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Steve Kretzmann

Inner-city housing: New plan in the works

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More than 70% of all accommodation in the central city is let out to tourists. A new local spatial development framework sets out how this needs to change

A new plan in the works for development of Cape Town’s inner city sets out the need to accommodate about 40,000 more residents within a greener and more pedestrian-friendly environment over the next 15 years.… Read more

September gig guide

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Jirre! It’s been a kak cold winter. En allie reën? Ny! Kannie soweesie. Spring uit! Here’s some soetlekkers to get you vuurwarm.

Literature

The most wonderful festival of literature, Open Book, is happening this month. Taking place over three days, from 6 – 8 September, at the Homecoming Centre on Harrington Street, it’s a programme of about 60 overlapping discussions from 10am until 9pm each day during which we can let our intellect out for a welcome airing and meet the authors we’ve been reading while huddled under blankets next to heaters during this frigging cold winter past.… Read more

Rail revolution: Plans chug forward

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City transport boss is hopeful the new transport minister will support plans for Metrorail to become a municipal responsibility

  • Rail, the backbone of public transport in Cape Town, has been broken for a decade under PRASA’s management.
  • Government policy allows passenger rail to be devolved from PRASA to the metropolitan municipality.
… Read more

The Ugly Noo Noo: Astounding cricket capers remain contemporary

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There were probably few, if any, people who, when they stood up to give The Ugly Noo Noo a standing ovation in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, thought it could be even more relevant in distant 2024.

After all, when Andrew Buckland wrote and performed it in 1988 it was, disguised beneath the surreal humour and superb physical comedy, an essentially political play.… Read more

August gig guide

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Boo! is back, and some of the best shows from Makhanda (Grahamstown) Fringe are coming for a visit.

Music

Boo! Were the antidote to the Springbok Nude Girls in the 90s. As hard and loud as the Nudies rocked, Arno couldn’t help getting a bit adult contemporary at times.… Read more

Diesel on down the road

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A diesel is dirty, smelly, powerful, and leaks oil when it puts a few hundered k’s on the clock. But the thing is they do put a few hundred k’s on the clock, and just keep clocking on.

While there’s undeniably a thrill to the acceleration and speed of the petrol racehorses that can weave in and out of traffic, a journey in an old diesel allows you to check out our incredible landscape, take a sho’t left off the beaten track, and get into the flow of the road.… Read more

New policy for street people

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The City is developing a new strategy to reduce homelessness, and help people living on the street, but lack of data is a drawback

In its new policy on homelessness currently being developed, the City of Cape Town acknowledges a lack of accurate data on the number of homeless people in the city.… Read more

Strandfontein development could push butterfly into extinction

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The only colony of one of the world’s most endangered butterflies is within sight of an ambitious new urban coastal node

A large, multi-storey development proposed at Strandfontein could put one of the rarest butterflies in the world at even greater risk of extinction, and decrease endangered biodiversity for which Cape Town is famous.… Read more

Foot’s Othello reroutes the question of barbarity

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Othello is in essence a soap opera. It lacks the regicide, fratricide, witchery, and mysticism of many of his other works. What we do have, though, is uxoricide, horrifyingly common in South Africa. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice,is also arguably racist in its stereotype of the black man easily manipulated by the Machivellian European, Iago, although there are counter-arguments.… Read more