Mother City News 26 August - 25 September 2020

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WARNING: May contain strong language

26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond.

Province gives a nudge to River Club development Environmental Authorisation given to mega development despite outstanding heritage matters and planning framework inconsistencies

A massive development including multiple 10-storey buildings at the River Club has been pushed one step closer to realisation with the granting of Environmental Authorisation by the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs & Development Planning on 20 August. The development within an area acknowledged to be of very high heritage significance as it was the original site of conflict between the Dutch settlers and indigenous peoples, is being opposed by civil society groups.

The River Club currently hosts a driving range, nine-hole Mashie golf course, pub, and conference facilities. Photo: Steve Kretmann

Steve Kretzmann The next step towards a massive R4 billion development on the contested River Club site in Observatory has been authorised by the provincial government.

The Environmental Authorisation granted by the Western Cape Department of

Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) comes despite the development being inconsistent with existing development frameworks, and sustained civil society opposition.

Further, the River Club falls within the Two Rivers Urban Park (TRUP), which Heritage Western Cape has stated “could be regarded as one of the single most

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historically significant sites in the country” as it was the site of the first conflict between European settlers and the country’s original inhabitants.

Nevertheless, the authorisation allows the property owners, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, to move ahead with applications for rezoning the 14.8ha of land from its current Open Space designation, and to apply for

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a departure from the current Local Spatial Development Framework which does not allow for mixed development in what is partly a floodplain at the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers.

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26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

From Page 1

Province gives a nudge to River Club development It is worth noting that one of the City of Cape Town’s main reasons for not considering the existing Rondebosch Golf Club, which land it owns, for the development of affordable housing as advocated by Reclaim The City, is because much of it comprises a floodplain for the Black River.

And given the City of Cape Town, DEADP, and the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) support for the developers’ appeal against a two-year heritage protection process, it may be assumed the support will continue as the developers seek their rezoning and departure authorisations.

The appeal against a two-year heritage protection order The go ahead given by DEADP on 20 August comes after the lapse of a twoyear provisional protection order invoked

by Heritage Western Cape (HWC) in order to protect the site from the threat of development. This threat was sparked by the developer’s notice of intent to develop submitted in 2016. The provisional protection order invoked in April 2018 was appealed by Liesbeek Leisure Properties, who were backed by the City of Cape Town, and DEADP, as well as the DTPW. The appeal was dismissed in a scathing ruling by the Independent Tribunal operating under the auspices of the provincial Department of Culture, Sport, and Recreation.

The provisional protection ended on 21 April this year but the full mapping and identification of all the heritage resources in the Two Rivers Urban Park by HWC, although submitted, still needs to be signed off. This process has been delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions affecting the HWC’s ability to consult with all interested and affected parties. DEADP has given the Environmental Authorisation despite this process not yet being finalised.

Enabling the developer’s plan Liesbeek Leisure Properties bought the River Club for R12 million excluding VAT from Transnet in 2015. The company is headed by Jody Aufrichtig who has led the controversial development of the Biscuit Mill and Wex apartments in lower Woodstock.

It currently houses a nine-hole Mashie golf course, pub and restaurant, and conference facilities.

The proposed development will see the existing floodplain being filled in and the construction of multiple buildings, some of them up to 10-storeys high, in order to create an office, retail, and residential complex.

Only 20% of the complex is set aside for residential purposes, and only 20% of that is to be set aside for affordable housing. What constitutes ‘affordable’ has not been seen to be determined.

Currently the development is contrary to the existing Two Rivers Urban Park Contextual Framework of 2003 which designates the area as open space, as well as the Table Bay District Spatial Development Plan of 2012. Even the overarching 2018 Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework for the metropole, which DEADP refers to in its motivation for granting

environmental authorisation, designates the Two Rivers Urban Park as one of the city’s ‘natural destination places’ alongside Table Mountain and the Company’s Garden.

Rather, in its 31-page Environmental Authorisation, DEADP leans on the proposed development being “largely consistent with the draft Two Rivers Local Spatial Development Framework”.

DEADP notes: “The Two River LSDF identified the area as a significant area of underutilised state owned and private land.

The ecological role of the river corridors and the cultural and built heritage of the area must be enhanced.”

However, the Two River (sic) LSDF remains a draft. The background to the proposed new LSDF is that it was initiated to update and replace the 2003 contextual framework in the same year Liesbeek Leisure bought the land.

The consultant initially hired by the City to update the contextual framework to a local spatial development framework “came under significant pressure – from both the City and provincial authorities”, writes Crispian Olver in his book A House Divided, which examines the City of Cape Town administration based on research for his PhD. Based on Olver’s interviews, there was pressure for the consulting company “to amend their technical reports, which advised against the project as it was conceived, on the grounds that it was located on a floodplain, which also happened to be of great historical significance.

