Mother City News 30 June - 26 July 2021

WARNING: May contain strong language

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Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond.

Drugs in our sea A new scientific study reveals pharmaceutical chemicals are present in False Bay seawater, and accumulating up the food chain.

Photo: Steve Kretzmann

• Pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, are accumulating in False Bay • Sewage and urban runoff causing contamination Steve Kretzmann

False Bay receives so much persistent pollution from Cape Town that antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs are in the seawater, and accumulating up the food chain.

This has implications for antibiotic resistance, which the World Health Organisation states is one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development today. Antibiotic resistance occurs due to bacteria being

exposed to non-lethal doses of the antibiotic drugs. As a result, antibiotic medication becomes ineffective in treating infections and diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis.

Diclofenac- an anti-inflammatory drug sold over the counter as Voltaren – and the antibiotic Sulfamethoxazole, are present in False Bay’s waves, as well as in the sediment, seaweed, and marine invertebrates such as mussels, limpets, sea snails, sea urchins, and starfish.

This is made known in the recent publication of findings by scientists

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Cecilia Y. Ojemaye and Leslie Petrik from the University of the Western Cape’s Chemistry Department.

Ojemaye and Petrik took samples of seawater, sediment, seaweed, and marine invertebrates from eight sites in False Bay - from Miller’s Point on the south western side, to Rooi Els on the south eastern side - in 2018. The sites were chosen for being near wastewater treatment works which treat industrial, medical, and domestic wastewater and sewage before releasing it into the sea.

Besides Diclofenac and

Sulfamethoxazole, Ojemaye and Petrik tested for six other pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs), which are known as persistent chemical compounds as they fail to break down in the environment.

Their paper is titled Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products in the Marine Environment Around False Bay, Cape Town, South Africa: Occurrence and RiskAssessment Study.

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From Page 1 The effluent being released into the ocean from City wastewater treatment works, such as this flow at Strandfontein from the Cape Flats wastewater treatment works, is shown to contain persistent pharmaceutical compounds which are accumulating in seaweed, shellfish, and fish in False Bay. Photo Steve Kretzmann

It was published on 30 March this year in the scientific journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

The scientists found that two chemical compounds they tested for – triclosan and caffeine – could not be detected, but six other persistent chemical compounds were found in all samples.

These were: • Diclofenac, a non-steroidal antiinflammatory; • Sulfamethoxazole, an anti-biotic; • Acetaminophen, used for pain relief; • Lamivudine, an antiretroviral; • Phenytoin, an anticonvulsant; • Carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant.

The treatment for, and monitoring of, persistent chemical compounds is not required by national wastewater management minimum standards.

As it is, the vast majority of wastewater treatment works in South Africa fail to meet even the minimum effluent quality standards, including many managed by the City of Cape Town, seven of which the study notes release effluent into False Bay. “The concentration of PPCPs found in seawater are an indication of possible sewage pollution of this marine environment with these compounds because most sewage-treatment plants are not designed to remove these PPCPs from their effluent,” state the authors.

Diclofenac was found in the highest concentrations, second only to Sulfamethoxazole which was the most concentrated chemical compound in sea water samples from Strand and Rooi Els. The reason these chemical compounds were chosen is because they are listed as the most prescribed drugs in South Africa’s public health sector, and studies on waste water being treated for reuse as drinking water, have shown they are present in the effluent released into the bay from wastewater treatment works.

Health risks and ecological impact This study shows that although concentrations of pharmaceutical compounds such as Diclofenac and Sulfamethoxazole in seawater are low, they are persistent and become more concentrated up the food chain. In a process known as bio-accumulation, the organisms absorb these compounds continually present in their environment faster than they are able to break them down and excrete them.

As an example, the concentration of Diclofenac in False Bay seawater, was 3.70 – 4.18 nanograms per litre (ng/L).

In seaweed it was 101.50 – 309.11 nanograms per gram (ng/g), and 67.67 – 780.26 ng/g in marine invertebrates. A previous study by Ojemaye and Petrik on the prevalence of these pharmaceuticals in fish, found Diclofenac in some False Bay fish to be as high as 1812 ng/g.

