Cape Town

The Secret Love Project adds a touch of hope to the colourful streets of the Bo-Kaap.

Zainie Misbach and her son, Zain, being their lovely selves as they open their door and kitchen to a Bo-Kaap cooking tour full of flavours and Cape Malay insights rooted in a fascinating history.

Zainie Misback animatedly explains how to mix masala on her Bo-Kaap cooking tour.

In the small town of Kalk Bay on the Cape Peninsula there lies a gem on the harbour called Cape to Cuba.

Cape to Cuba in Kalk Bay – unique and colourful and a festival for the senses!

Some of the bold touches in Truth Coffee Roastery, Cape Town.

Prepare for a voyage when you enter Truth Coffee Roastery.

Truth Coffee

It’s so good – no sugar required. Truth Coffee Roastery.

Some of the impeccable, highly energetic staff at Truth Coffee Roastery.

Sunset on the harbour in Simon’s Town

Docked for the day in Simon’s Town.

Camps Bay – where the rich come out to play

Full moon nights on the horizon of False Bay

When you go all the way to Hout Bay for the fish and chips this view is pleasantly enjoyable on your full stomach

The original lighthouse at Cape Point which saved many a fleet but sadly not enough. The second lighthouse can be seen perched further down the edge of the rock, white and unassuming but brilliant in the night.

The Cape of Good Hope, once called the Cape of Storms, where the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean meet, the graveyard of many a ship.

Wine tasting at the magnificent Boshendal wine estate

Perched under the trees at Boschendal wine estate.

Some sights on the Franschoek Wine Tram – Vrede en Lust wine farm

All aboard the Franschoek Wine Tram

A special reserve of Hope on Hopkins Christmas gin served at the Gin Bar in Cape Town

A not-so-serious portrait of a visitor in Kalk Bay

Buddist monks creating a sand mandala

One of four Tibetian Buddist monks creating a mandala with coloured sand at the Wits Origins Centre in celebration of the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.

Concentration and endurance are the key words to painstakingly creating the coloured mandala.

Life on the edge of a tuk-tuk seat

Originally published on Melville & Parktown, November 21, 2018.

The tuk-tuk industry in Melville has been bustling since 2013. With competitors such as Uber and Taxify, some drivers are getting creative in order to carve out a living for themselves and their families.

Two blue tuk-tuks are parked at the back of the of the Melville Spar parking lot on Main road. The harsh October sun beats down, transforming the small three-wheeled vehicles into something resembling a baking oven. Innocent Mbonane sits inside one of the tuk-tuks, sweat dripping down his face while he waits for his next customer.

An elderly lady walks towards Mbonane and his colleague, Nicholas Masondo. She holds a walking stick in one hand and gingerly pushes a trolley filled with the groceries she’s just bought with the other. Mbonane rushes to her aid and pushes the trolley the rest of the way.

Vuyelwa Fikeni patiently waits while Mbonane loads her groceries into his tuk-tuk. She’s radiating with an infectious, happy energy. Just before she climbs into the vehicle, she says, “I have been using tuk-tuks for years!” Mbonane climbs behind the wheel and whisks her to The Village complex where she lives in Westdene, a mere four-mintue drive from the Spar – too far for her to walk to do her groceries but close enough to use a tuk-tuk.

A few minutes later, Mbonane returns, carrying another passenger. Bridget Kamangira has been using tuk-tuks as a fast means of transport for five months to travel between work and home. “Uber is expensive but tuk-tuks are cheaper,” she says.

PATIENCE: The heat wears Innocent Mbonane down as he waits for his next customer in the Melville Spar parking lot.

Mbonane drops Kamangira, parks his tuk-tuk next to that of Masondo and again waits for his next customer. He says that this can take up to an hour as he settles into the spacious back seat of his blue tuk-tuk and takes a sip of his water. Mbonane has been driving for e tuk-tuk for two years and encouraged Masondo to join as a driver three months ago.

Ethiopian speaker casts spotlight on press freedom at Carlos Cardoso lecture

Originally published in Wits Vuvuzela, October 30, 2018

Investigative journalism and democracy go hand in hand

Palaeontologist-turned-paleoartist: profile of Viktor Radermacher

Artistic brilliance meets scientific accuracy in the design behind a newly discovered dinosaur

SLICE OF LIFE: Stop asking me when I’ll have children

My choice to have a child has nothing to do with anyone else. 

As soon as I started wearing an engagement ring on my finger society joined the ever-expanding queue to start pestering me about my reproductive choices. I can’t go to any social gathering without the question coming up; ‘when are you planning to have a baby’? I have passed that stage in my life where I am invited to 21st and 25th birthdays. I have even moved past the wedding phase and have recently found myself being invited to more and more baby showers. And as happy as I am for my friends who are moving into the next phase of their lives, as an engaged woman these parties have become a minefield for someone like me, someone not interested in answering other’s people’s questions about babies.

A black belt in the making: profile of Jichandre Sambo

A year and a half after joining Wits Tang Soo Do, Jichandre Sambo has already won four medals for South Africa at the World Championships.

Jichandre Sambo sits outside the Bizzoli sports hall on Wits East Campus. Someone he knows walks past and he greets them with the warm smile that comes naturally to him. The friend casually makes a joke and asks him where all his medals are to which he chuckles and replies, “They’re at home.”

New app to be used to anonymously report sexual harassment incidents

Originally published in Wits Vuvuzela, 8 October, 2018.

Final year electrical engineering students are showing support for their female colleagues.

Q&A with Thokozane Dyosi

Originally published in Wits Vuvuzela, 5 October, 2018.

Thokozane Dyosi, a PhD student and associate lecturer in the Foundation Phase Studies Department of the Wits Education Campus, is the youngest in her department. Having struggled to graduate, she started a motivation campaign called #SeeYouAtGraduation to encourage higher education students of all ages in all disciplines to push through to the end and graduate.

Thokozane Dyosi, founder of #SeeYouAtGraduation. Photo: Sanet Oberholzer

Transgender healthcare under the microscope

Originally published in Wits Vuvuzela, October 4, 2018.

Hospitals can often be stigmatising and abusive spaces for transgender patients who seek out healthcare.