“When they refused, their contracts were not renewed and the plan was put on hold,” wrote Olver.

A new consulting company was then appointed, which has developed the new draft LSDF which allows for the River Club development.

Intangible heritage The authorisation also comes despite the developer’s Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA), which they have to submit in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act and the National Environmental Management Act, having being roundly rejected by the HWC in February.

In their Final Comment of 13 February, the HWC stated the HIA submitted by Liesbeek Leisure Properties did not comply with the provisions of the National Heritage Resources Act and DEADP had to resolve all the heritage related issues before taking a decision.

It is uncontested that the confluence of the Liesbeek and Black Rivers was a meeting place for various Khoi houses, with the banks lush with grazing for their cattle, and also the site of the first conflict over land as the Dutch settled and expanded their garrison for farming. It is also an area where the Khoi fought and defeated the Portuguese invaders led by Viceroy Francisco D’Almeida in 1510. This heritage does not exist in tangible buildings or artifacts, but within the intangible heritage of land and topography.

Heritage Western Cape has stated that the Two Rivers Urban Park as a whole should at least be provided with provincial heritage status, while its national body, the SA Heritage Resources Association,

A scarecrow guards the far end of the River Club site, the owners of which have received Environmental Authorisation for a megadevelopment on the site.

Photo: Steve Kretzmann

has suggested it be graded as a site of national importance. However, HWC CEO Mxolisi Dlamuka has said the heritage body requires a submission for such a grading. The Observatory Civic Association (OCA) has this year submitted an application for provincial heritage grading, which is being processed.

Civics hold the democratic line There has been strong and consistent civil society opposition to the development since 2017, including significant voluntary time sacrificed during the tribunal’s heritage hearings, with preparations and submissions by the Observatory Civic Association, Two Rivers Urban Park Association, the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council, as well as other First Nations traditional councils, and supported by residents’ civic associations of Mowbray, Rondebosch, and Pinelands.

The OCA, which intends to appeal the DEADP’s “deeply flawed” Environmental Authorisation, states it was “based on a Heritage Impact Assessment that was rejected by Heritage Western Cape” and “failed to recognise the heritage resource which is the site”.

Regarding the development planning framework that “does not currently permit a mixed use development in the floodplain”, the civic body stated: “We have seen the City scurrying to rush through a new LSDP for the TRUP to legitimate the development but that process still needs approval.”

The Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Indigenous Traditional Council stated: “It is unfortunate to see ignored in the decision the thousands of people who objected including the discontent expressed by reputable institutions in architecture, heritage, environmental agencies, and from the Khoi and San. This DEA&DP decision is therefore both morally reprehensible as it is professionally indefensible.”

Both civic bodies vowed to continue to defend heritage and environment from illconsidered development.

“We stand together because we want a City that works for everyone, not just those with the privilege of power, money and influence,” stated the OCA.

Developer’s stance Aufrichtig, who is Liesbeek Leisure Properties’ trustee and spokesperson, stated the planned development “will be a significant boost to the economy and people of Cape Town in the aftermath of the national Covid-19 lockdown”.

Aufrichtig claimed it would create over 6 000 direct jobs, including 5 239 jobs during the construction phase, providing “a critical lifeline to the construction industry”.

“Further employment will be created by the tenants that will occupy the offices, residential and retail spaces that will form part of the development,” states Aufrichtig.

He further states the project “will also serve as a first-of-its-kind landmark in the City for the First Nations people to reclaim, memorialise and share their heritage with the greater public”. This will be in the form of a cultural and media centre operated “by the First Nations people”, the inclusion of First Nation symbols within the architecture, an indigenous garden, and a heritage eco-trail and ampitheatre.

These heritage aspects, which were included toward the end of the planning process, came after Liesbeek Leisure consulted with a grouping identifying itself as the First Nations Collective, which was formed in December last year. The groupings making up the First Nations Collective, with Zenzile Khoisan as its spokesperson, were initially opposed to the development. The legitimacy of the First Nations Collective has not been recognised by a number of Khoi traditional houses who remain opposed to the development on what they consider to be sacred ancestral land.

Khoisan, via a letter in the Cape Argus on 25 August, stated the inclusion of the media centre, eco-trail, architectural symbols, and indigenous garden within the development makes it the “first development of its kind where the memorialisation of our heritage has been properly secured with a plan that will secure our people for the next seven generations”.

The DEADP, in response to questions, said they were responsible for administering applications under the relevant legislation and “do not support or promote development proposals”. DEADP said the public participation requirements were met.

