Mother City News June 2019

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond

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MAY 31 - JUNE 28, 2019

Dedicated to fairness, accuracy, editorial integrity, and the use of the Oxford comma, Mother City News strives to be a newspaper you’ll enjoy reading.

Member of The Association of Independent Publishers | Editorial Tel.: 083 348 4936 , 021 424 2114 | Editorial Address: The Pinnacle, 6 Burg Street, Cape Town Page 3 Indi theatre designers on unique global stage

Page 4 Upper Bloem: Fancy food at plain prices

Page 7 Market Theatre to make its mark at National Arts Festival

Sunshine harvest over for late risers Unregistered solar panels to be disconnected by local government

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MAY 31 - JUNE 28 | 2019 Mother City News is dedicated to fairness, accuracy, editorial integrity, and the use of the Oxford comma, Mother City News strives to be a newspaper you’ll enjoy reading.

Managing Editor Peter Luhanga editor@isolabantunews.co.za 021 424 2114 084 229 6399 Editor Steve Kretzmann 083 348 4936 editor@westcapenews.com

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Sunshine harvest over for late risers

Steve Kretzmann Thousands of Cape Town property owners who have installed solar or other renewable energy generation systems at their homes or businesses will have to disconnect them this month.

This is roughly the number of people who have not taken advantage of the City’s grace period for registering their small-scale embedded generation systems (SSEGs), which ended on May 31.

These are predominantly solar photo-voltaic panels on rooftops Residents and businesses with SSEGs were initially given until 28 February to register them with the City, then the deadline was extended.

As from June 1, all unregistered systems in Cape Town must be disconnected, and a certificate of compliance from an authorised electrical contractor confirming the disconnection must be supplied. Alternatively, the City may disconnect the system, which comes with a service fee of R6 425.90.

Energy and climate change mayco member Phindile Maxiti said in such cases, the customer can only have their electricity supply reconnected “once the City is satisfied the SSEG system is either disconnected, decommissioned or authorised and that the service fee has been paid”.

This suggest power from the municipal grid to the entire property may also be disonnected until requirements are met.

Maxiti said there may be additional costs incurred to ensure the SSEG system is compliant with the City’s requirements.

Speaking at the Africa Utility Week conference in mid May, the City’s manager for renewable energy and energy efficiency, Mary Haw, said only about 25% of all installed SSEG systems in the city have been registered.

Haw said there are approximately 500 approved SSEG systems tied to the grid, and about 100 approved off-grid systems, with

Sustainable engineering consultant Gary Fahy installs solar photovolataic panels at the Goedgedacht farm near Malmesbury.

500 applications if a in progress. This technician means there are is injured or approximately killed by a private 3000 SSEG sysunregistered tems in Cape system, the Town that are not owner is registered or in legally liable. the approval process.

Maxiti said aerial photography provided by the City’s geographical information systems department, as well as billing anomalies, will be used to determine where SSEG systems are situated.

Safety is a major concern. Maxiti said it is “extremely dangerous” to have live systems that City electrical staff do not know about connected on the electricity grid, “especially if they are working on sections of the network”.

Haw said the owners of SSEG systems needed to keep in mind that if a technician is injured or killed by a private unregistered system, the owner is legally liable. But beyond the safety aspects, in order to allow for

Crucial Watson wind farm talks this week Directors of controversial project to meet Department of Environmental Affairs

This is the InyandaRoodeplaat wind farm site in the Eastern Cape, taken from the cover of the Final Environmental Impact Report.

John Yeld Talks this week between the national environmental authorities and the well-known Watson family of the Eastern Cape could prove crucial as to whether, and how, the family’s contentious Inyanda-Roodeplaat wind farm project is developed.

The family has been in the news this year with astounding revelations, at the Zondo commission of inquiry into state capture,

Mother City News and Guide subscribes to the South African Press Code that prescribes news that is truthful, accurate, fair and balanced.

If we don’t live up to the code you can contact the Press Ombudsman at : 011 484 3612/8

about alleged corruption involving the Bosasa group of companies headed by family patriarch Gavin Watson.

The 187.2MW, 47-turbine wind farm project in the mountains near Uitenhage is being proposed by Inyanda Energy Projects (Pty) Ltd, a company established in July 2012. The directors are Ronald (Ronnie) and Valence Watson, two of Gavin’s three younger brothers; Ronnie’s daughter Tandy Snead; and Valence’s son Jared.

from smallA rapid scale systems. uptake by the In Llandudno, private sector for instance, would help move the being a city toward carbon wealthy subneutrality by urb means a 2050. lot of residents have invested in SSEGs. Yet, because it is at the end of the line, the substation capacity was never designed for a reverse flow. “An influx of power from solar panels would fry the infrastructure.”

Haw said in the absence of national regulations, the City has created requirements for feeding power back into the grid. As it is managing the small scale grid, it is responsible for substations.

a situation in which people are able to sell extra capacity from their systems back into the municipal grid, the City “needs to identify what can go where”.

