Unlikely Johannesburg – Part One
The other day I got a call from New York – a friend’s Uncle on his way to the World Cup in South Africa called me to get some advice. His faraway voice calmly explained that bien sûr, he was excited to be visiting South Africa, but after reading a couple of recent scathing media reports citing violence, violence, violence, he was beginning to question the wisdom of choosing to stay in Johannesburg for their entire visit. Ironically enough, I was on a train out of Brussels and nowhere near the city of my birth, I have been away from Jozi for over two years now, so despite my heart & head being firmly rooted there, I couldn’t say I’m a local right now. This recent absence, coupled with the fact that talking rather loudly on a cellphone in downtime traintime in this part of the world incites targeted headrest incineration, meant that I had to think fast. And so, I took the path of least resistance, I told him to relax and enjoy himself, that yes, Johannesburg had a dangerous side, but that everything was going to be just fine. The police are on diet and the security companies on high alert, I told him, big brother is awake; ‘people are living there and life goes on’ I drawled- conscience of my slow accent I fell on old ways of explaining things away. Let me explain, when I read the email preceding the call and saw that he and his family were staying in Johannesburg only, for nearly two weeks i.e. for their entire visit…I felt a thrilled kind of fluttering in my chest. At last, I thought, our soulful neglected city, most often treated as a trampoline for tourists to bounce off to some other fabulous beached or bushed corner of our country, was being taken seriously as a tourism destination. By a New Yorker nogal! Let’s face it, when have I, or you for that matter, ever met tourists who have come to South Africa with only one destination on their list: the scary city of Johannesburg? I could feel the swelling pride in my voice as I described to him the place he was lucky to be visiting and the place that I can never quite shake off, that always pulls me back no matter how much of my oyster I believe the world to be. I was flattered, appeased and willing to please. And so, I started to tell him the inside story that any (and only) good Johannesburg-loving citizen can and probably will tell you. We’ll all agree Johannesburg is a bit of...
TBD: Bringing ‘virtual’ good to real life
Winter is on it’s way in SA and the cold is setting in…brrr. Do your bit this winter to help those in need by supporting the first ever Twitter Blanket Drive this Saturday the 29th of May, an impressive and ambitious effort by some South African tweeters who hope to rally the South African Twitter community to action… Follow Represent.co.za on twitter @sisiwami : Just a short while ago, the idea of rallying the South African Twitter community for a good cause was hatched. The power of social networking and the strength of the SA Twitter community has flexed its muscles and this idea has grown into a full blown initiative with national interest. The community pushed for a stake in the ground and the date has been set for Saturday, 29 May 2010. This is the 1st national TweetUp in the country, and from 6pm in main cities around the country Tweeters will be out in force, all for a good cause. All events will take place on the same day and time countrywide. Venues have been confirmed in Cape Town (2 venues), Joburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Knysna and Plettenberg Bay have also shown keen interest in holding their own event too. We would love to have an event in East London as it is the city with the 3rd highest amount of registered tweeters in SA. There are over 50,000 registered and active Twitter users in South Africa. The event will be considered a success if just 5% of these Tweeters make a contribution at the TweetUp or through alternate channels. Tweeters and non-Tweeters alike are invited to join in this groundbreaking social media experiment by coming along to any of the TweetUps and making a donation. For more information go to www.twitterblanketdrive.co.za or follow Melanie Minnaar on Twitter: @melanieminnaar RSVP’s to any of the national events can be done through this website too. City Host Media partner Venue & contact Venue address Joburg Melanie Minnaar @melanieminnaar melanie@twitterblanketdrive.co.za 702 Highveld VidaE Sandton, next to JSE CapeTown (S.Suburbs) Amanda Lambe@alambchop amanda@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Cape Talk Kfm TRUTH Coffee V&A Waterfront Cape Town (N. Suburbs) Stefan Diedericks@sdiedericks stefan@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Cape Talk Kfm Coffee Junction Tyger Valley Centre Port Elizabeth Monique Taylor@monique_tays monique@twitterblanketdrive.co.za Algoa Mint Café Bar Humerail Durban Nevin Pillay @nevinsp Nevin@twitterblanketdrive.co.za East Coast Radio VidaE Gateway Pretoria Janthinus Schrage @Janthinus Janthinus@twitterblanketdrive.co.za 702 Highveld The Hub Cafe Universiteitsoord premises 105 Duxbury road, Hillcrest Pretoria. Coordinates: S25*45’20” E28*14’14” East London...
Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @mnazania
Cruise from the tropical heat of Durban down round the coast to that breathtaking city we rate for December holidays and retirement (once we’re rolling in $$$’s big pimping it…soon soon!) and you’ll eventually pull into… Cape Town… Meet Milase Mzamo, our fifth interviewee in the Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple series. Milase finds Cape Town a lonely place and Nando’s current advertising dumb; she believes the boysboys could win the World Cup and that running makes you wrinkle. We agree on three of the above. Follow Milase on @mnazania and keep up with us on @sisiwami for the next installment… another dude, this time from Jozi, just for a change 😉 Location: Cape Town,south africa Bio: Enlightenment and a higher level of awareness is true wealth. Tell us about the everyday practicalities of true wealth in your life? I believe that increasing our level of awareness between humans/nature/energy/universe reduces our obsession with ourselves and gives us true happiness and thus true wealth can be attained. Racism is a big example. In the bigger scheme of things, we are all so equal. We are equal in all the things that matter, like giving birth and death so why do spend our lives focusing on things that do not matter. When mother nature takes revenge on us, it does not chose white people, coloured or black people. It strikes us all. So why can’t we use all our collective wisdom to preserve our world to teach our children what is right to generate enough positive energy. Sometimes, I can see it happening albeit in small measures. Have you spent 10000 hours on anything? What would you call your expertise? Always have been an aspiring writer. Building up enough hours to write a science fiction novel. I’m fascinated by science fiction because I believe it’s a preamble of things yet to come. If you follow sci-fi movies and track technology developments, you will see how they are related. Why are you Labour for life – do you have a connection to the UK? Met 2 people who influenced my direction in life. During apartheid SA, I worked at the Young Vic theatre in London and I was hosted by a lady who was an author, I told her of my ambition to be published and she advised me to become a journalist, saying, “ That’s the fastest way of seeing your name in print darling” The second one was Neil Kinnock, leader of the Labour party, who was a champion against apartheid SA Besides flying, what other fears do you have? I hate driving and moving things whilst being motionless. Think I...
City Stylin’ : A Story of Fabricated Dreams
Thanda Kunene talks to the guys behind Durbanite fashion brand Godz who started with not much but their desire and passion to succeed in the fashion industry. After much slog and learning all about doing business right, Godz designs are worn with pride by Durban stylistas and they’re making it big in Jozi with their own shop at Campus Square – Sharpile Thanda for the inspiring words! If you are a small creative business who’d like to be interviewed, please email Editorista on editor@represent.co.za Meet Smiso Mpafu and Nkonzo. Two young fashion designers that run a Durban-based fashion label by the name of Godz. Now for those of you fond of Durban street culture, you might have noticed the once-off individual custom design clothing which is of abundance around the sunny streets of Durban. Here is a low-down on the fashionistas and their path of entrepreneurship… * How did the name “Godz” come about when choosing a name for your brand? Design is a God-given talent. * Out of all the careers in the world, why choose fashion? Fashion is our main passion in life. We grew up around it, and there is nothing in the world that could take away the urge for doing fashion. * Please give us an outline of your typical day at work. The day’s work is prepared for the day before. Or else we also hang out waiting for people who want custom designs. As you know in the fashion world there is never a repeat of the previous day’s work. * Since when has the fashion label been running and what challenges did you come upon when starting the business? The label was formed in 2003 but was registered as a business in 2006. We had issues with funding as we wanted to open a shop. Business was going well but we didn’t have an official shop to do business so we had to do door-to-door sales to to raise the capital for a proper work space. * What are the achievements you’ve reached within the fashion world so far? We managed to get a shop in the central CBD but we lost out due to finances. We have now mangaged to obtain a shop at Campus Square which is located in the art hub of Melville in Johannesburg. We also had a fashion show showcase at the Kirk Franklin Gala Dinner in 2007 which was at the Zulu Jazz Lounge, Durban. In 2008 we had a chance to showcase our work at the eThekwini Easter Fashion Showcase. In 2009 we showcased at the infamous Umgababa Beach Festival and this year we...
Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple – Meet @dcuthbert
Uhh, no that’s not @dcuthbert on the horse, however, that is one of Durban’s finest photographers Daniel Cuthbert’s photos. Did that make sense and were my apostrophes in the correct place? Moving on…Meet @dcuthbert, freaking talented photographer from Durbs you’all… his twisted tweets caught our ever-roaming eye – so he’s the 4th bastard agent in our Represent ♥’s Everyday Tweeple series. Next up… a lady in CT… follow us on @sisiwami to keep up. (PS: Daniel’s the dude in the desert) Location: L’Afrique du Sud Web: http://hmmm.co.za Bio: Documentary photographer currently based in South Africa How come you get to check out so many transit lounges all the time and why can’t we do it too? I think it’s an internal need to be surrounded by so many badly dressed travelers with poor choices in luggage and footwear. It takes a strong person to do this, not for the faint. Why Durban? It has the best balance out of all the cities. Jozi is like a spotty angry teenager, full of spunk and often no substance. Cape Town is your 22 year-old who thinks they know it all but underneath, the soul is cold as hell. Durban is just, well, hundreds! Why should we Rethink the Afrikaaner? Since ’94, the emphasis has been on reconciliation and often this means forgetting about anything white-related. The true Afrikaner is a tribe in Southern Africa and part of our heritage, so we shouldn’t dismiss them as South Africans often do. What top 6 soft music songs would you recommend to accompany a bottle of vodka? The Cinematic Orchestra (any song by them) Seasick Steve – Happy (to have a job) Portishead – Chase the tear Sigur Ros – Saeglopur Jack Parow – Cooler as ekke We sense a bit of anti-I-pod/I-pad/i-phone … whyyyy? Don’t get me wrong, i’ve been a big apple fan for a very long time but recent events have seen them turn into the microsoft of this decade. The iPad is expensive for what it is, a fat iPhone, and yet it’s billed as the second coming. I think they’ve moved away from the “Think Different” approach no longer applies to Apple and it’s rather sad. Tell us about what South African broadband providers SHOULD be doing? Stop treating the SA public like retards. Telkom and other suppliers have done more damage to SA’s growth as a nation than any other country out there. The fact that the Internet is still a middle-class luxury in 2010 is insulting. Remove the pathetic caps and get people online and learning. R20 a month to have a 3gb cap, that way everyone...
Young Nations’ United States Of Africa on the shelves
‘I love my city I run it like a marathon’ GP (The City is mine)… Jozi hiphop heads will be all over Young Nations’ track dedicated to ‘his city’ Johannesburg – one of 15 hawt tracks on his latest album entitled United States of Africa. Don’t be suprised by Young Nations’ American accent that busts smoothly in and out of his slick beats- he’s a global being with South African roots who’s grown up in a number of different countries including the US, France and Congo… Just listening to his lyrics affirms his allegiance to and excitement about being in South Africa, the country of his birth. And anyway, who cares about accents anyways or where we’re from… it’s all about the beats and lyrics…So, you be the judge – does his album move you, is it moving SA hiphop and hiphop in general forward, is it fresh, is it innovative, do we love it?? Get a sneak peak here and buy it here. ...
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