26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

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Golf clubs under pressure amidst housing crisis Steve Kretzmann and Peter Luhanga A City notice advertising the renewal of a 10-year lease on the 49ha King David Mowbray Golf Club for R11,500 per annum, which sparked a campaign and petition for the well-situated public land to be used for affordable housing, has been withdrawn.

The notice was placed by the City of Cape Town on 24 July ahead of the expiry of the golf club’s current 10-year lease. It followed a similar 10-year lease renewal notice for the adjacent 45ha Rondebosch Golf Club, situated directly across the Black River, which was advertised in February this year.

In the midst of a housing crisis, exacerbated by economic crisis due to the Covid-19 lockdown which saw 109 land invasions across the city in the last two months alone by people seeking to erect homes, the renewal of cheap leases for golf clubs on prime City-owned open land has not been well received by activists and residents struggling to house themselves.

Living on land along the railway reserve which runs past Dunoon, 39-year-old Sibongile Mbodlela shares her two-room shack with her husband and four children in the Siyahlala informal settlement.

Mbodlela, who has been living there since she came from the Eastern Cape in 1995 to seek an urban lifestyle and work opportunities, has no running water and has to share an infrequently-cleaned communal toilet with up to five other families.

She said living conditions were overcrowded and unsanitary, but the golf course in Rondebosch or Mowbray could be used to build accommodation for all the families in Siyahlala informal settlement..

“There are 1500 shacks here. Toilets are dirty and filthy. Greywater runs in between shacks. There are no available open spaces.

There is no place for children to play,” said Mbodlela.

She said people’s lives are more important than playing golf.

Before participating in the occupation of the Dunoon municipal sports field in 2018, Yanga Nkohla had been living in a backyard shack since 2006, first in Khayelitsha before relocating to Dunoon in 2010.

Nkohla said he participated in the land invasion because he was unable to find steady work and was unable to pay rent for a shack.

Speaking to GroundUp while building a second storey on his shack, he said renewing the golf clubs’s leases “is bullshit”.

“White people don’t want us close to them.

They say we drink and make noise. They don’t want us near them. That is why they would prioritise golf as opposed to housing for accommodation.”

Notice of the Rondebosch Golf Club lease renewal led to affordable housing movement Reclaim The City obtaining 1 660 objections that were handed to the City prior to the 9 March deadline for public comment, according to researcher Michael Clark at Ndifuna Ukwazi, an affiliated organisation.

A decision on the renewal of the lease for the Rondebosch Golf Club has yet to be made, the City has stated in response to questions, and the notice for renewal of the Mowbray golf club lease has been withdrawn as it “was placed prematurely”, stated their email.

The reason given was the application received by King David Mowbray Golf Club to renew the lease “relates to a significant right to be granted the use and management of

Busy adding on a second storey to his shack in Dunoon, built upon the invaded municipal sports fields in Dunoon, Yanga Nkohla said land was prioritised for golf courses rather than houses because “white people don’t want us close to them”. Photo: Peter Luhanga

The well-located land used by the King David Mowbray Golf Club is being mooted by housing activist movement Reclaim The City as ideal for affordable housing.

an immovable property asset, i.e. potentially being a period of more than three years and involving an asset value of over R10 million”, and thus “will first be placed before Council for authority to advertise”.

The notice for renewal of the Rondebosch Golf Club lease did proceed through council.

When it appeared for approval by Subcouncil 16, it was passed after a short debate on advocacy for affordable housing, with the reasoning being that a housing development takes up to five years to pass through the various planning processes and tender awards before ground is broken, thus, were any development decision initiated, the two year notice period within the lease could be initiated at the appropriate time.

The City has yet to take a decision on the lease renewal for Rondebosch Golf Club, stating all comments and objections received would be considered and “placed before the delegated authority in the final decision making process”.

The City has since reconsidered the annual tariff for golf course leases. In February, at the time of the notice for renewal of the Rondebosch Golf Course lease, it was

reported as R920 per annum, but in May it was increased by Council to R10 000 per year, excluding VAT. While it is a ten-fold increase, the annual lease amounts remain “incredibly low”, state Ndifuna Ukwazi, adding that it “masks the City’s failure to redistribute public land”.

In the midst of a dire need for housing across the city, which is related to 109 land invasions across the city in the last two months alone, the King David Mowbray and Rondebosch Golf Clubs occupy 94ha (equivalent to 94 rugby fields) of well-located land close to schools, hospitals, light industry, and within easy reach of the city centre. The golf clubs are also close to transport nodes.

The Metrorail Cape Flats line connecting the city centre to Pinelands, Athlone, Lansdowne and Ottery runs through the middle of the Mowbray golf course.

