Mother City News

Harlem Shuffle: The art of not breaking

3 November 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Is it possible for a person with a modicum of ambition to be straight in a crooked world?

This may be the central question of Colson Whitehead’s tenth novel, Harlem Shuffle. The world is Harlem, the person is Raymond Carney, who, as Whitehead dryly describes him, “was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked”.… Read more

Local comedian covers himself in gore

3 November 20213 November 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

One of Cape Town’s favourite comedians has become a power-drill-wielding killer. Rob van Vuuren, known for extracting belly laughs from the audience with his tales of family life and acting travails, is starring in the international schlock horror Slumber Party Massacre.… Read more

Sewage pollution costs livelihoods

29 November 202129 October 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Failure by the City of Cape Town to keep sewage from flowing into its nature reserves is resulting in job losses and lost business.

Cape Town’s three most popular inland water bodies – Rietvlei, Zandvlei and Zeekoevlei – are all within nature reserves managed by the City.… Read more

Gig guide: the gates to festive time

29 October 2021 by Mia Arderne

It’s almost fokol it’s festive time with November around the corner, signaling the slow death of this godforsaken year. With cabin fever permeating into our marrow, do we even remember how to socialize and consume art or has lockdown siphoned the levity from our souls?

Zeekoevlei activists lock horns with DA’s mayoral candidate over pollution

3 November 202128 October 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Mayoral candidate Geordin Hill-Lewis promises to end City’s “culture of secrecy”

The DA’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, was given short thrift by concerned citizens when he suggested Zeekoevlei is polluted with sewage partly due to people blocking sewers with foreign objects.… Read more

Rosé – The wine rookie

8 October 2021 by Sadé Allcock

It is with equal parts excitement and trepidation that I announce that the wine column for Mother City News has moved to Joburg! The big smoke! While it might seem counterintuitive to write a wine column from the heart of Gauteng, fear not.… Read more

‘Superbugs’ breed in City’s polluted waters

28 October 20213 October 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Children play at Zandvlei mouth as it runs out to sea at Muizenberg. The water has for months been too polluted for recreational use.

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

Give us more guns: Answers to violence in South Africa

2 September 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Thousands of police-issue guns – the made-in-South-Africa 9mm Z88 – have been sold to Cape Town gangs since the mid-2000s to early 2015. The flood of guns to gangs saw the murder rate in the city climb from a low of about 41 per 100,000 people in 2009, to about 63 per 100,000 by 2015.… Read more

Gig guide – September

2 September 2021 by Steve Kretzmann

Our artists need us, and, honestly, we need them more. They are capable of doing something else to survive if needs be, but we aren’t capable of distilling our society through a creative lens and communicating our shared humanity like they can.

Fruit from the southern slopes

2 September 2021 by mark

Our wine columnist Sadé Allcock is relocating to Jozi to manage a boutique hotel in Houghton, but don’t worry, this is a brief hiatus, she’ll be back to fill you in on the best plonk to purchase as our world renowned Cape wines are available in the big smoke.… Read more