‘Just when I was at my lowest — sprawled on my couch four months ago — I was pulled back to my feet by the past’
David van der Westhuizen, a street bookseller based at the KwaZulu-Natal Society of the Arts Gallery in Durban, tells Paddy Harper how he survives unemployment
‘What I like about Glenwood, the vibe is good. People don’t turn their noses up. The people like to try Russian and Korean food.’
You know, this coronavirus thing, I just feel, if South Africans can stick together, we’ll get through this
‘It was hard to survive without performance’
This week, a man tells his story of how he has prioritised selling his hand sanitiser for the last month
With my generation, we don’t have that much knowledge. But if you talk to our grandfathers they will tell you this type of meat is medicine. We get customers coming to buy it, especially for asthma and other chest problems. You have to have it boiled. It has to be plain as it is, maybe […]
Read this week’s edition of the slice of life
I started singing formally in 2003. Before that I was in the school choir. I came to visit family in Cape Town, and by luck I met people who were opera singers. They encouraged me to audition for the Cape Town Opera, and that is how it started. It was not always easy. I went […]
I had to quit my job and move from my home in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape — a town best known for its Volkswagen manufacturing plant. I didn’t want to work in a factory my whole life. So I studied tourism and came to Cape Town to work in the hotel industry. But I […]
‘I don’t believe there was any recipe to passing my matric’
"When I became pregnant four years ago I just could not believe it. I was somewhat fearful of what people would say and how they would look at me."
People must be ready because I am going to embrace my body with all the scars that come with it
A look at what was once a landmark on Johannesburg’s horizon and central part of the Egoli story
I love how words can have new meaning. I love creating new words. I love seeing the inconsistencies in the English language
For a young man from a poor family, post-revolutionary Egypt did not provide many opportunities
Before, in past interviews, I would panic. This time I didn’t. Something was different
It’s an unloved, rusted old factory. But I fell in love with the amount of empty space and the possibilities of what we can do with it
"When I first started writing, I was just trying to not forget what I had learned that day."
‘I realised it was actually a nice way of saying: ‘You were playing that way too loud.”
I enjoy getting the word out and influencing creative conversations
Those women I know and those in the taxi whom I don’t — and how they shaped me
‘You completely get lost in the world of the tree’
‘I’ve always loved learning’
‘The love was what I needed’
‘At family gatherings my uncles would say our clan name with so much pride’
‘I found a community that helped me to begin my adaptation in South Africa’
‘I just didn’t want the sun to set each day because I’d have to find somewhere new to sleep’
And if you’re not afraid of such a dangerous predator, is there anything you should really be scared of?
‘It gave us a great vehicle to discover the conversation that can be had historically and today between tap and pantsula dance’
Durags were so rare to find that most people imported them. Those that did sell them had very limited variety and very questionable quality
Because I am a comrade and a gentleman, I will doff my beret to the world at large and wherein I have my own Sea Point pozzie