Calculations publicised by Ndifuna Ukwazi put the golf clubs’ proposed new rentals at R19.36 per hectare per month, and note this is less than the cost of two litres of milk.

“The City continues to asses City-owned land,” said mayco member for human settlements, Malusi Booi. This includes

“suitable land in and near the Cape Town CBD and other urban centres to determine whether some of these properties could be developed for affordable housing opportunities”.

Booi said “all workable options” were being considered “to see how to increase the affordable accommodation stock in Cape Town or to help enable the provision of more stock in the market”.

He said tackling the challenge, which was not unique to Cape Town, required partnerships.

An updated Human Settlements Strategy that “clearly stipulates the City’s human settlements agenda” would be made public in September for civic engagement.

He said the department has a capital budget of R812m for the 2020/21 financial year and has R1.3 billion worth of projects underway “or in the pipeline in the short and medium-term”.

There are over 300 000 people formally registered on the City’s Housing Needs Register, the informal need is estimated to be significantly higher.

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26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

Food review

Bollocks for burgers Sadé Allcock The lockdown has decimated the restaurant industry. A drive up Long Street alone gives some indication of the impact.

Eatery after restaurant after coffee shop is shuttered, furniture and fittings removed, and a ‘To Let’ sign on the window. This meant my desire for a Saturday afternoon burger in town was frustrated by the original home of the Cape Town gourmet burger, the Royale Eatery, being closed.

However, down a the nondescript Roodehek side street off Buitenkant, The Dogs Bollocks, a rather unassuming, lowlying building covered in plants that houses ‘the best burgers in Cape Town’, saved the day. There was cold craft beer on tap (an ale and a lager) and good old blues tunes crooning from the speakers.

I arrived in the late afternoon, early enough to beat the dinner rush but still late enough to see the clientele begin to trickle in. An original hipster sat at the table adjacent to mine, disassembling and cleaning his film camera. There was a couple having predrinks (tequila shots at 5pm – yikes), a father and two sons out for a meal, and a group of friends meeting up for the first time in months. Clearly this eatery appeals to all types – a good sign.

I ordered a Devils Peak lager and – since I came for the burgers – a cheeseburger with a beef patty. All of their burgers come with

replete with the full works – mixed greens, tomato, mayo, onions and gherkins on a sesame seed bun. Be warned, the burger is as big as a dinner plate, but it is good.

Really good. Soft bun, firm and juicy patty, melty cheese, correct sauce ratio. It hit all the spots for my burger craving. The chips however were just chips. Nothing different or remarkable about them. But since you’re going for the burger, the chips don’t need to be exceptional. Wash it all down with a cold pint of beer – delicious.

Their menu boasts a variety of burgers, Mexican Chilli & Cheese, Prego, Jalapeño & Cheese, and Pepperberry Blue, as well as an assortment of pizza’s so there’s something for everyone, whether you toe the line or you’re the courageous foodie type.

However, beware going during peak times; while my waiter was perfectly courteous, they are well known for hurling abuse at their clientele in the name of humour. Although of course, most Capetonians hungry to spice up their evening meal love it. Furthermore, orders for the kitchen and bar are hollered out at the highest decibel, leading to a vibrant atmosphere.

The Dogs Bollocks has been around for nine years, so they are well established and loved by their Cape Town clientele. A late-night haunt they are usually open until 11:30pm, however they are currently closing on curfew, at 10pm. Damn you, curfew.

Wine

Mulling the options for cold winter nights Sadé Allcock I think we can all agree at this point that it has been a wet and rainy season. Cape Town’s first proper winter in three years. I had almost forgotten what real cold felt like and how it can be dreary, overcast and drizzly for days on end. The Cape of Storms has truly lived up to its name and I have been huddled inside with blankets and fires and mulled wine to try and keep out the chill. Mulled wine or glühwein is a popular winter drink in Europe. It is traditionally made with red wine and various spices, and drunk around Christmas time. Cold winter nights around this time of year always nostalgically makes me think of sipping my little paper cup of glühwein in the lobby of the Labia waiting to see a movie. Since there is no possibility of standing in the crowded lobby of my favourite cinema this year, I decided to try my own hand at glühwein. It is surprisingly easy to make; all you need are a few key spices (cloves, cardamom, cinnamon), some shitty wine (box wine, half-drunk bottles and leftover plonk) and orange peel and sugar. Measure it out, pop it all in a big pot, stir over a low heat for about 20 mins and Bob’s your uncle. Serve it hot and it is a sweet and delicious drink that warms you from the inside out on chilly evenings. Be careful however, the high sugar content can cause the alcohol to go straight to your head. A couple of glasses down and you are likely well on your way to tipsy.