Property owners feeding into the grid also means the City becomes less reliant on Eskom – which is technically insolvent and struggling to get out of a deadly debt spiral – and able to increase its portion of sustainable renewable energy provision. But with an energy source such as the sun, it sets at the same time for everyone, which means there’s a rapid switch An influx of in energy propower from vision and solar panels demand. This would fry the creates techinfrastructure.. nical challenges and a full picture of all the systems on the grid is needed to integrate solutions.

Research also shows that the main factor limiting increased feed in from SSEGs, is the grid, she said. It was not designed for inflow

Minister announces increased SSEG cap Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe’s recent announcement that Nersa (National Energy Regulator) should lift the 1MW cap on SSEG systems to 10MW, changes the game for businesses which own tracts of roof space.

Lifting the cap means being able to install a 10MW system without registering as an energy generator with Nersa, a process many delegates at Africa Utility Week said was fraught with delays and uncertainties.

This could propel commercial SSEG installation with the aim of selling energy back to the City, and potentially the profit motive may see the City reaching its Integrated Development Plan (IDP) target of 120MW of SSEG by 2020.

Property developers are seeing that they can get better returns from the sun falling on their roofs than from the property market, said Christopher Ahlfeldt, owner of Blue Horizon energy consulting services.

A rapid uptake by the private sector would help move the city toward carbon neutrality by 2050.

Ronnie Watson is also the owner of the farms where the project is planned.

In April last year, despite strong opposition from many conservation and tourism authorities and non-government groups, as well as several neighbouring landowners, the national Department of Environmental Affairs gave the go-ahead for the wind farm.

However, five formal appeals against this authorisation were upheld almost exactly one year later – on 15 April 2019 – by then Acting Environmental Affairs Minister Lindiwe Zulu, who sent the decision back to the Department for further consultation and re-evaluation, to be assisted by an independent review specialist (or specialists).

Responding to questions by GroundUp last week, the Department said no specialists had yet been appointed.

However, it also revealed that Jared Watson had requested a meeting with the Department to “clarify the conditions of the appeal decision and the way forward”.

This meeting – “to discuss the latter” [way forward] – is scheduled to be held at the Department’s offices in Arcadia, Pretoria, on Thursday 30 May. A major point of contention in the appeals process was the refusal of Inyanda Energy Projects to pay for an independent assessment of the impact of the proposed wind

farm on birds like Verreaux’s Eagles (black eagles), Black Harriers and Martial Eagles. This was after two highly conflicting reports by ornithologists on the issue had been produced during the environmental impact assessment process.

The Department initiated an independent assessment of their findings but issued the environmental authorisation before any work on this assessment had started.

The wind farm company’s lawyers were adamant that there was no legal requirement for their clients to pay for such assessments.

It appears that the Department is now equally determined to make the company pay for any further reviews of the wind farm appeal issues. Its response to GroundUp stated: “The Department will also obtain confirmation from the holder of the environmental authorisation that the payment for the specialist reviews will be covered by the holder directly.

The Department will only appoint an independent specialist/s after a written undertaking to pay for the services of a specialist/s, is received from the applicant. Please note that all costs for specialist reports related to potential impacts for a proposed development are for the applicants’ account.”—GroundUp

MAY 31 - JUNE 28 | 2019

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Indi theatre designers on unique global stage Steve Kretzmann One of the most trendsetting arts festivals in the world is going to be host to a South African exhibition of our country’s foremost independent theatre designers.

Curating the showcase of local talent on display at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space from 6 to 16 June, is UCT sceneography lecturer Jenni-lee Crewe and Joburg-based theatremaker Tamara Schulz.

South Africa has participated three times in the 13 editions of the world-renowned Quadrennial, which is the only one that celebrates the architecture of performance space. According to the history of the Praque Quadrennial (PQ), we were represented in 1999, 2003, and 2011. PQ records state South Africa also showcased the best of our theatre designers and scenographers in 2015. But Crewe was there, and there was no SA exhibition to be found.

It was while attending for research during her sabbatical and noting the absence of any African presence, that Crewe decided she’d make it happen in 2019.

Now, after managing to obtain some research funding from UCT and the Centre for Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (CTDPS), sponsorship from Business Arts SA (BASA), and a donation from PQ itself, the work of 11 performance designers from around the country is being shown to almost 180 000 visitors who attend to view the works presented by the approximately 1 000 artists from about 70 countries.

This is the place where the best contemporary sceneographers and theatre architects from around the globe meet, hold workshops and seminars, have coversations, and learn from each other.

Calling on collaborations formed over decades, and underpinned by Flying House which is dedicated to making spaces in which inno-

vation and creativity can flourish sustainably, Crewe and Schulz took wing.

A callout to theatre designers, scenographers, and public art practitioners was made, and the infrastructure of the exhibition was planned.

“Part of our decision on what we would use as our material to work with and provide to responding artists, was based on what we could take over to the empty hall it has to be set up in,” said Crewe.

It also had to have individual elements each artist could customise to represent their work, yet be able to fit into a unified structure, she said.

