Latest news:

New mayco member takes the wheel for transport in Cape Town

We interview Roberto Quintas as he gets into the driving seat.

When City of Cape Town Speaker Felicity Purchase congratulated Councilor Roberto Quintas on being appointed as the new mayoral committee member for transport during the full council meeting of 19 August, she commented that he has big shoes to fill.… Read more

Mother City Arts 30 July 2021

You think we’ve hit the bottom, then realise there is no bottom, things can always get worse.

Cue an attempted insurrection, looting and arson on a mass scale across KZN and in Gauteng, amidst which a chemicals warehouse burns down engulfing parts of Durban in toxic fumes and killing the Ohlanga River estuary overnight.… Read more

Amazon moving in on potential national heritage site

Provincial heritage council passes the buck to national body.

The Two Rivers Urban Park in which a new Amazon headquarters is to be built, is deemed by Heritage Western Cape to hold national heritage status, but the process of declaring it will take a year or more.… Read more

The Unfair Advantage, by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba

The authors are both millionaires thanks to their successful digital entrepreneurship. Ali created the startup Just Eat, which was an early version of Uber Eats. Kubba made his fortune through Search Engine Optimisation, ending up earning himself passive income and travelling the world.… Read more

Active Measures by Thomas Rid

The subtitle to this book is ‘The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare’, which deftly explains its contents. Rid spills out the guts of what the Russian spies were up to, as well as the Americans, although by Rid’s account, the Russians were fare more active in spreading disinformation against the West, and more dastardly.… Read more

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Expecting a child, Safran Foer investigates what is best for his family to eat. His calmly and insightfully narrated quest leads us to the horrors of the meat production chain. We encounter a brutally sick system in which pigs and chickens are bred stacked in factories which would kill you within half-an-hour if the ventilation system cut out.… Read more

House of Glass: A deep draught

There are many books I have enjoyed immensely, yet they leave no lasting trace other than the memory of pleasure, possibly because I was in agreement with the philosophy and viewpoints they contained; they presented no particular challenge. 

Then there are books that insert themselves months afterwards, at odd, idle, or occasionally opportune moments. … Read more