If the thought of mulled wine doesn’t appeal to you, I also have two other recently acquired favourites to recommend. Both are

dark reds, suitable for cold August evenings.

The first is the La Verne 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon for R60. Cheap and cheerful, this wine is soft and balanced. With hints of plums it is an excellent easy drinking wine for a casual night in and an absolute bargain if ever I saw one. I bought several bottles at the La Verne Wine Boutique in the small town of Robertson, but you can skip the day trip and

order it online.

Also highly enjoyable is the Vondeling 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine gives off strong and unusual aromas of blackcurrants and coriander as well as wood. I paired it with a hearty butternut soup and it went down a treat. It is stronger on the acidity and the tannins and so could probably benefit from resting another year, but it is currently

good value for money at R138 (Liquor City Claremont).

Finally, let’s hope we have seen the last of the ban on booze so that we can get back to enjoying our simple vices in peace.

Drink responsibly and not at all if you’re under-18.

26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

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Book review – non fiction

The SADF and Cuito Cuanavale: War has no winners Steve Kretzmann Although we as a species appear to have an insatiable appetite for repeating past mistakes, if there is any hope of learning from history, we need to have the history to learn from. And history is not a single account, it needs to be documented from all sides, which is why one of the latest additions to what has been written about the Border War, historian Leopold Scholtz’s creditable book ‘The SADF and Cuito Cuanavale’ published earlier this year, is worth reading.

Cuito Cuanavale was not one battle, but a series of six that took place from October 1987 to March 1988, leaving thousands of soldiers dead, wounded, and emotionally scarred.

Scholtz does not write a ripping tale of war between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and Angola’s Forças Armadas Populares de Libertação (Fapla). Far from it.

His writing is dry and his turn of phrase as simple as a key turning a lock. Daresay there is not a metaphor within its 230 pages, barely a simile. Paradoxically, his strict historian’s approach is what give the facts their punch.

Unlike a Wilbur Smithian account which could be dismissed as fanciful, it is difficult to turn away from a sentence describing Fapla’s total defeat in the first battle at the Lomba River: “Those still alive fled towards the river, where the South Africans mowed them down in their hundreds until Bok Smit took pity and stopped the carnage.”

Or, when it came to the single South African death in that first battle: “After the first pause, one Ratel 90, commanded by Second Lieutenant Adrian Hind, was shot out by an enemy tank. Hind was grievously wounded and died.”

The minimal use of adjectives, combined with attention to technical detail, is surprisingly devastating as it creates a foundation on which imagination can evoke the heat, dust, smoke, smell of sweat and

cordite, the blood, adrenaline, fear, diesel and metal and beneath it all, the loss. Not just the loss of life. For those who survived, it was the loss of the last vestige of innocence.

Particularly given the conscripts from 4 South African Infantry (4 SAI), mostly plucked straight from school and into a year of harsh training, were “thrown straight into battle”.

One could equally read it as a well written and largely objective report, which is tempting as allowing imagination to take root led to a sense of mourning for the young men pushed to the front line of a war they did not understand. This applies equally to the young men, many barely beyond boyhood, who made up the Fapla forces and who were by many accounts terrified of the might of the monstrous SADF. Scholtz mentions how, after an entire Fapla Brigade is wiped out, the Angolans had to recruit new soldiers, many of them by force. The official but contested death toll stands at between 31 and 47 of South Africa’s well-trained force, while on Faplas side, it is 4,785. Then there were the soldiers fighting for South Africa’s Angolan ally, Unita, whose deaths were never tallied, but estimated at 1,500.

The SADF’s lack of concern over their ally’s welfare is noted: “As Gerhard Oosthuizen writes: ‘Thorough research [in the SANDF Documentation Centre] in Pretoria confirmed that this indifference concerning Unita casualties, as well as a perspective about Unita’s contributions, was a general tendency in SADF circles’.”

However, there are glimpses of how Unita forces became cannon fodder, almost literally. Scholtz reproduces a note by Colonel Fred Oelschig, an SADF liaison officer with Unita, which provides a “horrifying picture” of what happened to the Unita fighters who were ordered to ride into the last battle on the outside of the tanks.

It was a battle in which the SADF suffered a humiliating and final defeat.

“Unfortunately they [the attacking force] drove straight into a very strong defence

system of Fapla… The crossfire from these weapons cut through the exposed Unita soldiers and they suffered heavy casualties.

After that horror stories came out of Unita bodies getting in the tanks’way, with gruesome results. About 400 bodies were then buried in a mass grave.”

It is important that history is accurate, but beyond the record, what emerges from Scholtz’s book is not just the horror of the war, but its pointlessness. The pointlessness of South Africa’s racist regime, the pointlessness of its efforts to prop up the losing faction of a civil war, and the fact that it was all just a proxy war between the USA and Russia to begin with.

