Perched on upturned beer crates, the revelers at this Colesberg shebeen (a kasi speakeasy) are nearly a dozen quarts into what is unravelling to be something of a bender. It’s around 10am; eyes are drooping, speeches slurred, and the landlady – a heavy-set woman with a screeching voice – is, in language best not repeated here, intent on scooting them off.
While the hideous, unnerving sentiments towards xenophobia echo out on the streets, my heart recoils back to my late grandmother’s house and a guy nicknamed Edo. Diminutive and soft-spoken, even in a small gathering, Edo is the sort of person you’d hardly know was ever even there. So short he’s easy to miss; nothing about …
To produce convincing stories on difficult topics such as violence, crime and prison, conventional writers tend to look everywhere, everywhere that is, except in their own lives. John W Fredericks thus does not qualify as your typical, run-off-the-mill wordsmith. For his thrilling book Skollie: Oneman’s struggle to survive by telling stories, Fredericks has never had …
As a former food ambassador – that’s waiter to you – who, on a busy Sunday morning shift, could be seen balancing up to four plates on his forearms, trayloads of drinks and grinning at the most undeserving patrons, being away from the big-city restaurant scene, I found myself brooding as to what comes in …
About us – the farmer, the wino and the hippie tech Read More »
Phakamisa Mayaba In inimitable polemics on a Newzroom Afrika panel discussion last week, SA Federation of Trade Unions Zwelinzima Vavi gave an uncanny take on what he termed “Ibhadi lomnt’ omnyama,” in response to growing calls for illegal immigrants to leave the country. “The black man’s sorry luck,” to paraphrase the unionist, sees swathes of …
Phakamisa Mayaba If you’re reading this, welcome, pull up a chair, you’ve arrived at eParkeni. Technically, it no longer exists; the swings are long gone, the merry go rounds uprooted, even the small trees patrons once found succour under have been sawn off, reduced to firewood. All that remains is the spirit and the fond …
