Books Stories People

For a Cape Town artist, inspiration has sprung from the ground beneath his feet. For him the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos represents so much more than a bunch of flowers.  

With a gestation period of many years, bright young theatrical Tiisetso Mashifane has created a play about two women that cuts right to the race quick. The debut of ‘Delela’ as a reading revealed still more for both audience and author.   

For the 5th year The International Public Art Festival took place recently in Cape Town with 20 local and international artists bringing the walls of the city to life. Members of the public were invited to walk, run, cycle or skateboard the different routes, and in some cases get lucky seeing the art in action.

Meet the man who summited Table Mountain 22 times in almost as many hours, who cycled the Sani Pass in crazy climatic conditions. Who went from drug-taking teen to endurance athlete – who tells his story in a book called Determination – the inspirational story of the life-changing power of sport. 

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Stories in the First Place: Storytellers from the San indigenous peoples centre

At a place called !Khwa Ttu, up in the hills of the West Coast of South Africa, is where indigenous and original San culture, legacy, language, and stories especially, are cherished and shared.

See more on www.khwattu.org and take a listen here…

The Sunshine Tour is a professional golf tour based in South Africa – a country which has proven itself by producing some of the world’s finest players. The game itself has an interesting history as well as present and potential future in South Africa – a great deal of which sports journalist Dan Retief has captured in a generously outsized book called The Sunshine Boys – the epic story of how South Africa’s golfers conquered the world. He looks at the game heroically but honestly with all its pros and cons.

Three years ago, a bone marrow transplant gave eight year old Rachel Ancer a new life. In Rachel’s Second Chance, the book that she wrote with a little help from her parents Jonathan and Jean Ancer – she tells her story and the mysteries of bone marrow transplants are simply explained. The book is available through the SA Bone Marrow Registry on www.sabmr.co.za

With 30 years in advertising behind him, ten of them in a time of deep economic crisis, Mike Abel founder of the M&C Saatchi Abel Group of Companies shares some key insights – about advertising, society and art. In his book WILLING & ABEL he shares some hard-earned ‘Lessons from a Decade in Crisis’.  Painting by Nelson Makamo