What Scholtz’s book also makes apparent

The Discomfort of You People How Much of These Hills is Gold Evening by Marieke by Nikita Lucas Rijneveld

by C Pam Zhang Lalwani Beautifully written book featuring two children as they try survive the American wilderness and mining towns after their parents die. It is quite dark and violent but the book makes up for it in being stunningly written, focusing a lot on the beauty and desolation of the American west. It deals with ideas of immigration, who gets to own the land, how settlers destroyed the landscape in their search for gold and mink and coal, gender expression, and racism against the Chinese people who also went over for a new life but got pushed out by white settlers. I found the last quarter a bit rushed though, and I don’t usually say this, but this book could have been 100 pages longer.

The story follows 12-yearold Jas as her family struggle with the grief and guilt of losing a child.

It twists together her dealing with the loss, and coming of age and sexual expression in a family and space that is hyper religious and uncommunicative, in a rural Dutch farm community. The book is quite twisted but still brilliant. The writing (it is in translation) is sparse and clipped so it keeps the novel from reading as melodramatic. It was shortlisted for the international Booker recently.

Set in London, around a restaurant run by a mysterious do-gooder.

Some of the employees are undocumented Sri Lankan migrants while others are working class Brits. The novel shifts between the points of view of four main characters and it’s so well written.

It’s a novel about people struggling to deal with situations in which they find themselves, with a sideline in human trafficking.

Very sensitive writer, for those who enjoyed Travellers by Helon Habila, and others. Highly recommended.

is that the mighty, feared, oppressive behemoth that was the South African Apartheid regime, was essentially a cabal of insecure bully boys who manipulated its white electorate through disseminating fear and hatred, while the fearsome SADF was dogged by incompetence and headstrong stupidity among its top generals who thought nothing of sending young men with hopes and futures, to kill and be killed by an enemy that didn’t even want to fight.

In that respect his book unwittingly provides a perspective that inspires a desire for understanding and healing, not only within South Africa’s disparate populace, but for the entire southern African region.

The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser Definitely a dense read, but well worth the time. Gevisser does an excellent job of condensing an incredible amount of information into a cohesive narrative spanning the globe over the last two decades. What struck me most was the space the book opens for individual and collective exploration. It paints the LGBTQIA2+ movement as very much a work in progress, one which has only just begun revealing the opportunities for societal growth and reinvention. Must-read for anyone interested in issues of queerness and other marginalised identities.

Short reviews supplied by staff of The Book Lounge, the best indi bookstore in Cape Town.

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26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

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 email your details, i.e. full name, contact number, organisation (if applicable) or indicate whether you are a resident, to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za or contact tel. +27 21 550 4238.

When are the PSIF meetings held?

Dates for the meetings are published in the annual Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar, which residents around the station would have received in January 2020. The PSIF meeting dates for this year are: • Thursday, 17 September 2020; and • Thursday, 26 November 2020.

Who to talk to For more information, contact Lewis Phidza, Koeberg Stakeholder Management Manager, at tel. +27 21 550 5758 or send an email to PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za. Alternatively contact Debbie Joshua at tel. +27 21 550 4238 or send an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za Should you not have received a Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar and are a resident in the 16km radius of the station (Urgent Protective Action Zone), please contact the Koeberg Stakeholder Management Department at tel. +27 21 550 4238.

26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

Mother City News

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Why don’t more homeless people go to shelters?

Fozia Kammies and Anselm Sauls met at a night shelter and are now a couple. They sleep in the mountains. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Most are full, say homeless people in response to City of Cape Town James Stent There’s an increase in the numbers of homeless people refusing to go into shelters, says the City of Cape Town. GroundUp talked to some people living on the streets to find out why.

On 6 August Zahid Badroodien, Cape Town’s Mayco Member for Community Services and Health, said in an interview with Lester Kiewit on KFM, that more and more homeless people are refusing social assistance and refusing to enter shelters.

He also said the City was conducting a review of its “Street People Policy”, to be completed by 10 October 2020. A wide range of people and organisations are to be consulted in the process, to be led by Melene Rossouw, executive director of the Women Lead movement and Lorenzo Davids, CEO of Community Chest.

Anselm Sauls and Fozia Kammies have been together for three years. They met at a night shelter in the northern suburbs. Sauls has been homeless for over a decade, and Kammies about four years. They live on the slopes of Table Mountain.

Kammies was born and grew up in Plettenberg Bay. Both her parents were killed in a car crash. She was moved to Cape Town to stay with her aunt, but her aunt was addicted to tik and Kammies ran away, thinking her best chance at survival would be on the street.