Alongside Diclofenac, Sulfamethoxazole and other drugs which are not fully metabolised before being excreted, are numerous other chemical compounds found in shampoos, soaps,

Source of contamination These persistent chemical compounds, which the scientists note, have become “a major issue” in water bodies around the world “because of their daily use by millions of people” do not form part of the pollutants the City monitors in wastewater effluent. The City, along with all other municipalities in South Africa, test the effluent released from wastewater treatment works for bacteria such as e.coli, and excess nutrients such as ammonia and nitrogen.

and other personal care products.

Many of these, the study notes, “are of toxicological concern” and “the potential environmental risk caused by these compounds should not be underestimated”.

“When it comes to consuming seaweed, shellfish, or fish, it’s a bit like standing in the chemist and taking a bit of every tablet in the shop,” said Petrik when talking to Mother City News about the findings.

Sulfamethoxazole, present in the seawater at concentrations up to almost to 5ng/L in places, and also in edible seaweeds analysed, “could result in the

When it comes to consuming seaweed, shellfish, or fish, it’s a bit like standing in the chemist and taking a bit of every tablet in the shop

development of antibiotic resistance by humans and other marine organisms”.

The authors note that seaweed has been eaten and used in animal feed in various parts of the world for centuries, and is currently mooted an alternative source of proteins as the global population grows and food scarcity increases.

They cite other studies on “the growing evidence of the health and nutritional importance of the consumption of seaweeds. But “high levels” of chemical compounds such as Diclofenac found in seaweeds show that the “health impact of using contaminated seaweeds for food and medicinal purposes should be considered”.

“The risks associated with exposure to

these compounds among others include increased cancer risk, decreased fertility, and effects on the immune system,” state the authors.

City response City mayco member for spatial planning and environment, Marian Nieuwoudt, said the City is “aware of the growing concern surrounding the presence of PPCPs in marine and coastal ecosystems”.

However, Nieuwoudt said effluent from sewage treatment plants was not the only source of contamination in False Bay. She said the City is conducting its own study in order to “not only better understand the presence of CECs (chemicals of emerging concern), but ultimately to also understand the multiple pathways that lead to the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in coastal waters”.

Among the other sources of pollution the City was studying were urban run-off that includes agricultural, commercial, and domestic sources of pollution flowing into stormwater systems, and the illegal or improper connection of household or commercial waste water into the stormwater system, which ultimately disperses into the ocean.

She noted the presence of PPCPs in False Bay was a concern, but was also a global problem “indicative of our ever expanding ecological footprint based on our almost limitless resource consumption and consequent multiple waste streams that arise from such consumption”.

The technology to remove perennial chemical compounds such as those found in PPCPs from sewage and waste water at the volumes produced by the city, did not yet exist, said Nieuwoudt.

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Koeberg Nuclear Power Station

The world of nuclear power Presented by the Koeberg Visitors Centre Due to the pandemic the Koeberg Visitors Centre is closed to the public, however, that does not prevent us from visiting you!

Let us share the story behind the switch with tailor-made in-depth discussions either at your school, place of work or online.

Information shared covers topics such as the national power grid, challenges around loadshedding, technology behind Eskom's power stations and the fascinating world of nuclear power generation.

School visits: natural science teachers Give your learners the opportunity to discover the fascinating world of electricity. Presentations are aligned to the school curriculum and covers topics such as the various forms and types of energy, and how it is converted into electrical energy.

We are fully Presentations can be done via Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

compliant with COVID-19 protocols.

Koeberg Nuclear Power Station Koeberg is Africa's first and only nuclear power station.

Each of its two units produce 940 megawatts of base load power.

If you would like us to visit you and your venue is COVID-19 compliant, kindly contact the Koeberg Visitors Centre by sending an email to: Koebergvisitorscentre@eskom.co.za

Produced by Generation Communication May 2021 Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd Reg No 2002/015527/30

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Waiter loses job a second time because of pandemic Restaurant staff left without any income as SA goes back to Level 4 Tariro Washinyira — GroundUp For the second time, Tatenda has lost a restaurant job because of the pandemic.