After some experimentation and consideration of conceptual elements, flexible round reflectors of the type normally used in photography to enhance or modify lighting conditions, were chosen.

Crewe worked with models to determine different configurations, and sent each artist a reflector to modify. The end result is woven into the overall construction in situ at the Industrial Palace in Prague.

Shutterspeed: Reflection/Deflection, is the title of the complete work.

“What’s important is that, like photography, in theatre design you frame something, you construct it or propose it. And when you do that you eliminate all the other possibilites. So we’re really questioning what it is we choose to see and what we choose to deflect, or look away from.” says Crewe.

A 40-page catalogue of the artists and their work is available, and can be ordered from Flying House via email on info@flyinghouse. co.za The participating artists are: Noluthando Lobese-Moropa; Illke Louw; Jemma Kahn; Jade Bowers, Erika Lüttich and the Boitumelo Project; Leigh Bishop; Naomi van Niekerk; Zivanai Matangai; Mantala Nkoatse; Gavin Krastin; Gerhard Marx.

SOUTH AFRICA Shutter speed: Reflection/Deflection

Taking charge... UCT scenography lecturer Jenni-lee Crewe is curating work by SA indi theatre designers at the prestigious Prague Quadrennial.

Advertisement

NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2019 It’s not too late to plan an arts and culture fix.

I

f 99% of visitors surveyed in an independent survey said that they would definitely recommend the National Arts Festival to a friend then maybe it’s time to give it a try? The experience is like no other. Enter the bubble that is the town during Festival and be surrounded by creators and makers, hundreds of shows, talks, experiences and more.

Feel like you’ve left it too late again?

Prepare to be spontaneous because there IS still time to make the trip to #NAF2019 happening from 27 June – 7 July. Whether you drive, fly or take a bus it’s a bucket list adventure.

Says Festival CEO Tony Lankester, “We always have room for one more at Festival time, even if things are filling up, we’ll just squeeze up a little to make space.”

The Festival’s website has a Travel and Stay Guide with all the info you need. Agents in the area can assist in finding a self-catering house and there are hotels and B&B’s as well as student residences for hire that will suit a variety of budgets. Shuttles travel regularly between Port Elizabeth and Makhanda and visitors don’t have to hire a car to get around during Festival time.

Make it a family holiday and expose your children to the rich selection of art, music and children’s theatre on offer. There is even plenty to see and do for free.

It’s a ride for the mind, a shelter for the soul and a trip well worth making. Make this the year you get to the National Arts Festival. www. nationalartsfestival.co.za

Five shows not to miss at #NAF2019 1. DYLAN MORAN’S DR COSMOS (UK) Irish comedian, Dylan Moran returns to the National Arts Festival after packing houses in 2015. His dry-witted style and wry sense of humour is the tonic we all need.

2. SAMSON (SA) Brett Bailey’s new work about the biblical Samson story packs a powerful punch as it reflects on modern-day corruption, greed and control. South African choreographer now living in France, Vincent Mantsoe, has returned to bring this musical theatre piece to life.

3. FROGMAN (UK) Experience a play in 365 degree virtual reality; this work has been created at the cutting edge of technology to bring audiences an exciting new

experience. The show is a part of Creativate – a festival within the festival that explores the fusion of tech and the arts.

4. WANDERER (GERMAN/CHINESE) Hannah Ma, a German Chinese choreographer, brings this brilliant contemporary dance production about the search for home and longing for rituals that transcend cultural boundaries. A reminder of how we tend to forget - in our ideas of how different we are - that “the blood that runs through our veins is red”.

5. DRAKENSBERG BOYS CHOIR (SA) This is one of those feel-good shows that will stir the soul of every South African and visitor to our beautiful shores. Take a melodic, harmonious journey led by young people paying tribute to many of our South African musicians.

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MAY 31 - JUNE 28 | 2019

Restaurant review

Upper Bloem: Fancy food at plain prices

The Bread Board: Roti’s, Chaux Pastry Daltjies and Samoosa crisps with pickled aubergine, teriyaki glaze and a snoek pate

Connor McLaughlin In a city of ever changing trends and ideas, some dreams just unfortunately don’t make it past conception, but in the rare cases where success is achieved, something glorious is often created. This applies to Henry Vigar and Andre Hill’s latest venture, Upper Bloem.

La Mouette has been a art of the city landscape for quite some time and brought a level of sophistication and art to food in Cape Town, rapidly rising to become a restaurant that must be visited. All this notoriety allowed Chef Henry to conceive a new vision, one that directly caters for local cuisine and still infuses fine-dining quality. Thus Upper Bloem was born.

