter the environment from waste water, but waste water treatment technology does not remove these persistent chemical compounds which enter the waste stream due to their not being fully metabolised by users, or due to unused or expired medication being flushed into the sewerage system. Additionally, waste water from hospitals and clinics, highly likely to contain pharmaceutical compounds including antibiotics, flow to municipal waste water treatment works which often do not meet national minimum treatment guidelines for the removal of bacteria.

This results in bacteria such as e.coli, as well as more dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella and Hepatitus A being exposed to low levels of antibiotics released into the

Cape Town’s station deck, usually a bustle of minibus activity, was all but abandoned on Tuesday 20 July as minibus taxi services ground to a halt amidst ongoing violence.

Photo: Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp

Enter at own risk...Signage near to where Zandvlei flows into the ocean warns people not to swim or use the water for “recreational activities”. Zandvlei was closed due to ongoing sewage pollution on 25 May and remained closed as of 27 September.

environment, and developing resistance.

In their paper, Petrik and Ojemaye note that Sulfamethoxazole accumulates in edible seaweeds. This meant “this compound could result in the development of antibiotic resistance by humans and other marine organisms that consume this seaweed and many others”.

Senior Lecturer Emeritus in the Division of Community Health at Stellenbosch University, Dr Jo Barnes, has been involved in overseeing students testing antibiotic resistance in bacteria such as e.coli for almost a decade.

Barnes said continual exposure to low levels of antibiotics, such as would be found in the sewage spills into Cape Town’s vleis and estuaries, would result in bacteria developing resistance.

She said antibiotic resistance, which led to the development of antibiotic resistant superbugs is a global concern, and research has found antibiotic resistant bacteria in the environment is linked to human waste water contamination.

Barnes said for decades, the medical fraternity was blamed for prescribing antibiotics when they were not needed, and people not disposing their antibiotic medication once they felt better rather than continuing the entire course. This meant bacteria that had not been killed were the stronger organisms, and developed a resistance to the medication.

She said normally there’d be a progressive resistance, with bacteria developing a resistance to weaker antibiotics and resistance gradually increasing as stronger antibiotics were introduced.

However, with the “massive pollution”

ranging from waste water treatment plants being poorly managed, to industrial chemicals discharged into the waste water stream and sometimes directly into water bodies via storm water systems, bacteria have “jumped” the antibiotic levels.

“They (bacteria) are so strong that when they meet an antibiotic they just smile and go to tea,” said Barnes.

She said she oversaw research by students sampling the Plankenbrug River flowing past Kayamandi in Stellenbosch in 2001/2002. The tests showed a 60% resistance to antibiotics by e.coli in the samples. Kayamandi is only serviced by a clinic that dispenses first order, or lowlevel antibiotics, she said. When the same tests were conducted by visiting American students she was overseeing in 2019, the antibiotic resistance was 100%. This meant the same antibiotics being dispensed at the Kayamandi clinic would now have no effect on the bacteria causing the same illnesses.

“We are running out of drugs” to treat infections, said Barnes, and because human waste contained antibiotic compounds, ongoing sewage pollution in the environment was accelerating this problem.

Causes of pollution City mayco member for water and waste, Xanthea Limberg says the majority of sewage overflows causing the pollution of rivers, vleis, and estuaries, are linked to people dumping solid objects in the sewers, illegally disposing of hazardous chemicals, as well as sewer pumps failing or being damaged due to theft or illegal dumping into the sewer system.

However, Marx believes in the case of

Milnerton Lagoon, the main polluter is the City itself, as the City’s Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works fails to treat waste water to minimum standard before releasing it into the Diep River. Marx said water quality tests below the treatment works’ outlet revealed far higher levels of e.coli than tests taken upstream of the outlet.

The national Department of Water and Sanitation dashboard publishing the results of monthly effluent quality tests of waste water treatment works show a number of the City’s treatment works are failing to meet the minimum guidelines. The Athlone WWTW, for example, achieved only 7.1% compliance for microbiological compliance over the last three months. This means high levels of e.coli and other bacteria from human waste has been flowing into the Black River, into which the Athlone plant discharges treated effluent at a rate of 105 million litres per day.

The Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Flats, Potsdam, Parow, Macassar, and Potsdam waste water treatment works are all indicated as failing.

Limberg said the City was inspecting the various catchments for factors that can be contributing to continued pollution levels so that these can be addressed.