“I almost cried when President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the ban on Sunday night,” says Tatenda, who only wants his first name used.

He was working as a manager at Riverine Rabbit before it closed after the first lockdown last year. He then started to waiter at The Shop in Sea Point and at Bao Down in Cape Town. Bao Down is currently closed as it relocates to Green Point; it will reopen for takeaways but not yet table service after level 4 restrictions came into effect on Sunday. The Shop says it will not reopen.

Tatenda was working two shifts a week at each restaurant, from 5 to 10pm, making between R300 and R500 a day.

His wife gave birth to a boy during the hard lockdown in March 2020. “He came at the time I had lost my income,” says Tatenda. “My wife is working, but living on a single income is difficult. We are renting a one-bedroom flat in Goodwood for R6,800. We need R3,000 to pay the person who is helping with the baby and money for baby diapers, formula, electricity and groceries.”

“I was hoping to buy groceries this week when I got paid. We were looking forward to this week’s earnings to cover other expenses,” he said.

Tatenda feels the restrictions are too harsh.

He thinks if social distancing rules were strictly enforced, alcohol banned and the space well ventilated, restaurants could have continued operating.

“Waiters are depressed. They are now sitting at home with no source of income. The morale is low. The government could also assist restaurants with relief funding to avoid closing down of restaurants,” he said.

This restaurant manager’s body language says it all. This photo was taken at the Fat Cactus in Gardens, Cape Town, while watching President Ramaphosa’s address to the nation on Sunday night, when he announced that restaurants may now only serve takeaways. Photo: Kaylee Bush

On Monday, Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities David Maynier called for the national government to provide support for businesses whose operations are limited or shutdown by the adjusted Level 4 restrictions.

He said he had written to Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi to re-

open the UIF Covid-19 Temporary EmployerEmployee Relief Scheme (TERS) scheme.

“Many businesses, particularly in the hospitality and liquor sectors, have already been hard-hit with significant job losses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Wine farms, restaurants and coffee shops cannot survive on takeaways alone. Two weeks of no income

for these businesses, as well as cinemas,

I can highly recommend both of these as a good purchase to warm up a winter evening once the prohibition has ended, and should you possess the required self-restraint, both have the potential to age well, particularly

the Sir Charles Darling.

Sir Charles Darling 2018 @ R155 – Darling Cellars The Old Grain Silo 2018 @ R155 – Darling Cellars

gyms, casinos, conferencing venues and theatres, will have a direct and sudden impact on people’s livelihoods, their ability to pay salaries, rent and buy food,” said Maynier.

— GroundUp

Wine

Darling wines from Darling Cellars Sadé Allcock We once again find ourselves in rather depressing times. A third wave of Covid-19 infections. We hoped this would not be the case, but alas. And so, the closing of restaurants except for takeaways, the alcohol ban and the current gloomy weather has brought on a serious case of the winter blues.

It seems the hospitality industry will not catch a break any time in the near future. But that does not mean we abandon them. Now is the time we need to rally together to help this industry that has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic. In this vein I will continue to write my wine column in the hopes that some of my readers choose to place their orders to be delivered as soon as alcohol restrictions ease.

I am a great advocate for much of the wine produced by Darling Cellars. Their Pyjama Bush Rosé is a firm favourite, and more recently so is their Old Bush Vines Chenin Blanc. With this in mind it is not a great surprise that I very much enjoyed two wines from their Heritage Collection, which I tried recently. These are the Sir Charles Darling

and the Old Grain Silo.

The Sir Charles Darling is a 48% cabernet sauvignon, 48% merlot, 4% malbec blend, however the cabernet sauvignon certainly shines through. Grapes are monitored and hand harvested when perfectly ripe. They are then fermented with the utmost care and aged in American and French oak barrels for 22 months. This attention to detail creates a well-structured and complex wine with hints of liquorice, dark chocolate and tobacco. I can attest to the fact that it pairs delightfully with a springbok knuckle tagine on a chilly evening.