Just a year old, Upper Bloem has managed to redefine South African cooking with its break away from the norm and deconstruct-

The house cured beef – horseradish / brioche crumb / curried apple and raisin

ing the flavours and ingredients to provide a truly unique experience. What sets Upper Bloem apart from other ‘fine-dining’ establishments is the environment, which does not hold to the same rigidity and coolness. It embraces the culture of South Africa by creating a space that is warm and inviting, making you feel like you’re in someone’s kitchen, or dining room. The 70s-esque décor which is complimented by modern architecture and design, offers an atmospher that sets Upper Bloem apart from many other restaurants in the area. The kitchen is not hidden in the back as if trying to pretend the food just magically appears on your plate, but is a crucial centrepiece to the entire venue, as this is where the true magic happens.

Chef Andre and Henry have devised a fantastic ensemble of local flavours which each compliment the many cultures of Cape Town.

Their bread board is only that in name, as it is comprised of home-made Roti’s, Chaux Pastry Daltjies and Samoosa crisps with pickled aubergine, teriyaki glaze and a snoek pate. This sensational board sets you up for a six course tapas style lunch that leaves you rolling out happier than before. I cannot even begin to describe the level of quality and detail that each dish entails. From the delicacy of beetroot leaf for the Courgette Salomie to the careful combination of spices in the butternut breyani, each dish completely surpasses the last but still compliment each other as they take you through the varying flavours of Cape Town.

With a menu so beautifully devised one would think it would be in the league of select diners, this again is where Upper Bloem stand out. At R125pp for lunch or R375pp for din-

ner (excluding wine) Upper Bloem makes itself enables a broader public to enjoy their gastronomic experience. The friendly staff add cheer to this entire affair and Chef Andre will go above and beyond to give you a world class experience.

I recommend booking here as soon as you can, if for nothing else than to see that South African cooking is in a league of its own and that international doesn’t always mean better.My final piece of advice: go with an empty stomach and a friend to fully enjoy your experience at what is now my favourite local restaurant.

Lunch is available from 12pm Wednesdays to Saturdays while Dinner is available from 6pm Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Wine

Boozing on a Budget: Whites

Sade Allcock Let’s start off by coming right out and saying it: wine and wine culture can be intimidating. From the often overwhelming selection we are afforded in South Africa, the numerous terms, to the snobbish wine ‘connoisseurs’ that seem to peer down their noses at the rest of us plebs whenever the subject is mentioned, there are many factors that make most of us want to run from the wine aisle with our tail between our legs.

However, rest assured that your days of grabbing the cheapest bottle and making a dash for the exit are numbered. In this edition,

I’ll be suggesting a couple of white wines that are decent, but that don’t break the bank.

First off, the Villiera Chenin Blanc. This is an enjoyable but highly acidic Chenin with notes of pineapple and grapefruit on the palate (i.e. what you can taste if you concentrate hard enough). This is not the sort of wine that I would drink while kicking back on my couch with a book, it requires a meal to be properly appreciated. I would pair this Chenin with a dish that is heavy in cheese or cream, such as a good pizza (even better if you’re a pineapple on pizza kind of person) or a pasta alfredo or carbonara. Perhaps even a good ol’ mac and cheese. The acidity of the Villiera Chenin will

help cut through the cream and fat to reveal greater flavour, and the richness of the meal will in turn allow the wine to be easier drinking. It comes in at R59.99, making it easy on the palate and easy on the pocket.

My second recommendation would be the Spier Classic Sauvignon Blanc. This is a much easier drinking wine that has aromas of tropical fruit, granadilla and gooseberries on the nose. Its acidity is more balanced, allowing you to pay attention to the more delicate flavours within your food. Sauvignon Blanc is one of the few wines that can pair well with sushi, and this one is no exception. It will also pair well with other seafood (perhaps a gor-

geous yellowtail from Kalk Bay harbour) and light pasta dishes. Why not have the best of both worlds and pair it with a seafood pasta?

This Sauvignon Blanc comes in at R69.99, a bargain for a good bottle of wine. Last but not least, please only consume your white wine once you have refrigerated it for at least an hour. If you do not do this you will fail to get the proper aromas and flavour from your wine, and thus your enjoyment will be diminished.

Villiera Chenin Blanc can be found at Woolworths @ R59.99 Spier Classic Sauvignon Blanc can be found at Checkers @ R69.99

MAY 31 - JUNE 28 | 2019

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Book review

The Rotten Oasis: White boy Bongozozo Rowett shows no desire to suck up to this twin colonial and imperial bosom, despite any inherited DNA. In a literary nature vs nurture debate, it could be argued Rowett’s novel reveals an underlying English ancestry in the dialogue, which is often witty if cruel, and American influence in the pace, which is a non-stop barrage of scenes verging on the psychedelic. But the nurture is all African in its unsentimental observation of landscape, and the relationships between characters.

For while the mutual denigration, the trading of insults and put-downs that characterise the malevolent characters of Amis’s novel appear to be reproduced among the four rotters who share a digs in Rotten Oasis, there is none of the inter-personal dissaffection Amis and Ellis record.