“Work is under way to address infrastructural challenges as best as possible, and education and awareness programmes, such as the ‘Bin It, Don’t Block It’ campaign, are being undertaken around how to avoid sewer blockages,” she stated.

Limberg said Cape Town has experienced “unprecedented levels of new human settlements being established”. This created challenges such as obstruction of access to infrastructure for maintenance work, “and constraints to the provision of basic services.”

28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Mother City News

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Salt River heritage in solidarity with Palestinian cause James Stent Three large new murals celebrating the history and politics of Salt River were unveiled in the working-class suburb on Saturday 25 September at a community arts festival held by the Salt River Heritage Society.

The first mural, on Pope Street, honours four legal heroes with roots in the area and surrounds – Judge Siraj Desai, Dullah Omar, Anwah Nagia, and Benny Kies, and was painted by Natheer Hoosain and Nazeem Jardine. Local hero and Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis’s portrait by artist Robyn Pretorius rises up on Fenton Road, while a series of murals painted in honour of assassinated Palestinian cartoonist Najial Ali have been painted on the corners of Chapel Street and Addison Road, by Tasneem Chilwan and Nazeer Jeppie.

The Pennsylvanian minstrel troupe led a procession from the Pope Street mural to the Fenton Road mural of Desiree Ellis.

Judge Desai, the only living member of the memorial wall, grew up nearby. Speaking at the unveiling, Desai said that the four people in the mural were united in three fundamental regards: a commitment to fighting racism; a commitment to the creation of a new society freed from the “imperialism” of the United States of America; and, a commitment to the struggle of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa Hanan Jarrar handed over a letter of support to Judge Desai from a Palestinian Judge, and head of the Interim High Judicial Council, Chancellor Issa Abu Sharar. In June, the South African Zionist Federation laid a complaint against Judge Desai, currently the Ombudsman for Legal Services, with the Judicial Conduct Committee for his comments in support of Palestine.

Jarrar said the Salt River murals were important symbols of cultural solidarity, and spoke to the long-standing history of shared struggle against apartheid between South Africa and Palestine. In a brief address Jarrar

On Saturday the Salt River Heritage Society unveiled three new murals celebrating the history and politics of this inner-city Cape Town suburb.

Photos: James Stent

welcomed the “honouring of a living symbol”

Na’aim Saiet’s wall was used for part of the Palestinian mural. Saiet and his brother were born in District 6, but his family moved to Salt River when they were still toddlers – a story familiar to many Salt River families. Saiet said that the history of forced displacement was common to Palestinians and the people of Salt River.

in the mural of Judge Desai, and welcomed the use of walls as positive symbols rather than sites of division.

Imam Rashied Omar called the mural a tribute to the under-recognised Unity Movement of South Africa. “By choosing this image, we are correcting a lacuna in our history,” said Imam Omar. “Today we celebrate the taking back of our streets and our walls.”

Anwar Omar, vice-chair of the Salt River

Heritage Society (SRHS), told GroundUp that this event was to be the first of many. The society hopes to commission further murals and to hold similar events celebrating local culture and history every three months.

Omar said that often murals had been painted in the area that had no connection to local people or the culture, “a form of cultural gentrification”.

—groundup.org.za

For queries email: capehub115@da.org.za

VOTE IAN McMAHON Getting things DONE in Ward 115!

1 Nov 2021!

Mother City News

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28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Snapped: Grief isn’t pretty Theatre

Jennie Reznek and Carlo Daniels in Snapped. Photo by Mark Wessels

Steve Kretzmann To take a young version of yourself – as a child, perhaps – and hold them. Just hold them, and say sorry. Therein lies the poetry within the sentimental postcard injunction to ‘forgive yourself’.

To do so redeems both the child and the adult. Yet how we resist being kind to the one person who has it completely within their power to not throw it back at us. This, surely, is the ultimate indicator of how we judge ourselves. That we do, begs the question of against what standards are we doing the judging? This could range from our own parents, across an abstract idea of societal expectations, to religion, or even an entirely idiosyncratic ideal which by virtue of its existence is compromised.

Jennie Reznek doesn’t indicate which rulebook she expected herself to play by, but it doesn’t matter, because she turned around and forgave, the act of holding her past self enabling the letting go. Freedom, release, lightness, moving forward or at least moving, becoming unstuck. And part of that is throwing out the rule book, whatever it was.