Sauls used to work in Johannesburg, laying vinyl floors. He says he was involved in large projects such as Charlotte Maxeke Hospital, O.R. Tambo International Airport, Helen Joseph Hospital, and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. An alcohol problem cost him his job and he landed on the streets of Cape Town ten years ago. The lockdown alcohol ban provided the break that he needed to quit alcohol, he says. He has since noticed a huge change in his health, and has developed an insatiable love of coffee.

Both have spent time in a few shelters, mostly run by the Haven, and met in the shelter which took Kammies in soon after she landed on the streets. She lived there for a year and a half, but, say the couple, most shelters do not generally encourage long stays and people are encouraged to leave after three months. Kammies said that she “found peace” during that time.

Sauls says a person seeking entry to a shelter may have to wait outside the shelter in a queue for most of the day.

There is a severe shortage of shelter options for the city’s homeless. The number of beds available is far fewer than the homeless population, though a new shelter has opened housing for 96 people at an extension of the Culemborg Safe Space.

“Auntie Kar”, the name a homeless person we spoke to chooses to be called, says that she has stopped even trying to get into shelters anymore. Now 59, she was born in Salt River, and has lived on the streets for her entire adult life, apart from short prison terms. She works as a car guard at the Buitenkant Street Fruit & Veg City.

“Auntie Kar” says she has been turned away, as recently as two months ago, for lack of space, even when directed towards shelters by City officials. She says if there was space, she would stay in a shelter, though she has found that shelters “rob you of your rights”. The street-based people that are hired by the shelters to hand out donations and perform administrative rights are “bossy”, and will often “help themselves first”, she says.

Sauls and Kammies have used the Culemborg Safe Space in pre-Covid times.

At that time, people living under the bridge at Culemborg were provided with a wooden pallet on which to sleep. The space offered them some protection from the elements.

Couples are permitted to sleep together, which was an advantage for Sauls and Kammies, because most shelters house men and women separately. Both were working

“Auntie Kar” is a car guard at the Buitenkant Street Fruit & Veg City. Now 59, she has spent her entire adult life on the street. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

on an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) contract while they stayed there.

People on a EPWP contract are expected to pay R1,500 of their R3,700 monthly salary to the shelter.

Kammies was badly affected by bites from fleas that she says had infested the space.

Midway through the EPWP contract, the couple left to sleep outside.

Most of the social assistance that is openly available to homeless people is administered by organisations that work in the city centre, making it a natural point of convergence for those without homes.

For people who reject the rules of shelters, access to facilities to wash themelves and their clothes is offered at the Carpenter’s Shop in Roeland Street, and Straatwerk, in the Bokaap. Other services offered to homeless people by the Hope Exchange include a drop-box that was developed as a response to HIV medications being stolen. Social workers and social auxiliary workers are available to provide psychosocial counselling if requested, and to assist

homeless people with administrative tasks, like getting their identity documents, and registering for social grants.

But the number of social workers and social auxiliary workers is insufficient for the demands on their services. And homeless people closely associate City-linked social workers with police and Law Enforcement officials, who often treat homeless people as if they have no right to the city, GroundUp was told.

Sauls and Kammies, and “Auntie Kar”, say they appreciate the feeding programmes in the city. They speak highly of the Service Dining Room, whose morning coffee is a highlight for Sauls.

Sauls and Kammies say they would live in a shelter if they had a room of their own.

“A bed, a key, and a kassie” in a building that they didn’t share with current substance abusers, says Sauls. The couple were set to be married at the civil court in the week that lockdown regulations were announced in March. One day, they would like a marital home. – GroundUp

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond

Lockdown level 2. We’re beginning to put our head out the door and hope for the cure (trust you caught that reference, and if you did, email the answer to what album we’re listening to as we write this and win a copy of The Fishwives’ new album, Algae). There’s a few places tentatively opening up for actual real life gatherings, although it’s not ‘knees up’ anymore, it’s a ‘masks up’. Whichever six ways you choose to go, remember to support our artists. They’re worth it.

Theatre Theatre Arts is hosting the wonderful musician and performer Godfrey Johnson’s The Shadowof Brel. We mentioned this one in last month’s gig guide but it’s been extended so you still have a chance to get to the only theatre hosing live shows and see it. We highly recommend. There is no doubt Godfrey will chase the covid blues away with his charm and musical nous. Get yourself to Theatre Arts on the corner of Milton and Wesley Roads on Obs. Shows are on 3, 4, 5, 17, and 19 September. They start at 7pm and tickets cost R100. Go to theatrearts.co.za for info and to book.