There is a strange bond among Rowett’s group of reprobates. Only they can insult each other (and they do, continously and with abandon). No outsider has the right, and would be swiftly, and probably violently, dealt with if they tried. Not that there isn’t willfully inflicted pain in Rotten Oasis. It is set in Africa after all, and in Zimbabwe which has seen more than its fair share of horrors. It is just that here the malevolence lies within the state, and it is one that runs deep, and is all-powerful. Amis and Ellis’s characters are psychologically bound to their circumstances, Rowett’s are held in a web of power and politics. And the gleeful brutality that threads throughout is disturbing. As is the absolutely rotten behaviour of this filthy foursome that find themselves blindingly hungover in a boiling political stew. The answer to that, of course, is to carry on drinking. Things got so bad that at one point while reading the

novel I had a strong desire to wash the dishes stacked at the kitchen sink in my own house.

They are filthy, drunken, obnoxious, sexist, homophobic, racist, cowardly, brave, and loyal. Completely lacking any sense of hygiene.

Feral. In short, true to type.

People like this exist. I’ve seen them, even spoken to a few. Rowett appears to have lived with them, drunk with them, even; an activity that can be fatal.

Some editing could be done. This is a print off a fledgling London press and there were one too many chapters beginning with a cringingly blinding babalas. Beyond that, the language punches off the page right from the start, gives no quarter. It is what compelled me to hang out with them, punctuating my speech with crude epithets for the duration.

There’s no setting of the scene, pointing out the landmarks. You’ve got to sit down at the table and ‘krind to thead’, or walk away with cruel laughter at your back.

The repostes are straight from the hip, employing a twisted colonial slang that peculiar to its place: Harare, Zimbabwe; white boys.

Circa 2008.

There’s a trigger cocked on every page, and a Twitter storm over the blinding insensitivies in the book is brewing should Rowett be invited to book festivals. But it is not the writer who is a bigot, it is the characters. They are also, at times, hilarious, even as you wince with woke guilt while you laugh. Truth demands no apology.

Yet there is humanity in there. Somewhere in the loyalty, perhaps.

Amidst all the white writing about growing up in Africa, this isn’t it. This is punk. Afropunk, white boy style.

Son of the House The Gunners

by Cheluchi

by Rebecca Kauffman Onyemelukwe-Onuobia.

Stronger, Faster, And more Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

The Incendiaries

by RO Kwon

Debut novel by a Nigerian writer, it tells the stories of two women, Nwabulu and Julie.

Book starts with the two of them having been kidnapped for ransom and while tied together they tell each other their life stories. I thought the kidnapping device was a bit weak and the way in which their two stories overlap pushed my tolerance for co-incidence a bit, but she tells a good story and it’s well written. The stories reflect on patriarchy and in particular the importance placed in Nigerian traditional beliefs about the role of women - firstly to have a child and within that to have a MALE child. Not dissimilar to Ayobami Adebayo’s Stay With Me. Good, solid novel, particularly for those interested in contemporary African writing beyond the big names

It’s kind of a collection of different stories by different people who are affected by scientific progress. The one character who connects these people is this one Reverend who fights against “people changing the state that God has put them in”. But the Reverend too ends up leaning on the scientific side by combining his stem cells with that of his wife and son after they die in one of his rallies against science.

The book highlights the two different opinions leaving it up to the reader to decide which way is the right way. It’s the degradation of the Essence of being a Human being vs Living a better life & Living Longer.

It must be that at some point Brett Easton Ellis and Martin Amis met up in the subtropical highlands of southern Africa and beyond all biological comprehension spawned a bastard child as a result of an alcohol-infused vacation centred around mutual buggery.

How else to explain The Rotten Oasis but as the result of some abbarent freak of malevolent masochism abandoned to the brutal capriciousness of political tyrrany.

For Zimbabwean-born I.M Rowett’s debut novel contains all the bruises and scars that

characterise this assumed literary parentage – alienation, self-loathing, misogyny– with the quintessential southern African addition of racial prejudice.

It may also be assumed that Rowett might not care less about this literary placement due to his novel’s echoes of the spiteful debauchery at Appleseed House in Amis’s Dead Babies, combined with its brew of cruel, emotionally disconnected and sexually aggressive frat culture portrayed by Ellis in Less than Zero.

Five kids are really close friends until one of them, Sally, stops talking to the others. In their early 30s, the group is reunited for Sally’s funeral after she kills herself. Novel alternates between then and now as the friends try to make sense of what happened and lots of secrets get revealed. It’s a novel primarily about the love and complexity of friendship.

For those of you old enough to remember The Big Chill, that’s an obvious reference point, but it’s also got a bit of a “Sally Rooney” vibe.

I really enjoyed it.

Boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl joins a cult and everything goes pear shaped.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book. It has some interesting themes and conceptual ideas, and the writing is quite good. But there is a slight problem with pacing, the first half drags and then a lot happens in the last 50 pages. Also I both like and dislike the characters, which means I only felt half invested in them. Still worth reading if you’re looking for something. It’s also possible that it’s actually amazing and I didn’t pick it up on my first read.