It was one of the moments that saved, and gave meaning to her play, Snapped. Jennie conversing with a parallel version of herself

(are our younger selves not still living their lives in parallel) projected hanging upside down on one of a number of translucent sheets suspended as if wings within the wings of the Baxter’s Flipside Theatre. Noticing her anguish, her blood-suffused face and painful ankles, and reaching out to her, and taking her down and cradling her to her breast. But almost distractedly, as if it was an act not so much considered as simply the step that had to be taken. One can’t just leave a person hanging, especially when you’re the only one with the ability to cut her down. It’s as if this moment cannot be forced, arrived at with a self-awareness programme. As Jennie depicts it, it is a moment that you come across, at some stage, yet everything that has gone before has led you there. Much like, I suppose, the resolution of grief.

For grief is what Snapped is about. In this case, grief for a dead father. Fifteen years, says Jennie in the writer’s note on the programme. Fifteen years, she says, numerous times in her play. Fifteen years of being stuck in grief; this play being the lever to roll the boulder.

As writer she is clear about this: “Making this work was part of the process of getting unstuck.” There is no doubt this play is personal, and Jennie’s psyche, it seems, is messy. Layered, might be a more polite way

of saying it.

There are a lot of layers on stage; Floorto-ceiling translucent plastic sheets receding upstage on either side, three receding sections on the stage – two divided by a fallen tree and a stage upon the stage toward the back. Characters, or a character whose role is obscure, an omniscient crew member whose manipulation of the set is a gesture to the hand of God. Meta theatre. Visual projections speeding at 24 frames per second across it all some of the time and a section of it most of the time. Scenes ranging from large and expansive to small and contained.

It was the small and contained, ironically, that had the most impact, when Jennie was able to pull into herself and pull us in with her.

Partly perhaps because they were welcome breaks from the otherwise frenetic, loud ranting and despair.

Much of this kept me at a distance, detached, all being too much to absorb. With everything going on at once I was never sure where to look, flicking between stage and screen and missing everything in between so that after awhile I stopped looking. It got to the point of being an assault on the senses.

Artaud would’ve approved.

Which is to say, despite the poetry within the play, including the inspiration of her father’s World War II stretcher bearer as an infernal guide played by Carlo Daniels, and the contributions by eminent artists such as sound designer and composer Neo Muyanga, and director Mark Fleishman, Snapped was a difficult play to experience. Making sense of it was a struggle and it was in many ways ugly. Grief is rarely pretty. I found it too busy, too large, too loud, too much thrown at it, the constant flicker of images distracting. At the same time the people involved: Jennie, Mark, Neo, designer Craig Leo, videographer Kirsti Cumming, choreographer Ina Wichterich, are all too experienced to create a failure.

But nobody hits the mark all the time, and usually not all together. The moments of clarity, of synthesis, were too few for me to offer acclamation. Yet, despite the struggle, even those handful of moments were worth the price.

Snapped is on at the Baxter until October 2.

Shows are at 7pm with a Saturday matinee at 2pm. Ticket prices are R65 (for schools), R120 for the Early Bird special and R150 throughout.

There is an age restriction of 13 years and all Covid-19 protocols are strictly adhered to.

28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Mother City News

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Book reviews

A Pretoria Boy: The ‘public enemy number one’ who helped bring the Guptas down Peter Hain pissed off a lot of people in his lifetime. White people mostly, although you’d probably be hard pressed to find one who would admit it today. They were the kind of people who voted for the National Party during apartheid, or one of the political parties that existed even further to the right, incredibly. But today he is a hero.

That’s because Peter Hain, who is now Lord Peter Hain, was the man who, as a 19-yearold activist in the late 1960s, spearheaded the international sports boycott against apartheid South Africa that resulted the total sports isolation that helped tighten the screws against the racist state.

Of course it wasn’t completely off his own bat. Although working from London where his anti-apartheid activist parents Adelaide and Walter had essentially been exiled following detention and daily harassment in South Africa, he had mentors such as the poet and activist Denis Brutus, as well as Chris de Broglio of the SA non-racial Olympic committee, plus the moral support of his parents.

