A century from now the foyer of the Park and Long building in Cape Town could be torn up by enthusiastic Mail & Guardian readers keen to see a real “dead tree” version of their favourite newspaper.
A copy of our souvenir millennium edition is to be sealed in a time capsule and entombed in the entrance to the restored historic building in Long Street.
The contents are intended to be reminders of the end of the second millennium for South Africans entering the 22nd century.
This hi-tech “message in a bottle” includes two Yiddish language books, coins, photographs and appetite suppressants.
The metallic capsule also includes a disposable camera. It is unused, on the theory that in a hundred years chemical film processing will be an archaic and unknown process.
The appetite suppressants are included as a memory from organiser Gerald Shap who first marketed them in the 1960s.
The canister will be filled with a non-reactive gas and sealed by the mayor of Cape Town later this month.