Short reviews by staff at The Book Lounge

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION NOTICE WATER USE LICENCE APPLICATION FOR THE KOEBERG NUCLEAR POWER STATION “AQUARIUS” WELLFIELD GROUNDWATER ABSTRACTION PROJECT

Notice of a Public Participation Process (PPP) is hereby given in terms of Section 41(4) of the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998), as part of the Water Use License Application process.

PROJECT INFORMATION

The day-to-day power production and operation of Eskom Koeberg Nuclear Power Station (KNPS) entails water use. Cooling

water (condenser cooling) is abstracted from the sea, while process water (demineralised and potable water) is obtained from the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality (CCT). The average daily potable water use of KNPS is approximately 1300m3.

Due to the increasing population of Cape Town and the recent droughts, the water demands on the CCT is high. This has necessitated the Koeberg Operating Unit (KOU) to investigate alternative water sources to supply KNPS with acceptable quality water to sustain ongoing and ensure safe operation.

The installation of a desalination plant at the KOU is proposed, with water sourced from the existing on-site Aquarius Wellfield as an alternative water supply to what is received from CCT.

The Aquarius Wellfield is located 3 km north of KNPS on the Koeberg property with 10 existing boreholes. Currently, KNPS has a water use right and registered abstraction of 500 000 m3/year of groundwater from the wellfield. In order to supply most of KNPS’s water

needs it is proposed that this amount be increased to 760 000 m3/year with the installation of additional boreholes at the wellfield.

PROJECT AUTHORISATION PROCESS

For the proposed abstraction of groundwater, a Water Use License Application (WULA) has been submitted to the competent

authority, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), in terms of Section 21(a) of the National Water Act (NWA) for “taking water from a water resource.“

The DWS has issued the following reference number for the submitted application: WU 10364.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITY

As per the Regulations Regarding the Procedural Requirements for Water Use License Applications and Appeals in terms of the NWA a 60-day public participation period will be in effect from 1 June 2019 to 31 July 2019.

Should any person wish to participate in the public participation with regard to the submitted WULA, please submit in writing your complete contact details as well as your comments and/or queries to the Advisian Environmental Consultant (EC) as follows, from 1 June 2019 to 31 July 2019: Advisian Project Ref. No: C00278-7 Advisian EC:

Liezel Hattingh

Physical Address:

31 Allen Drive, Loevenstein, Bellville, Cape Town, 7530

E-mail Address:

Telephone No.:

liezel.hattingh@advisian.com 010 593 3936 / 3937

Once the public participation period has been concluded, all comments, queries, and correspondence will be captured in a Public Participation Report, which will be submitted to the DWS for their consideration in processing the WULA.

Kindly inform any other possible Interested and/or Affected Parties (IAPs) of the 60-day public participation period with regard to the WULA.

WorleyParsons RSA (Pty) Ltd trading as Advisian REG NO: 1989/002048/07

MAY 31 - JUNE 28 | 2019

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Advertisement

Market Theatre to make its mark at National Arts Festival

T

he Market Theatre Foundation’s reputation for contributing to the high standard of theatre in South Africa looks to be cemented once again, with three productions travelling to the National Arts Festival in Makhanda at the end of this month.

Building on their deep foundation of reflecting contemporary South African issues and probing the cracks and recesses of our society, the Market Theatre Foundation has invested in some artistic extensions. In addition to the Market Theatre itself, and the Market Theatre Laboratory which provides a highly-regarded two-year training programme for theatremakers, there is now the Windybrow Arts Centre in Hillbrow.

This has given wings to the Kwasha! Theatre Company through an innovative collaboration between the Market Theatre Laboratory and the Windybrow Arts Centre. Each year, Market Theatre Laboratory graduates join Kwasha!, where they create an exciting programme of new dynamic theatre productions, which Capetonians taking the annual arts pilgrimage to Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) can enjoy.

Two Kwasha! productions are travelling to Makhanda, with one showing on the National Arts Festival’s prestigious Main programme, and one aiming to prove itself in the tumultous meritocracy of the Fringe programme. The Market Theatre Laboratory is taking a third production as part of the Student Festival programme.

DEURnis/Uzwelo DEURnis/Uzwelo promises to be one of the most fascinating shows on the NAF Main programme. The original DEURnis was created by Theatrerocket productions and breaks down the door between audience and actor. It is an immersive, site-specific experience in which one audience member experiences storytelling by one actor. It has in the past taken place in a house, with an actor in each room performing a story related to the space, whether it be bedroom, kitchen, or bathroom. The script for each room is different and a ticket ‘package’ gives you access to three different stories, of about 20 minutes each. The-

(Edinburgh Festival Fringe is curated by venues) means the young Kwasha! company will be operating in the lion’s den of South African theatre where you have to fend for yourself, take care of everything from marketing the show to plotting the lights (and maybe rigging them sometimes too), and pay your petrol, all with your ticket sales.

It’s an arena they’re prepared for, as two years at The Market Theatre Laboratory provided them with all the necessary skills, including how to act. It was these company members who, as Market Theatre Laboratory students, hoisted the Best Student Production award at NAF last year for Marose and Hani: The Legacy in 2017.