It’s almost difficult to believe now, but there were no rugby tours, cricket tours, and we were banned from the Olympics. This was through the ‘70s, ‘80s, right into the early

‘90s when the Springboks were still banned from the Rugby World Cup. The thinking was that economic sanctions would always be busted by corporate interests – which proved true in the case of the US, UK, France, and Israel – but for South Africa to be totally isolated from international sports would hit the sports-loving Afrikaner hard. And it did.

In his autobiography A Pretoria Boy, Hain writes that having grown up in South Africa, he was “from the South African psyche – pretty well all sports-mad, with Afrikaners especially fanatical about rugby”.

“I knew that international sport, whether the Springboks, the Olympics or a cricket tour, gripped the white nation as nothing else. Importantly, sport granted whites the international respectability and legitimacy they increasingly craved as the evil reality of apartheid began to be exposed by horrors such as the Sharpeville massacre.”

He writes how what ended up becoming an international boycott started with him leading a handful of activists onto the cricket pitch in the Essex town of Basildon in July 1969 to break up a private tour by an allwhite South African club side. Although there had been protests in England against South African all-white teams before, these took

the form of waving banners and shouting slogans. This was the first time a match had been disrupted. It was a tactic that took off, often putting the protesters in danger of being beaten by police or fanatic sports lovers who did not see the need to use sport as a political lever.

Fascinating as the insight into the activist frontline is – along with the dirty tricks played by the notoriously cruel South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS) as they tried to bring Hain down – it is the first part of the book that hit the hardest. This is where Hain writes about his boyhood in South Africa and his front-row seat as the eldest child, to the hardships his parents faced as anti-apartheid activists and leading members of the multi-racial Liberal Party prior to its forced disbandment in 1968 after the government banned parties from multiracial membership. It is a stark reminder of the remorseless cruelty of the apartheid government – something we tend to forget as the decades roll on and old memories scar over.

But A Pretoria Boy is more than a personal memoir of a singular boyhood and a subjective history of an aspect of the AntiApartheid Movement in the UK; Hain’s dry

observation of politics’ many absurdities are very funny, and it brings us up to date with his role in exposing Bell Pottinger and the Guptas while reminding us how far we’ve fallen as a country from those heady Mandela days of a new democracy. It is also, although probably without meaning to, a call to revive the passion for justice and equality that characterised the fight against oppression waged in the last century. Not just the passion, but also the dedication to integrity both personal and political, and creative use of the means at our disposal. Hain, nor any of the many activists both abroad and in South Africa, ever sought to be heroes.

They just decided they needed to act on their conscience, and took the first step.

weekends post-haste.

Darling Cellar Pyjama Bush Rosé – R65 @ The Darling Wine Shop Van Loveren Daydream – R74 @ Makro Groote Post Limited Release Pinot Noir

Rosé – R90 @ Groote Post Cellar Peter Falke Blanc de Noir – R160 @ Peter Falke Cellar Bon Courage Lady of the House Pinotage Rosé – R74,90 @ Spar Tops

Wine

Rosé – The Wine Rookie Sadé Allcock It is with equal parts excitement and trepidation that I announce that the wine column for Mother City News has moved to Joburg! The big smoke! While it might seem counterintuitive to write a wine column from the heart of Gauteng, fear not. I assure you the liquor stores here are just as well stocked as in the Western Cape, and so I will continue to taste lots of wine and work remotely even though there isn’t a vine in sight.

Over the last two years I seem to have vastly neglected one category of wine: rosé.

I didn’t mean to leave it out, it just fell by the wayside. Especially as my recent Chenin Blanc obsession (in the last six months I have written two columns on Chenin Blanc alone) has taken over my wine list. But no more, this month I plan to give rosé the spotlight it deserves.

Rosé can be made from any variety of red grape. The characteristic pink colour is created by leaving the grapes in contact with the skins for anything from 2 to 20 hours.

The grapes are then pressed and the skins discarded, leaving us with colours ranging from light onion skin to deep salmon.

By far my favourite cost-effective and delicious rosé is the Darling Cellars Reserve Pyjama Bush Rosé. However, a few other noteworthy rosé’s include the Van Loveren Daydream (a very light Chardonnay/ Pinot noir blend) and the Groote Post

Limited Release Pinot Noir Rosé (fresh and crisp with hints of Turkish delight and watermelon). Recently I have also tried the Peter Falke Blanc de Noir. The Blanc de Noir - literally meaning light from dark – is made from Cabernet sauvignon grapes.

