Pinelands, a Cape Town suburb built in the 1920s to emulate a British rural idyll, has become the city’s most racially mixed neighbourhood.
If you’re really lucky you might glimpse Pinelands residents Patricia de Lille (Independent Democrats leader) and Pregs Govender (activist and former MP) having their hair done at the same salon. Later, you could bump into virtuoso jazz guitarist Jimmy Dludlu exiting the famous Pinelands eatery, Magica Roma, with his favourite takeaway seafood pasta.
Last month a goat was ritually slaughtered in a leafy backyard, but you’d better not tell the little, old white lady puttering down Union Avenue with the Animal Welfare and Carthorse Association bumper stickers on her late-1980s baby blue Opel Cadet.
Welcome to Pinelands, which, according to Wikipedia, the online interactive encyclopedia, is the “most racially mixed middle-class suburb in Cape Town”.
The Wikipedia entry reads: “Pinelands is a garden city suburb located on the edge of the southern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. The suburb is primarily residential and is often praised for its peacefulness and abundance of trees. Pinelands is one of the few ‘dry areas’ left in Cape Town (the sale of alcohol is prohibited in the suburb). Pinelands is a popular place for senior citizens to retire to … although younger people are increasingly moving in. It is one of the most racially mixed middle-class suburbs in Cape Town.”
Over the past 10 years, Pinelands has been home to Dumisa Ntsebeza, Ebrahim Rasool, Judge John Hlophe, Willie Hofmeyr, Jeremy Cronin, Zeona Motshabi, Nozipho January-Bardill, Gavin Woods, Raymond Suttner, AndrÃ