Vusi Nkwenkwezi in DEURnis/Uzwelo.

Photo: Hoek Swaratlhe atrerocket has taken the show to Woordfees and KKNK, and now Kwasha! is producing it, adding Sotho, Xhosa, Sepedi, and tsotsitaal to the original Afrikaans. The Makhanda venue where it is being set is a school, so the scripts have been altered to suit the site.

“There are some really exciting stories,” says Gwangwa, adding that being a one-on-one, you also realise what role you play as the audience.

“It’s like virtual reality for theatre,” says Kwasha!

Manager Rudy Matseatsea.

Currently (G)old Mining the rich vein of the Market Theatre’s tradition and vision of presenting work that speaks to contemporary South African society, Kwasha!’s play Currently (G)old interrogates what freedom

means for young people in this country.

Matseatsea says it was devised for Human Rights Day and was so great it had a run on the Market Theatre’s stage and at the independent PopArt theatre in Maboneng. He describes it as satire that speaks to the Zuma era, Marikana, and the current political changes, all with a rich subtext of the freedom promises of the Mandela years.

Gwangwa sees it as taking an absurdist comedic approach to the #mustfall movement.

“It’s the political arena from a youth perspective.

It’s really riveting and exciting,” says Gwangwa.

It’s new writing by new theatremakers and in this sense provides a taste of what the next generation is thinking and feeling.

Being on the Fringe, which is the largest noncurated festival performance platform in the world

Le Journal Having won the top awards on the NAF Student Festival programme for the last two years, The Market Theatre Laboratory students are looking for a hat trick with their newly devised play Le Journal. Part of the reason work by the Market Theatre Laboratory does so well is because each student has to pitch their ideas and vision, and these get thrashed out until only the best idea – agreed on by all – makes it off the floor. The entire class then throws their energy into making the show and are tutored by some of the best theatremakers in the country. In this case, the concept informing the work is the death of news stories.

There are stories that make news headlines for a few days, shocking everyone, and then simply disappear. Le Journal explores the neglected newsreel and the disposability of news subjects. And they’ve done their research, setting up interviews with the SABC and hanging around the newsroom.

With these three new works being presented on South Africa’s premier performing arts platform, the Market Theatre Arts Centre is not only marking its national and international launch, but is adding to the canon of original plays while maintaining the internationally-renowned standard of South African Theatre. Being witness to their birth on stage is one of the best reasons to take the annual pilgrimage east to the arts Mecca that Makhanda becomes for 11 days of the year.

Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond

FREE COPY

MAY 31 - JUNE 28, 2019

Your curated excuses for getting out the house Game of Thrones is over. Finally. Now you can stop goggling the box and get a life. Here’s how:

Theatre If you are still finding it difficult to let go of the notion of there being more than two genders and unsettled by the non-binary concept, I am Trans might answer your questions and help you transition to acceptance that the world of gender and sexuality is no longer binary, thank the gods.

Alternatively, if you’re woke, you may want to celebrate our emerging consciousness at the Baxter Theatre by going to watch this play which explores the lives of two women as one of them discovers she is transgender. It is described as a very accurate depiction of what actually happens in the LGBTQ community.

It plays on 5 and 7 June at 7pm, with a 2pm matinee on the 8th.

Tickets cost between R100 and R180, book via baxter.co.za A spin off of I am Trans, is Transformed. Also on at the Baxter Theatre, it follows the story of Becca, a strong but vulnerable woman who just wants to finally be herself, and Kabelo, a young gay man who is feeling unsure of himself.

It plays on 4, 6, and 8 June at 7pm. Tickets range from R100 to R180, or see both I am Trans and Transformed for R220.

Book via baxter.co.za Okay, this is really special. The Cenotaph of Dan wa Moriri is theatre you must not miss. Absolutely superb actor Tony Miyambo is Joburg based, so this is a rare chance and we urge you to take it. We were fortunate enough to see this play at the National Arts Festival a couple of years ago and delighted it is getting another run, this time at the Alexander Bar. At heart it is about the death of a father, but it is neither weepy nor melancholy but contains humour, pathos, and beauty.

The Critter review stated: “...the soft repetition of seemingly mundane recollections gives them strength, as multiple strands of the thinnest silk woven together can create rope strong enough to pull a ship of sorrow into safe harbour.”

We repeat: DO NOT MISS THIS. It is staged from June 10 to 13, and again from the 17th to the 20th. All shows are at 9pm, and tickets cost R120, or R100 online. Book at alexanderbar.co.za While Tony is visiting us, he’s taking the chance to also perform Kafka’s Ape, so we get the chance to binge on his brilliance. It is an adaptation of the classic A Report To An Academy by Franz Kafka, which involves a primate telling of his struggle to be accepted as human. It opens the door to the experience of ‘the other’ and its subtle allegorical observations are frightenly pertinent to South Africa.

At the Alexander Bar from June 10 to 15, and again on the 21st and 22cnd. All shows start at 9pm.