The grapes are kept in minimum contact with the skins and the juice is immediately drained from the press. While the process is fascinating, I found the wine itself to be slightly underwhelming. Having so enjoyed the Peter Falke Sauvignon Blanc, I was expecting a well-rounded and medium bodied wine with flavours distinctive of a Cabernet sauvignon. Instead, I found it to be slightly sharp, although not unenjoyable. I do believe it would pair well with salads, particularly a pear, pecan nut and rocket or prosciutto, melon and mozzarella salad. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

I would also like to mention the Bon Courage Lady of the House Pinotage Rosé. This rosé is (obviously) made from Pinotage grapes and it has strong aromas of strawberries and slightly unripe nectarines.

On the palate it is light, fresh and tastes like rose petals, or maybe rose Turkish delight?

I can say for absolute certainty that it pairs beautifully with a plate of fresh berries and some almond nougat as an after-dinner treat.

In conclusion, let us raise a glass to good rosé and Cyril opening liquor stores on

Alcohol only for people over the age of 18, do not drink and drive.

Mother City News

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28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

About the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum

Section 26(4) of the NNR Act states that “The holder of a nuclear installation license must establish a public safety information forum as prescribed in order to inform the persons living in the municipal area in respect of which an emergency plan has been established on nuclear safety and radiation safety matters.”

What is the Public Safety Information Forum (PSIF)?

The PSIF is a meeting which takes place four times a year. It is used as a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to enquire about and receive nuclear safety related information from the facility.

Which topics are discussed?

The forum will address any topic that the members feel could impact their health, environment, and safety from a nuclear emergency preparedness point of view.

Who should attend?

All persons living within the municipal area around Koeberg, all affected and interested organisations or parties, and any other persons concerned about their health and safety from a nuclear and radiation safety point of view are welcome to attend the forum. Persons wishing to attend are requested to register as a member.

How do I register?

Kindly e-mail your details, i.e. full name, contact number, organisation (if applicable) or indicate whether you are a resident, to Debbie Joshua, Senior Advisor Stakeholder Management and Community Development (JoshuaD@eskom.co.za ).

When are the PSIF meetings held?

The remaining PSIF meeting dates for this year are: • Thursday, 30 September 2021; and • Thursday, 25 November 2021.

Koeberg PSIF

Public Safety Information Forum

This is a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station to receive and ask for nuclear safety related information from the facility.

All residents, interested parties and organisations are cordially invited to attend the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum (PSIF).

The details for the Forum are as follows: Agenda items • Announcement of the newly appointed Koeberg PSIF Deputy Chairperson • Koeberg quarterly feedback • Impact of COVID-19 on the animals in the Koeberg Nature Reserve Date

: Thursday, 30 September 2021

Time : 19:00 Please note that this will be a virtual meeting. Kindly RSVP to Debbie Joshua by sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za by 16:00 on Thursday, 23 September 2021.

Who to talk to For more information, contact Lewis Phidza, Koeberg Stakeholder Management Manager, via email (PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za). Alternatively, send an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za.

Due to COVID-19, the 2021 Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar was only distributed electronically.

Residents, schools, and businesses in the 16km radius of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station are reminded that the calendar contains important information about the Koeberg Emergency Plan.

Should you require a copy of the Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar, kindly request one by sending an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za.

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station R27 Off West Coast Road Melkbosstrand www.eskom.co.za

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd Reg No 2002/015527/30

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd Reg No 2002/015527/30

www. eskom.co.za

28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Mother City News

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False Covid-19 vaccine claim debunked Contrary to what misinformers claim, the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine does give you protection against Covid, and a second dose gives even more A South African news site, Biznews, that has become notorious for promoting misinformation about Covid has published an article that makes numerous misleading and false claims.

Biznews is not a member of the South African Press Council and therefore not subject to press ombudsman complaints or rulings.

The Biznews article explicitly states that immediately after being vaccinated with the first dose people are placed at greater risk of contracting Covid. The article specifically mentions the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines in this regard. (Since the Pfizer vaccine is being used in South Africa, we deal only with that here.)

The claim is nonsense and it is firmly debunked by a study published in the world’s leading medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine, last week. The study authors are the scientists who tested the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine. This is the most widely used vaccine in South Africa. The study presents the six-month data of the clinical trial that found this vaccine to be safe and effective.