The Old Grain Silo is a 67% pinotage, 30% shiraz, 3% cabernet sauvignon blend. These grapes are harvested from un-trellised dryland vineyards and also aged for 22 months in French and American oak barrels.

This result in a wine that has soft tannins and notes of spice – perhaps cumin – as well as red berries and plums. It pairs well with bolognaise, bobotie and even cauliflower curry if you are looking to try something different, as I was.

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Theatre review

Ndinxaniwe: Rainbow nation deceit exposed Mia Arderne – The Critter ‘Art as archeology, as excavation’ is the approach director and producer Qondiswa James uses in devising this story through its iterations, ‘rewriting the archive, we tell our own story’. Ndinxaniwe is a radical, tragic story that recognizes the fuckery of the Rainbow Nation lie, and excavates the truth of the past.

Based on Credo Mutwa’s The Coming of the Strange Ones from his internationally acclaimed Indaba, My Children, James’ interpretation of Mutwa’s classic is a gift. It is a lens, a parallel, a continuum that illustrates how colonialism still plays out today in South Africa’s higher education institutions.

“It is 11:17AM in the middle of a school day in the yard and we hear a sound like tight air spit from a piston and school children running.

Pounding feet like stampedes for war cries, war crimes; I look outside through the grimy window panes of school buildings in the Transkei, and I think I imagine June 16, turned on its head.”

Ndinxaniwe follows three teenagers attending a Catholic school in the forest of a rural town in the Eastern Cape. You feel the dust, the leaves, the smoky haze. The set, designed by Themba Stewart has branches from floor to ceiling, transporting us to the scene inhabited by those three boys in their school shirts, ties and grey pants.

The score is enchanting, natural and vocal, traversing a staggering range between peace and trauma. Soundscapes of birdsong in the kraal, the snoring of slumber, the stretching and rising from it. The live soundtrack

by musicians Iman Adams and Nkosenathi Koela, who sit among haystacks, sets the rural scene in which tension tautens.

Animals are embodied by the performers.

Every motion and utterance is in sync, kinetic, and deliberate. The rolling of their necks slowly into the lowing cows, the panting with expectant canine eyes, the panic of the sheep. It crescendos to a blistering wall of frenetic sound and movement.

In a monologue, making direct eye contact with the audience, we are told that this is about “one of those schools” left behind by the revolution. We are reminded how “white monopoly capital” has stolen labour and plundered land. Why am I using the past tense here? It remains the case now. I am reminded, and this is an important reminder.

“We are failing, you are failing”. Now, still.

The play critiques the insidious effects of colonialism and patriarchy – effects that are tragic, common and current.

Ndinxaniwe is more than stirring

Mfundo Zono performs in the play Ndinxaniwe, available as part of this year’s virtual National Arts Festival from 8 July. Photo: Mark Wessels.

contemporary adaptation of Credo Mutwa’s The Coming of the Strange Ones. It’s a masterwork in de-colonial artistic practice.

Looking at African history through theatre, knowing and performing this history, the very telling of it by those to whom it belongs, is a powerful de-colonial tool.

Ndinxaniwe was performed in Cape Town as part of the Standard Bank Presents section of the National Arts Festival in the week before level 4 lockdown was announced. The National Arts Festival, which begins on 8 July, has now moved online and Ndinxaniwe will be one of many shows on the programme. Buy a ticket and

watch via the National Arts Festival website: nationalartsfestival.co.za

The Performance by Claire Thomas

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri

Three women sit in the audience at a play

by Samuel Beckett while a mountain fires rage - it’s Australia. The chapters alternate between the perspectives and stories of the three women, one a 70-something professor, one a 40-something orphan turned philanthropist, and lastly, the usher who is also a drama student. I Really enjoyed it (although the three women setup is being done to death at the moment). The Performance is a quiet, subtle book about three lives and the ways in which they connect.

Lahiri is a really interesting writer and a previous Pulitzer winner.