Tickets cost R120 or R100 online. Book on alexanderbar.co.za For something shiny and fluffy, Fetish and Feathers is also playing at the Alexander Bar this month.

With three gorgeous performers from the Rouge Revue Burlesque Company and three beautiful burlesquers from Black Orchid Burlesque SA, there’s bound to be glitter, skimpy outfits, reveals, ass-shaking, titty-wobbling, and lots of thigh.

It’s touted as ‘action-packed’, ‘seductive’, ‘authentic’, and ‘specifically designed to get you hot under the collar and excited for more’. Recommended for the open minded and wild at heart.

Two shows only, on 14 and 15 June. Both shows at 9pm. Tickets cost R160, or R140 online.

Book through alexanderbar.co.za

Music Bassist Josh Hawks is a vampire. It’s the only explanation for how he manages to have been a keystone of the Cape Town rock n roll scene for almost 30 years, yet still look so young. He’s been in startup bands, experimental bands, garage bands, trippy bands, successful bands, the whole doom de doom doom. Among them are B-World, Colourfields, and Freshlyground. Now he’s also teamed up with Lumanyan Unity Mzi on drums and Guy Collins on guitar to form The Rockskandi Kings, which suggests they mix rock with maskandi and or vice versa.

They’ve got a show at the wonderful Alma Cafe in Rosebank, which means it’s intimate. The band will be playing tracks from their debut album due for release in September.

The term rockskandi was termed by a African DJ who interviewed Guy about his blending of blues and rock with South African traditional music, apparently For bookings, call 027 21 685 7377 dictait@rainbow.co.za http://www.almacafe.co Show is at 7pm on June 9.

A gig promising to be sweet is jazz singer and composer Nono Nkoane at Cafe Roux in Shortmarket Street on June. Cape Town-born Nono’s debut album True Call is ten great tracks that includes hits such as Baleka, Ndalila, My Journey, and Meditative State. Mentored by the deep African roots of Dizu Plaatjies, she honed her abilities by studying jazz and contemporary music at Tshwane University of Technology. She’s performed on stage with Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba. ‘Nuff said.

Go enjoy the experience on June 12 Dinner from 7pm, show from 8.30pm.

Tickets R100, book through caferouxsessions.co.za Port Elizabeth has somehow nurtured great jazz over the decades, but the industrial ugliness of the city has never bred punk (that we know of). But here we go, the Undead Generation have left town and headed west. Which means they are here, at Evol. Oddly enough, they’re joined by jazzists Quarantine who are also on the road from The Bay, as well as alternative rockers Coastal Clones and local punks Lat Patrollie. This one’s eclectic.

Sunday 16 June (Monday’s a public holiday) Doors open at 7pm, entrance costs R40 (those PE okes haven’t caught on to the price of beers here in Cape Town).

Jack is back from peddling rotgut. Jack Parow at Cafe Roux on June 26. Wear your leopard print cap – or not. From 7pm, tickets cost R180. caferouxsessions.co.za

Art Here’s an interesting looking installation to trip you out. It’s The Light Tank by artist Goddy Roodt and it’s at 99 Loop.

Go to the opening on June 5 and check out this ‘immersive multisensory work’ that ‘transfixes audiences with its playful and purposeful interaction of sound and light’.

The tank will be open for viewing from 3pm to 6.30pm so you can try figure out if it’s art.

Read more at 99loop.co.za

Activism Save our world and ensure your children don’t euthanise you when you’re too old to resist. Join the Youth climate rally, march and picket on Friday 14 June, meet at corner Keizersgracht and Darling Streets at 11.30am.

Magnet Theatre is back. They have developed a deserved repuation for creating really good, and often great, theatre. The latest play, G7: OKWE-BOKHWE is based on the historical records of the Gugulethu 7, who were young Umkhonto weSizwe members ambushed and killed by the apartheid security forces in 1986. It uses the ‘language of the body, song and ritual’ to honour the Gugulethu 7, and ‘celebrates the power of theatre’s ability to heal’.

It is on from 12 to 14 June, 16 June, and again from the 18th to 22cnd. All shows are at 7.30pm except on the 16th, 21st and 22cnd when they are at 2pm.

Book on webtickets.

We were about to overlook Zombie Attack, which is also at Alexander Bar, but noticed Andrew Laubscher’s name on the programme as director. And the performer is Gaëtan Schmid, who has raised a laugh in the past with his hyperactive comic patter. Somehow, Gaëtan takes the common terror of being called to the front of the class (or out of the audience onto stage) and twists and stretches it to become an apocalyptic zombie nightmare. Movies are referenced, apparently. Lots of them, but the pair promise you don’t have to be a movie watcher to rip your belly from the laffs.

It’s on from June 18 to 22, at 7pm. Tickets cost R100, R90 online. Book through alexanderbar. co.za

Tony Miyambo’s The Cenotaph of Dan wa Moriri will break you, slowly, and you’ll love it.

If you want your gig to be considered for our guide, email deets to westcapenews@gmail.com