The Pfizer vaccine protocol involves having

This graph from a paper published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine by Stephen Thomas and colleagues shows how effective the Pfizer vaccine is at preventing Covid. While one dose is much less effective than two, even after one dose there is a benefit. There is also not the slightest shred of evidence that people are at greater risk of Covid immediately after getting their first shot.

two doses several weeks apart.

The trial volunteers were randomly divided

myth that after the first shot you’re at greater risk of Covid.

Moreover, 30 of the 31 people on the trial

into two nearly equally sized groups: those who got the vaccine and those who got a

who got severe Covid were in the placebo

placebo (a harmless substance that does

group. This thoroughly refutes the idea that

nothing).

you’re more at risk of Covid after your first

Between the first and second dose on the

dose.

Another important finding from the study

trial, 110 people on the placebo contracted Covid versus 46 vaccine recipients. This

was that vaccine efficacy against Covid was

is a first dose vaccine efficacy of 58%. It’s

over 91% through six months of follow-up,

not nearly as effective as efficacy after the

albeit that there was a gradual decline in

second dose but it thoroughly debunks the

vaccine efficacy with time. “Vaccine efficacy

Hundreds demand action against climate change outside Parliament

against severe disease was 96.7%” the paper states. In South Africa, the vaccine was 100% effective over the duration of the study, though this was while the beta variant was dominant. Since then, the delta variant has become dominant here.

The authors concluded: “Through 6 months of follow-up and despite a gradual decline in … efficacy, [the vaccine] had a favourable safety profile and was highly efficacious in preventing Covid-19.”

—GroundUp

GARDEN LANDSCAPING

Call for an end to the use of fossil fuel for electricity production by 2035 About 200 people from all walks of life picketed outside Parliament in Cape Town on Heritage Day, calling for the government to take urgent action against climate change. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Creative garden design and landscaping solutions.

• Garden design and implementation • Many years of experience landscaping in the Western Cape • Hard landscaping - dry pack stone retention walls, stone cladding, stairs and pathways • Fynbos and indigeneous garden experts

About 200 demonstrators gathered outside Parliament on Friday calling for the government to take urgent action against climate change. The protest forms part of a week-long series of events by civil society and other organisations, calling for the transformation of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE).

The group’s demands included the introduction of climate change literacy in schools; an end to the use of fossil fuel for electricity production by 2035; and the establishment of a Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee focused on climate change.

Sarah Robyn Farrell, advocacy coordinator at the African Climate Alliance (ACA), said that they are calling on the government

“to take the silence behind climate change seriously”. Farrell also highlighted communities currently being affected by mining.

High school learner Raadiyah Sonday said, “Climate change is an ongoing issue for everybody”. She said that it was incredibly important that the youth participate in these protests.

Sonday said that it was important to hold the government accountable for its inaction.

“I’d like to see the government take into account what activists are saying,” she said, adding that despite talk of change, “we can’t see it”.

The event on Friday forms part of a global climate strike, and was arranged by organisations including the ACA, 350Africa. org, Eastern Cape Environmental Network, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace Africa and Green Connection.

Cell: 072 480 2685 Email: info@livingscapes.co.za Web: www.livingscapes.co.za

-mcn-18x13

Ashraf Hendricks - GroundUp

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond

Spring has sprung (sort of), the grass has ris... theatre’s are staging plays, little festival events are tentatively coming alive, and even clubs such as Evol are doing the phoenix thing. After 18 months of staying home on weekends, a sort of Stockholm Syndrome has set in; it feels weird to go off to the theatre as the sun is setting. Like, what do you mean it’s Friday night and we’re not going to Netflix and chill?

But even with the masking and all of that, it’s worth it. A few minutes in and you remember how lekka it is to bump into people you know and have a catch up. Besides, how long this window of opportunity is going to last is anyone’s guess, you know, fourth wave in December is on the warning cards. Listen to what Janis Joplin says and get it while you can.

Theatre The incredible Jennie Reznek is presenting Snapped at the Baxter until this Saturday 2 October. There’s a whole review on it on page 4, and whatever The Critter had to say, clearly they was impressed. We reckon you’ll be too. Tickets cost R150, book through baxter.co.za.