A few years ago she moved to Italy from the US, learned Italian and now writes in Italian and translates her work into English - first a collection of essays and now a novel, though I’m not convinced novel is the right word for this episodic collection of snapshots of an unknown woman’s life in an unknown town in Italy. It’s very slim, can be read in a couple of hours and it feels both non-English and non-novelistic. While reading, I felt like I was wandering through a photographic exhibition or perhaps a series of very short films rather than a conventional (whatever the fuck that means) novel. There’s a sense of loneliness, a woman living both within and apart from society, a woman who is both subject and observer. It defies boxing, but I loved it. I think it’s beautiful in an entirely insubstantial way. Right now I would struggle to recommend it to anyone because I don’t really know what to say about it or why I liked it, maybe in a couple of days I will have formulated a selling pitch and an idea of who might love it.

CREDITS: Director & Producer: Qondiswa James; Production Manager & Assistant Director: Zukisani Nongogo; Performers: Mfundo Zono, Mphumzi Nontshinga, Sivuyile Dunjwa; Designer & Technical Manager: Themba Stewart This an edited review, read the full review of this and coming National Arts Festival productions on The Critter at thecritter. co.za.

Book review

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

Rivers Solomon is the love child of Octavia Butler, Akwaeke Emezi and NK Jemisin, and their work has definitely been influenced by Toni Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston.

The main character Vern runs away from her home, which

from the outside seems like a utopia; an all Black commune, a peaceful religious community living off the land. But slowly the cracks start to appear, and Vern is tired of being controlled by the men in charge, abusing their power in the name of god. Pregnant at 15 (from being married off to the pastor) she escapes to live in the forest. But once there her body starts changing, growing stronger, monstrous, and she realises that the cult may a front for the government conducting non-consensual medical tests on the community.

It is super gay gothic horror/speculative fiction with a lot going on, but Rivers Solomon manages to hold on to the thread of the story, and the heaviness is lifted a bit by their portrayals of friendship, community, chosen family, kindness and understanding, and love in all its different forms.

Book reviews by staff at the Book Lounge, the best indi bookstore in Cape Town

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Dirty tricks development at River Club Steve Kretzmann

A slanderous letter to author MacKenzie Scott, whose ex-husband was Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, was attached to a complaint recently sent to the BackaBuddy crowdfunding platform the Observatory Civic Association is using to raise funds for its legal challenge to the R4.5bn River Club development.

The Observatory Civic Association is one of a number of civic organisations, together with ten Khoi traditional houses and organisations, who have been opposing the proposed development of the River Club site on the banks of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers in Observatory.

The main grounds for their and other organisations’ opposition to the construction of a massive office, retail, and residential complex with eightstorey-high buildings and containing Amazon’s new African headquarters, is that it is being built on a floodplain, within the Two Rivers Urban Park which has been proclaimed as open space, and on land that is sacred to the indigenous inhabitants of the land, the Khoi.

In late 2019, a number of Khoi and San structures who organised themselves as the First Nations Collective, made a 180 degree turnaround and came out in support of the development. Thereafter, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust director Jody Aufrichtig announced that a first nations media centre, an indigenous garden, an amphitheatre for Khoi and San ceremonies, street names and first nations symbols would be accommodated in the development precinct.

The mixed-use development on a floodplain was given the all-clear on 20 April this year after the municipal planning tribunal overruled appeals against the rezoning and spatial development departures it had granted.

This was despite the possibility of a flawed Environmental Authorisation granted by the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning in September last year, and objections on environmental grounds by the City’s own Environmental Management Department.

The Observatory Civic Association is in the process of approaching the Western Cape High Court for relief, as they believe there are sufficient legal grounds to challenge the City’s decision.

To help fund the court challenge, they initiated a crowdfunding campaign on BackaBuddy, which has so far raised R95,000. They twice wrote to Bezos, urging him to withdraw Amazon as tenant of a development on a floodplain and sacred site. After receiving no response, wrote an open letter to Scott on 7 May, asking her to consider trying to persuade Bezos, or to help fund their legal challenge.

