Ferial Haffajee : Design of the week
The Mail & Guardians Design of the Year prize may just have been awarded. Yes, yes, we know its usually only done at the end of the year, but brand new Gauteng-based radio station YFMs invitation to their launch party is going to be a hard act to follow.
And not only because it conjures a certain amount of nostalgia for activities of old from the grand old lefties who are still left on this newspaper.
The invitation is a petrol bomb complete with petrol (actually cold weak tea). Rough cotton cloth and corked top is accompanied by a card with a big black bejewelled fist.
The struggle isnt over … it proclaims (open the card and another gasp) …. Its just changed. This time the fist has turned defiant up-yours sign. Breath-taking stuff!
The programming promises the same. The station is aimed primarily at black youths and the invite tantalises: We want choices. But we wont be forced to choose. You can tell us about drugs. Just dont tell us we cant take them.
Real in-your-face, sit-on-it kind of stuff. YFMs on air from today at 99.2fm … but only in Gauteng.