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Dump maths? Sounds like a race to the bottom
10X Investments called on South Africa’s Department of Basic Education this week to reconsider the “potentially catastrophic proposal” to remove mathematics as a pass requirement in the education system. “Just when you thought we needed to raise our game in terms of maths literacy, the national education department starts a consultation on lowering the standards,”… Continue reading
Lest we forget …
Cheers to Sarajevo, which is showing at the Alexander Bar until Saturday July 8, is one of those universal stories about people who are not supposed to fall in love. This story about a love affair between a Serbian man and a Bosnian woman during the captured and corrupt times of the Yugoslavian war feels… Continue reading
The normalisation of madness
A number of insights during a debate at the University of Cape Town – Betrayal of the Promise: Understanding South Africa’s Political Crisis – came from the youngest panel member Sikhulekile Duma, a researcher at the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University. One, in particular, resonated with me when he talked about… Continue reading
New classics infused with ancient African tradition
A Nigerian Kora player, a South African composer, a Kenyan master of ceremonies and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille were among musicians, VIPs and invited guests gathered at Iziko Museum in Cape Town to listen to “new classics” in celebration of the 54th anniversary of Africa Day on Thursday. After being warmed up by a… Continue reading
Musical feast at Durban’s beachfront festival
Durbanites look set to get a lot more than “what is needed” this weekend, May 26-28, when a star-studded line-up from around the world plays on two stages at the third annual Zakifo Music Festival at Blue Lagoon Beach. “Sakifo means what is needed in Creole,” says Jerome Galabert, one of the event’s co founders…. Continue reading
Artists given licence to disrupt (as if they needed it)
2017 looks like the year disruption will come full circle at Grahamstown’s National Arts Festival, from June 29 to July 9. Last year’s call for proposals urged, challenged, prodded and provoked the original disruptors – artists – to shake things up a bit. We have just a few weeks to wait to see how they responded. Urging dare devils and… Continue reading
Back by popular demand: #FeesMustFall
Back by popular demand! The Fall will be showing at Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from June 8 to 24. Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Research Chair of Studies in Historical Trauma and Transformation at Stellenbosch University, wrote of The Fall: “With all the images of violence in the media, it can be easy to lose sight of… Continue reading
Precious drinking water running down the toilet
As water experts gather for seminars to discuss the Cape’s crisis and pop groups record songs to help people manage the time they spend in the shower, thousands of litres of drinking water continues to run down the toilet. Robert Ince, from Cape Town-based company Bob The Plumber, says there are many small and effective ways… Continue reading
Education crisis ‘the civil rights struggle of the day’
Respected African elder statesman Jakaya Kikwete told the World Economic Forum’s Africa meetings in Durban that the education crisis in Africa was today’s civil rights struggle, and called on leaders in the developed and developing worlds to act urgently. Tanzania’s former president was speaking in his capacity as Special Envoy for the Education Commission, a global… Continue reading
A connection, a picture, a story is worth a million miles
Star Alliance is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a worldwide competition celebrating cultural connections made by travellers in which entrants stand a chance to win a million frequent flyer miles. Jeffrey Goh, Star Alliance chief executive, said: “As part of our 20th anniversary, we are celebrating the strength of human and cultural connections. In order… Continue reading
Afropunk is coming to Africa (Jozi strikes gold again)
Johannesburg will in December join New York, Atlanta, London and Paris as cities hosting global Afropunk events. The first batch of performers for the inaugural festival on December 30 and 31 – “two nights of music, style, art and food” on the city’s Constitution Hill – was announced by Sal Masekela at an event at… Continue reading
Think out of the box, put the farm into one
In this age of Eat Local campaigns, one might be a little alarmed to encounter vegetables called rucola, petite-this and mange-that, on a plate in the Nigerian capital, but fear not, Oluwayimika Angel Adelaja told a briefing at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Africa 2017 meetings in Durban, these micro greens are not just grown… Continue reading
A break from life’s fools, double crossers, wrecking balls …
A motley crew of fools, an evil seductress and many a double crosser mucking about, stabbing each other in the back, wrecking the place. Sound familiar? The good news is that this is the theatre: art imitating life, one might say. That said, The Play That Goes Wrong, showing at the Theatre on the Bay… Continue reading
Move over Barbs, here’s another fab Funny Girl
If you don’t believe me when I say the Fugard Theatre’s production of Funny Girl, the musical, is better than the movie, you’ll shout ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire!’ when you hear me say Ashleigh Harvey as Fanny Brice is even more Barbra than Streisand. What can I say … the bitter-sweet musical drama based… Continue reading
INewspapers: Relevant? Trustworthy? Worth paying for?
As South African media outlets search desperately for direction and relevance – tripping over hurdles, slipping on shelly beaches, falling onto swords – a quick look at the UK’s Guardian newspaper on Wednesday morning gives a timely reminder of how great journalism can be. Few would deny that the media has a crucial role to… Continue reading
Take one HQ, add a large portion of Bizerca …
Cape Town foodies will be interested to hear the news that the chef and owner of Bistrot Bizerca, Laurent Deslandes, will be joining the team at HQ, another Mother City favourite, as group executive chef. The combination of these two celebrated brands means patrons at HQ can look forward to ‘HQ Courtyard by Laurent’ serving… Continue reading
A jazz festival but not just for jazz fans
Let me widen the deep green circle of envy that surrounds holders of tickets to the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF) beyond lovers of jazz. The annual sellout event is a diverse musical feast that mixes styles and expands genres in delightful and surprising ways that would please anyone who likes music – or… Continue reading
If you can’t stand the heat get off the fence
It was hard to ignore the heat (or the irony) on Monday as a group of scientists told occupants in a sweltering hall on a quayside at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town that they hoped evidence gathered during a three month circumnavigation of Antarctica would “prove convincing to those politicians who have been sitting… Continue reading
A feast fit for foodies as casino cooks up a change
The ‘hautest’ of foodies might look down on the casino complex culture otherwise so popular in South Africa … but perhaps not for long, if a recent lunch at the Chef’s Table at soon-to-opened Time Square at Menlyn Maine in Pretoria is anything to go by. The R4 billion Time Square development, which will be… Continue reading
Yoco, poster child of SA as global fintech hub
Local startup Yoco’s successfully concluded foreign funding round, announced on Wednesday, has been described as a vote of confidence in South Africa’s growing fintech ecosystem. The South African startup told a media briefing in Cape Town that it had secured funding commitments for an undisclosed sum from U.S.-based Quona Capital and Velocity Capital of the… Continue reading
Young Africa Works: Making farming sexy
A beautiful, noisy thunder shower greeted delegates arriving in Kigali, Rwanda, for the Mastercard Foundation’s second annual Young Africa Works Summit in late February 2017, shattering expectations of cracked skin and dry taps after a terrible year of drought in many parts of Africa . The trip from the airport to the Marriott Hotel, where… Continue reading