Slanderous shenanigans On 1 June, London sent an email to Mother City News, stating that BackaBuddy had received a complaint about their campaign. Subsequently, London said correspondence with BackaBuddy revealed that First Nation’s Collective spokesperson Zenzile Khoisan had laid the complaint. Although the wording and nature of the complaint was not communicated, BackaBuddy

There have been some murky manoeuvres in support of the controversial and contested River Club development. The City has given a developer the go-ahead to build 44m high buildings making up a massive R4,5bn development in the area photographed.

Zenzile Khoisan, flanked here by heritage consultant Rudewaan Arendse and Khoi chief Hennie van Wyk, has had his name attached to slanderous letters attacking a leader of the civic opposition to the River Club development, and has issued insults and threats to Mother City News. Photo: Edwin Angless

sent London the letter that had been attached to Khoisan’s objection.

The attachment was an open letter to Scott written by Khoisan dated 14 May. The letter, which was a response to the Observatory Civic Association’s letter to Scott, was filled with bile directed at the Observatory Civic Association and London.

In the letter, Khoisan calls London “a colonial throwback”, “racist” and “deeply paternalistic”. Impugning the independence of the Khoi organisations opposing the River Club development, it claims London and “his crew” have “fought a campaign to make Observatory a place where Khoi descendants have no voice other than that which they can manipulate and where white people can walk their dogs along the banks of the Liesbeeck (sic) River and reflect grandly

to the days of the colony”.

However, in numerous meetings attended by Mother City News, the Observatory Civic Association has never claimed to speak for the Khoi associations opposing the River Club development, and have in fact made it clear they cannot speak on their behalf.

Questions sent to BackaBuddy received no response, but London said after engaging with them, the campaign was reinstated.

When asked if he sent the complaint to BackaBuddy, Khoisan said: “I did not send a complaint to BackaBuddy.”

He went on to admit he had authored the open letter to Scott and in a lengthy diatribe, repeatedly quoted the following paragraph contained in the letter: “Their perfidy is born out by the lies of the development plans on

the Back a Buddy platform, through which they raise funds to fight us using development plans created on Minecraft that is laughable because it is so far from the truth.”

When pressed as to whether he had sent this as part of a complaint to BackaBuddy, he accused this journalist of printing lies, running a campaign for the Observatory Civic Association and of being “an arsehole”.

That emergence of this attack from the First Nations Collective came in the wake of a slanderous letter to London’s employers, UCT, as well as London’s academic colleagues, demanding they suspend him and investigate his activities in relation to the River Club.

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From Page 6 In Mother City News’s edition of 31 May to 24 June, 2021, we reported how UCT came out in support of London, attesting to his integrity and supporting his freedom to be involved in civic action in the interests of social justice.

Mysterious manoeuvres in the media On 9 June, an opinion piece penned

by Robyn Simpson was published in Highbury Media’s online magazine Cape{town}Etc, which was highly critical of Amazon, calling it a global behemoth, displacing the River Club as a site of Khoi heritage.

Titled ‘Rifles vs Knobkerries’, the River Club development was described as “a tangible metaphor for the cancer that is globalisation consuming everything linked to that which is distinctly and historically African”.

“I am disgusted by the blatant disregard,” wrote Simpson, who is editor

of the publication.

The article was taken down within 24 hours, with no correction or explanation to the readers. Mother City News in in possession of the original, captured in a web cache before it was removed.

The article was five days later replaced with an exclusive interview with River Club developer Jody Aufrichtig in which he was given free reign to praise the development.

Carrying no byline, the article stated: “After meeting with Aufrichtig, it’s abundantly clear that heritage, historic restoration and cultural celebration lie at the core of the entire development.”

It provided no context to the opposition of the development, referring only to “detractors” who were either concerned that it would be “the next Canal Walk”, or were “crying environmental concerns”, and sought no balancing views.

It is worth noting the chair of the municipal planning tribunal, David Daniels, in his celebratory approval of the developer’s rezoning and departure applications, likened it to Canal Walk, and that the City’s own Environmental Management Department lodged objections to the development.

This article was followed by another praise piece two days later, and a third on 24 June. None of the articles carried a byline, nor were they marked as advertising.

Questions sent to editor Robyn Simpson received no response.

