cbd

I don’t miss the traffic

Posted on March 10, 2023

I’m lucky enough not to have to brave the traffic very often. I used to brave it all the time – although paradoxically, somewhat timidly – but that was a few years ago.
Today, I had to pull on my big boy pants and go into town.

Twice.

The first journey in and out wasn’t too bad, although the CBD itself was an absolute disaster. Avoiding the Friday morning rush hour by making the appointment for the visa interview at 11 was a stroke of genius. And getting out by 11:30 before the Cape Town Friday exodus began at midday was also good.
Duty done and actually, with very little issue. Boom.

But then the request for additional documents to be submitted in the afternoon shattered all our good work. UnBoom.

And when we returned to the CBD later in the day it was hell to get in, hell to be in and even more hell to get out. Ugh.

I like my car: it’s lovely to drive and it’s a nice place to be. But less so when surrounded by lots and lots of other cars. I can’t believe I used to sit amongst all that stuff for 2 or 3 hours each day. What a waste of time, energy, money and resources.

At least we’re done for a while now, though another visit to another visa centre will follow in a few weeks.
Needs must, so I’m already mentally preparing myself for that.

Cape Town: Big Bangs Theories

Posted on August 19, 2014

We like to help out our local readers here in Cape Town, much as we like to help out our readers all over the world. But especially in Cape Town because Cape Town is home and Capetonians need more help than a lot of people.

Take the annual road closures for the State Opening of Parliament. First off, this is an annual event and it also happens every year. We’re warned about it in the newspapers, on Facebook, twitter, radio and TV. And then on blogs too.

It never does any good. The flood of warnings, I mean, not Parliament.
(Let’s save that discussion for another day, shall we?)

Somehow, the message doesn’t get through and then there’s panic on the streets of Cape Town; Gardens, Green Point, Waterkant. I wonder to myself.

Anyway, I’m going to try again. No road closures this time, just some big bangs early in the morning, as Cape Town welcomes the British frigate HMS Iron Duke into the harbour:

The South African Navy will welcome a British Royal Navy ship to Cape Town in grand style.
The HMS Iron Duke will receive a 21 gun salute when it nears Robben Island around 7:30 tomorrow morning.

21 guns is some welcome. The Iron Duke only gave the Lt Governor of Jersey a 15 gun salute as she passed by the Channel Islands in June. The SA Navy is going all out with a mighty 40% increase on gun salutage – and HMS Iron Duke will respond in kind:

The Navy’s Chief Petty Officer, Dudley Malgas says the Signal Hill Noon Gun will be used in a 21 gun salute to welcome the HMS Iron Duke.
“They will follow with their 21 gun salute, and we will then respond with our 21 gun salute.”

I’m already a bit lost. Does this mean 42 bangs or 63? Never has my 21 times table been so widely used.
Either way, it’s going to be very noisy and very early and people in Cape Town are going to get very panicky. No amount of forewarning will have any effect and everyone in the CBD will think that Burundi is invading. Again.

But spread the word anyway. Be that one that can say: “Er… yeah. Didn’t you read that blog post I shared? Damn, you’re just so underinformed sometimes.” or whatever. And ask them if they are know about the road closures for the State Opening of Parliament in February. They won’t.

In case you were wondering, here’s why we have 21 gun salutes:

The custom stems from naval tradition, where a warship would fire its cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent, to show that it was disarmed, signifying the lack of hostile intent. As naval customs evolved, 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, with the number decreasing with the rank of the recipient of the honour.

And, as some added DVD extras: here’s some info on HMS Iron Duke, and here’s the video to Sometimes by Liverpool rockers Sound of Guns.

Sound of Guns. Geddit?

Thanks Ani

Friday’s Protest March: City taking things seriously, but too quietly?

Posted on November 28, 2013November 28, 2013

Tomorrow’s protest march (or “prohibited event” as the city are quietly calling it) in Cape Town looks set to go ahead and will almost certainly be bigger than last month’s paltry 3,500 turnout. But whether the organisers will manage to get their somewhat optimistic estimate of 200,000 remains to be seen. I fully expect the Metro Police to tell us that there were 10,000 in town while Loyiso Nkohla and his Ogobityholo BaseKapa chums claim 3 million or something.

Either way, it’s reasonable to expect widespread disruption and – sadly – probably high levels of violence as well. And while the city has applied for an interdict to prevent the marchers from marching. This strikes me (no pun intended) as being a bit of a waste of time, since permission to march has already been denied and the organisers don’t seem to give a toss. I find it unlikely that they’ll suddenly have a change of heart when there’s an interdict against them.

Comrades! Let us take back this city! Let us show the White Madam that she cannot… wait… what? She’s got an interdict? OK. Never mind. Back to work everybody!

The Province claims to have done all they can to meet the demands of the organisers, and says that there is therefore no need for this action on Friday:

The Province has done everything that could be expected to engage with the leaders of Ogobityholo BaseKapa from the start of their campaign and we are willing to continue engaging with them on their issues of concern when presented in good faith. It should therefore be apparent that there is no reason for them to march on Friday, as our supposed “lack of engagement” was the claimed reason for their march.

But while the City is publicly being very quiet about the march and their preparations for it, there’s no doubt that a lot of planning is going on behind the scenes. Today’s Cape Times reports that there’s an internal memo doing the rounds:

It states that intelligence has been gathered by various agencies which suggests that march organisers have been mobilising people from Khayelitsha, Dunoon, Wallacedene and Brown’s farm in Philippi. Residents from informal settlements in Stellenbosch and Paarl are also believed to be joining the march.
The memorandum states that “looting has been encouraged at the planning meetings that have been taking place in the informal settlements. Organisers have suggested that food and Christmas presents will be easily available in the CBD for the marchers.”

More chillingly is the advice for emergency services and hospitals to prepare for large numbers of casualties:

Staff were also notified that “mass casualty resources” have to be checked and ready for deployment.

Hmm.

While this softly, softly approach is presumably about not giving the marchers much publicity, it’s certainly not doing the concerned citizens of the City any good. Helen Zille’s twitter timeline is filled with questions about whether people should come in to work tomorrow and whether any preparations have been made:

is there a strong possibility of a strike 2row?Is it advisable not 2 go to work 2row- if one works in town?
I own a showroom in central CT and am concerned about the rumored protests Fri. Will there be a police / army presence? Tx Barry

And who can blame them when that (publicly available) Provincial report contains this sort of information?

The Premier has written to the Mayor relaying information received from the State Security Agency that the protest march on Friday is deliberately intended to be violent. The organisers are planning various disruptions that include enforcing a work stay-away, stopping taxis and buses from operating and staging a three day sit-in outside the Provincial Legislature. The danger of random attacks on taxis, buses and commuters is therefore very real.
The information is that the organisers want this protest march to be accompanied by looting and attacks on businesses and commuters, although they plan to deny that this is their intention so that they can eschew responsibility for any violence and disruption that occurs.

If you’re going to make those sort of statements public, you also need to publicly reassure people that you’re doing something to prevent it happening and to keep them safe. That hasn’t been evident from the Province or the City as yet, so it’s natural that people are going to fear the worst about tomorrow in Cape Town.