The National Arts Festival keep its platform going for an extended Fringe that got extended some more and eventually they just said allright, we’ll keep it up. Which is great for artists because it is now a functional virtual stage they can load work onto and sell tickets, only 10% of which is taken by the NAF as a hosting-slash-maintenance fee. It’s also great for us because there’s new work all the time. Have a look at what’s on offer at nationalartsfestival.co.za

FREE COPY

26 AUGUST - 25 SEPTEMBER, 2020

The other film fest, which we have to admit we stumbled onto a bit late, is the South African Independent Film Festival, or, the saindiefilmfest.com, which has got some damn sexy looking shit on the programme. From features to shorts and fiction to doccie, there’s a candy store to square your eyes.

They offer various packages and ticket prices and whatnot but unless you’re going to binge watch for the coming 56 hours, it won’t cost you more than a few cups of well-brewed flat latte to have a night of it. Cruise your way into saindiefilmfest.com and get comfortable.

For an old-skool date you can steam up the car windows at the Galileo Drive In. There’s something deeply ironic about a pandemic lockdown reviving the drive-in, but there you have it. You can bring your own popcorn (or buy some there) and snuggle under a blankie as you watch the big screen with the sound tuned to your car radio, a sentence in itself that channels Bryan Ferry. You can watch Lion this Sunday 30 August or drive out to the one in Durbanville there at Meerendal Estate to check Rocketman on 2 September. R250 a car and don’t you wish you had one of those old Valiants now.

Markets We’re all flippen skint right now so thanks the gods that we can now venture out – masked up - to sell some of the shit we realised we don’t need, or scrounge for some new shit we need at the Obs-fficial Thrift Fest on Saturday 5 September at the Observatory Community Centre from 9.30am to 2.30pm. If you want to sell some shit, contact laurarnbrd@gmail.com. Stalls R160 inside, R260 outside, or R10 entrance if you’re a punter.

Visual art Art fairs are generally awful things to attend. The art is fascinating but there’s the knowledge it’s being viewed as money, and those who are not artists tend to flash it around as compensation for the fact it is the only thing they make. That and the resultant high-priced rinks and over-priced food, combined with the pretension that it’s not actually about the money, create a ghastly atmosphere. But we’re quite excited about the Turbine Art Fair because this year we don’t have deal with any actual people. One of the lockdown’s silver linings is not only is the 2020 edition virtual, it is also free of charge. Thus, we really can wander around to look at the art, and yes, for sure, if we can, buy one. A small one at the bottom end of that R1,000 to R50,000 range. Just because, well, art, you know, it’s important.

Have a feast at turbineartfair.co.za from 28 August until 2 September.

Art galleries aren’t so bad, if you avoid opening nights – especially those without cheese and wine – and for the first actual physical show at StateoftheART Gallery, they’re not having one, because not too many people at once. But you can go and look at Chris Denovan’s exhibition Happy To See You from 10 to 26 September. We don’t vouch for all of his work, but he’s a Ruth Prowse graduate so some of it has an interesting kink. Get out and have a look at 50 Buitenkant Street.

Music Fiery cool ice hot blues geetaar hero Dan Patlansky is apparently giving a free concert via Facebook Live on 29 August, but then we heard it was postponed to 9, or was it 19?

September. Or was it 11 September? Find him on the socials and find out.

The mense over there at capetownmagazine.com seem to be hosting a music thing on the odd monthly occasion. This one’s on Friday September 11 and features the original Kaaps Hip-Hop scratchmaster, DJ Ready D. On from 9pm, you betta remember to dial up those speakers, tune in, and clear some space on the floor. Check out Cape Town Magazine interwebs for the deets.

Ruk en rollers will be up for Francois van Coke en Vriende se livestream op sy verjaarsdag op 18 September. However, we are getting a bit tired of dancing in our lounge and a mosh is certainly not on the cards. Nonetheless, top up your brannewyn en gooi ‘n bietjie diesel en daar gat jy, 8pm en ‘n R200 kaartjie van itickets.co.za

Film There are two film fests right now and if you haven’t gotten on to them, move fast, they both end on 30 August, which is like in two days time.

If you haven’t at least cottoned on to the Encounters Film Festival, you have no excuse, because we told you about it in last month’s edition. One of the doccies we watched was Feast in a Time of Plague, which is not at all what you think it is. It’s actually about the Cape Performing Arts Board, which is not longer, and the shit people like Marthinus Basson used to get up to there and the incredible work they staged, giving Apartheid Afrikaanerdom the middle finger. It was also a lovely window into a section of South African theatre’s history. So go look at what they have on offer.

We buy vinyl. If you have inherited a crateful, or shifted to digital, we’ll exchange for cash. Call 083 348 4936.

We’ll come to you.