Our own Cape Town-born award-winning playwright and author Nadia Davids, who brought us At Her Feet and What Remains, has got a new play for us. Called Hold Still, it involves a progressive inter-racial couple who have to confront their traumatic pasts and prejudices when their son provides refuge for a stranger in their home. Directed by Mdu Kweyama, it features Mojisola Adebayo and Lionel Newton and runs from 15 to 30 October in the Baxter’s Golden Arrow Studio. Tickets from R125, book through baxter.co.za.

If you haven’t yet heard, the Centre for the Less Good Idea, established by that rather amazing person William Kentridge, has been bringing forth fantastic experiments in art and performance in Joburg, and essentially keeping entire networks of artists alive. It’s a frothing test tube of creative endeavour and you don’t have to go to Jozi to watch what’s bubbling over. Of course you should if you can, there’s nothing quite like live, but you can watch a lot of what’s presented online. Go to The Centre for the Less Good Idea YouTube channel. Season 7 is on the slab at the mo, and there’s loads of work from previous seasons, including interviews and an open studio session with Kentridge himself. Go get a shot of Jozi in your veins.

Dance There’s a lot that can be said about ballet, not all of it complimentary, but for all its stricture, it certainly brings forth grace. Our international star from Gugulethu, Mamela Nyamza, was schooled in the Western discipline, and has conceptualised it into a series of jaw-dropping works. A display of works by the De Monyencourt School of Ballet is guaranteed a treat for pre-schoolers and Grade 1s. It’ll definitely give them something to talk about and re-enact for days. Take them, whatever gender. The school is presenting #25 years, #25 dances with a programme for minis, and longer one for eight-year-olds and upwards. At the Baxter from 7 – 9 October, there is a matinee. Tickets cost R100 for the mini programme and R150 for full length. Book through baxter.co.za.

For adult ballet enthusiasts (and anyone loving a dance spectacle), Cape Town City Ballet has brought Carmen back to the Artscape. It’s on until 2 October. A ticket to this story of love and war and betrayal and tragedy cost between R250 and R350. Book on Computicket. It looks beautiful.

Literature On the east side, Poetry Africa is celebrating the imagination from 11 to 16 October. As with other arts festivals in these dystopic days, much, if not all of it, is online. Poetry Africa will satisfy your cravings for the word with panels, slams and jams featuring our best writing and speaking minds along with an international coterie of the same calibre. Let them synthesise our world for you at poetryafrica.ukzn.ac.za

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28 SEPTEMBER TO 25 OCTOBER, 2021

Music jols Evol is resurrecting itself out of the lockdown ashes on Saturday 9 October with five live acts headed up by heavy indie heroes Yndian Mynah; a Holy Funk DJ set; photo exhibition; and a beer-pong tournament, which we suppose is a way to get your competitive streak to make you drink more beer. Covid rules apply (to entry, not beer-pong) but its anyone’s guess how long the rules will hold once the party gets going (masked balls, anyone?) Tickets cost R150 online at Quiket, R200 at the door at 69 Hope Street.

If you dig your beats and smaak the whole secret location vibe, Dwson’s ‘Nova’ single release party organised by Doperoom will scratch your electronic itch on Friday October 1. Type qkt. ip/FnPzlj into your browser and hit enter. Tickets cost R80, party starts at 5pm.

People are trying to do something with The Rubricate Speakeasy. It’s this new place at the top of Long Street and the inaugural is a music production and engineering workshop that is also a jol, of sorts. And you can buy cheap tickets or shell out loads for a special table and one-onones with the presenters plus get a t-shirt and a bucket of booze and so on. It’s something, for sho, and good on that, it maybe a thing. There’s product reviews and walkthroughs and industry tips and whatnot. It’s this Saturday 2 October from 2pm and you can get a ticket on Quicket. Take a shortcut via qkt.io/rubeasy

Food and drink Oysters are aphrodisiacs, apparently. This has more to what they look like than their nutritional attributes increasing testosterone (thankgod, think we’ve got enough to go around). Anyway, they’re sexy, and anyone who doesn’t enjoy slipping the wet, soft, interior parts of a mollusc down their throats and topping it off with Champagne, isn’t. So if you’re keen to get more business time, there’s an oyster festival going down at Quay 4, Ferryman’s and Mitchell’s at the V&A Waterfront from 8 – 17 October. Costs R60 per person and besides entrance so you can eat oysters and be lewd from 11am onward, it gets you an oyster festival shooter glass and three signature oyster shots of your choice. No, we do not know what an oyster shot is.