History of River Club opposition It was at and near the confluence of the Black and Liesbeek Rivers, where the River Club is situated, that the first act of colonial dispossession took place in South Africa, as the Dutch East India Company forced the Khoi

from their traditional grazing lands and giving it to settler farmers. It is a strange twist of fate that Amazon are in essential ways, a modern version of the Dutch East India Company.

Civic opposition has dogged the development since the property owners and developers, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, first filed their intention to develop the land in 2016.

At the numerous required public participation processes, including those related to attempts to place the land under heritage protection, City and Provincial planning departments have been visibly supportive of, and arguably biased toward, the development.

No alterations to the plans, or accommodations within the development, were made in response to the sustained civic opposition.

City wins the irony award

Tauriq Jenkins and Leslie London after receiving their civic awards on Tuesday 29 June.

In what is either a well conceived counterintuitive public relations manoeuvre, or the possibly embarrassing result of a democratic process, two of the people who have been leading the persistent and dedicated opposition to the River Club development have been presented with civic awards.

The City of Cape Town – with the exception of the Environmental Management Department – have supported the River Club development every step of the way.

On 29 June, two of their most vocal critics, individually received community service awards from subcouncil 16 chair Matthew Kempthorne at a Covid controlled ceremony.

Observatory Civic Association chair

Professor Leslie London received the Leadership Award, while Chair at AIXARRA Restorative Justice Forum at UCT’s Centre for African Studies, Tauriq Jenkins, received the Community Bravery Award.

London said he never knew he was nominated and the invitation to receive the award came as a complete surprise.

“I could not stop asking if this was for real,” stated London, who received his award while wearing a ‘Make Liesbeek Matter’ t-shirt and carrying a sign stating 50,000+ voices matter.

Stop River Club redevelopment’, in reference to the number of signatures on the change. org petition opposing the development.

Jenkins, who also wore the 50,000+ sign on his jacket has not only been involved in opposing the River Club development, but as a SA Human Rights Commission monitor has been on the frontline of opposing the City’s demolition of people’s homes, and fought against the infamous Strandfontein camp the City set up to contain homeless people at the beginning of lockdown level 5 last year.

He said the award ceremony was “definitely awkward”.

“If it was a political attempt to get us to acquiesce, that’s definitely not going to happen,” he said.

An independent panel is believed to have chosen those to be awarded from among

nominations received.

The press release from mayor Dan Plato’s office on 30 June stated the City had put out a call for nominations, “looking for those whose creative community service work impacts the community positively”.

“These individuals working in communities are heroes who love their neighbourhoods and are passionate about creating a positive impact in various ways,” stated Plato.

“Their involvement is crucial in helping to ensure greater community participation and working towards unity and progress.

Creating an inclusive society whose focus is on the upliftment of others requires all of our efforts.”

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond

Like a character in a Tom Waits song, the National Arts Festival once more sticks its fingers in the ground, heaves and turns the world around.

Amidst the closures and fire-ruined theatres, disappearance of relief for artists, deaths of beloved actors, the Covid pandemic is destroying entire communities of artists. Yet the festival continues to defend the hill of creative endeavour with tooth and claw, grit and innovation, determined to hoist that rag.

It has done so under heavy fire.

Maintaining the stage has never been an easy task, made harder each year as the infrastructure festival needs to function has crumbled under the malevolent misgovernance of the Makana municipality which governs Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), leaving residents and the National Arts Festival to not only construct the stage supporting the largest multi-arts festival on the continent, but the stage upon which the stage is built: the framework of water and

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power and bricks and mortar. In this environment, made multitudinously more complex by Covid, the festival’s continued existence is a momentous achievement.

The festival was going to kindle the fire of live performance where we could cautiously warm our souls, but the Covid third wave and level 4 lockdown has snuffed that option out, again. However, the National Arts Festival will be running a full programme online from 8 July, and if last year’s virtual festival is an

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indication, watching amazing shows at home will be almost as enjoyable as the live version, even though it will always be second-best.

We were going to give you a guide to the virtual festival programme, but decided to give you the story below instead, because the only thing that competes with the destruction Covid has wrought on arts and culture in South Africa, is the arts and culture minister. #Nathimustgo For a guide to the online festival, and show reviews, visit thecritter.co.za

Artists want minister Nathi Mthethwa’s head to roll Masego Mafata —GroundUp An investigation by the Theatre and Dance Alliance (TADA) has revealed that National Arts Council (NAC) members benefitted unlawfully from the Presidential Employment Stimulus Package (PESP). Meanwhile many artists who applied were either unsuccessful or had their funding committments reversed and amounts unexpectedly reduced.

TADA was launched at the end of March 2021 as a representative structure to advocate for the interests of the theatre and dance sector.

TADA released a report into PEPS funding this week. It says the timelines set for PESP were “unrealistic” while the “contracting of inexperienced project managers to assist with the PESP project contributed to the over-approval and mismanagement of the PESP funding”.

PESP funds for the NAC were confirmed on 27 October 2020. “The project, allocating R300 million to retain 7,000 jobs and create 10,000 new work opportunities was to be completed in its entirety by 31 March 2021,” said director of ASSITEJ South Africa (a theatre association) Yvette Hardie, during a virtual presentation of the TADA report.

Hardie said the project was set up for failure from the start because the NAC was required to allocate “more than three times its normal annual budget of R120 million” in less than half a year.

Minister of Sports Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa and the NAC previously denied that NAC members had benefitted unlawfully from the stimulus package. The Minister also initially expressed confidence in the NAC to administer the stimulus package.

The TADA report however says the NAC acted negligently by lacking “a sound system with sufficient and appropriate checks and balances to monitor the allocation of funding by panels”.

According to the National Arts Council Act: “A member of the Council shall not vote or in any manner participate in the proceedings at any meeting of the Council nor be present at the venue where such a meeting is held, if, in relation to any matter before the Council, he or she has any interest which precludes him or her from performing his or her functions as a member of the Council in a fair, unbiased and proper manner.”

Minister of Arts and Culture Nathi Mthetwa attends the 2020 State of the Nation Address at Parliament in Cape Town. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks

According to council meeting minutes, when stimulus package applications by council members were adjudicated, council members involved in projects were only told to step outside momentarily, and then they were invited back into the meeting.

Tshepo Mashiane, spokesperson of the NAC, told GroundUp that council members did not benefit from the stimulus package in their individual capacity, therefore there was no conflict of interest or unlawful conduct.

“These council members are members of organisations. The Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture sought legal opinion on the matter and the advisors found that the organisations had applied before the individuals were members of the council.

There was no conflict of interest,” he said.

Mashiane said the NAC was conducting its own investigation into the matter. “The process of TADA’s investigation may have overtaken our own processes as a council.

We are in the process of undertaking a forensic investigation which we hope will

be finalised in the next two months. Claims about council members’ conflict of interest will also be investigated,” Mashiane.

According to the TADA report, the previous council over-allocated funding and the new council responded by unilaterally “cancelling the original contracts and cutting the funding of original grantees”.

The council’s decision was declared illegal by the South Gauteng High Court, after the National Arts Festival, which was affected by the council’s decision, took the matter to court.

“If new Council members participated in decisions around funding in which they had a direct interest and were present on the premises when such decisions were made, or even online since this is where decisions were made during Covid-19 lockdowns, they would have been in breach of the law so that the decisions taken would be legally invalid,” the report says.

Artists responded to the NAC’s decision to cut funding by staging a month-long sit-in at the council offices in Newtown,

Johannesburg.

Mike van Graan, coordinator of the Stand Foundation and an executive committee member of TADA, called for transparency in ensuring that those responsible for the “PESP mess” are held accountable.

“National Treasury and the Auditor General must investigate the mismanagement. Those found responsible or complicit should be banned from holding public office in the future for at least four years,” Van Graan said during the virtual presentation.

The recommendations in the report also include a call for the President, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, and the National Treasury to be held accountable for the unrealistic time frameworks they imposed on the NAC and, consequently delaying the rollout of the stimulus package.

The report also recommended that the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture be fired for failing to extend the term of the previous council until the end of the PESP project.

—GroundUp