2

localCape Town

Fisherman, father, friend. Meet Andris

A bargain of errors: the how-to

not tourists, but travellers

District Six: betrayed by the system

1 2

Welcome to the first ever issue of local. We are an independent travel and culture magazine that looks at the stories behind the most fascinating places in the world.

Focusing on a different area each issue, we work to discover the kind of life the woman who makes the necklaces you buy, has, and where on the mountain you can get the best view of the bay, from. local doesn’t advertise our surroundings, we explore them and encourage you to do the same. Whether it’s the first time you’ve put a toe out of your hometown, or whether you’re a wanderlust-enthusiast that is crossing off ‘places to visit’ from your bucket list each week, local will guide you through it. Through features, reviews, stunning photography and profiles, we provide you with the gritty and inspirational stories that you might not see if you didn’t look twice. This issue, it’s the glorious city of Cape Town; this place has it all: sea, mountains and the exciting buzz of a city centre. From teaching you how to bargain without being a buffoon to delving into a day with the fisherman who sources all the beautiful fish you buy, we’ve got right under and into the city. Enjoy. Bonnie Nan Jack, Editor-in-chief.

Editor’s letter

@localmag

Editor in Chief Bonnie Nan JackDeputy Editor Joe BrownArt Editors/Photography Bonnie Nan Jack, Tom Fotos & Richard PhelpsCover Hannah HeddleWriters Alice McConnell, Siobhan Jones & Tim Jet Contributors Hannah Heddle, Svea VanderHoorn, Andris Claassens, Suki Ndami, Noah Frank,

www.localmagazine.com local mag, 23b Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4LS

T: 07415874451E: editorial@localmag.com / info@localmag.com

All rights reserved @localmagazineltd

1 2

7912“Oppressors have used whips and chains; they have used torture, bullets and prisons. But their most important weapon has been the enslavement of the mind”

Table TopIt’s one of the most famous tourist destinations in history, but how to avoid the crowds, sunburn and baboons? Easy...

IntroductionsYou can’t go into a place without knowing at least something about it. Say hello to our friend, Cape Town

15212325

District SixThis piece of land that imprinted itself on the worlds history and is slowley returning to a form of normality

The gold of Kalk BayCape Town is rife with sea food that makes you salvate, but for the best there is, Kalk Bay is your place

Unseen: Camps BayPalm trees and suave restaurants make it look like something straight out of LA – but the most overlooked part of CB is the view

Green Market Square, the tradition It’s called bargaining, but it’s easy to slip into bad habits. Catch the “do’s” and “don’ts”, here

A day in the life of a man of the seaWhen spending any amount of time in a different country, it is imperitive to get to know a local or two, here’s ours

p15

1 2

1 2

Cape Town Scallops of kings |

There’s nothing worse than bad seafood. No fear – there’s no sign of that in this capital. For scallops that’ll melt in your mouth and leave you gasping for more, try the Signal Restaurant Waterfront.

You’ll hear a lot of |

“Hey, bru!” / “Let’s have a braai”/ “That’s a lekker sunset, yoh” / “Howzit?” / “That’s just a South-Easterly wind coming through”

You’re looking at the second most populas city in South Africa, after Johannesburg. It is the legislative capital of the country, and at a last count, hit a population of 3.74 million. Surrounded by the famous Table Mountain, travellers come from thousands of miles to see the ‘table top’. Their ex-presidant, Nelson Mandela, was known – and still is – as the nation’s father, Madiba. The politics these days are iffy to say the least, so don’t get into a debate unless you really know your stuff. CT is one of the most beautiful cities in the world; local invites you to enjoy and explore it through the peoples’ eyes.

The basics |

introduce yourself

Page 15 |

The area of District Six is by every account, noticeable. The vast sandy empty space acts as a vessel and symbol for one of the most important parts of South Africa’s history; the Apartheid era.

We speak |

Afrikaans “Hallo” / English “Hello” / Xhosa “Molo” (singular) “Molweni” (plural) / Zulu “Sawubona” / Ndebele “Salibonani” / Sotho “Lumela” / Swati (Swaziland) “Sawubona” / Tsonga (Xitsonga) “Avuxeni” / Tswana “Dumela” / Venda “Ndaa”

Not far off of the coast, there’s a place you can visit for a small boat fee called Seal Island; it’s exactly what it says on the box. Depending on the weather, the boat ride can be delightful, rather exciting, or pure hell if you have a sensitive stomach. But – and it’s a good but – the sight of the thousands of seals on one small island is pretty spectacular.

Creatures of land and sea |

At the time of print, the exchange rate is about R17.95 to the pound and R11.63 to the dollar. That’s a good excuse for a lot of burgers and cocktails...

Currency |

1

The world’s Table Top

A hairy primate the size of a small child has been terrorising the crowd for about half an hour. He picks his victim and swoops, grabbing the goods on the way and giving

the unassuming human a horrible fright. Ice creams, hats and handbags – the swinging burglar doesn’t discriminate. After paying R200 for a ticket in a squashed cable car, brushing the clammy armpits of visitors snapping their camera’s in every direction and queuing in the unforgiving heat, being met by a thieving baboon is usually the last straw.

The reward, however, for being chased and prodded by a gang of clever animals is a spectacular view that sits above the clouds that comes built in with a feeling of pure tranquillity. And you can avoid the strangers’ sweat and flicking camera’s, too, if you’re clever about it.

Book your tickets for the cable car online. It’s the best decision you will make throughout your whole holiday and there is no better feeling than being guided away from the queue of hundreds into your own ‘pre-paid’ line, where your only competitor is the army of ants at your feet (and they have their own things to do).

The website [www.tablemountain.net] allows 8am as the earliest cable car, but get there at 7.30, just in case. Note: do not book a ride down; your journey back is a trip in itself*.

Once up, you will be one out of a maximum of 10 people stood on the table top of South Africa. Walk past the shop and café on the left – your better, cheaper entertainment is on the right. Clouds (known as the table cloth) don’t mean your visit is ruined, it only emphasises how high you are; 1,085 meters, to be exact. Look out for the football stadium, built for the 2010 Fifa World Cup and the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a gigantic shed full of traders and an

unforgettable food market. The one piece of the view you definitely won’t be able to miss is the sea, clinging to the coast from all sides of the view.

Take your time on the top, the crowds will begin to filter in behind you after about 45 minutes, but you can move further along the mountain to keep your peace. As a national park, there is no restriction to where you can or can’t go, just remember that you’re in the home of endless wildlife and plants, so keep your rubbish to yourself.

If you continue to walk across until the guided paths disappear and the mountain begins to curve, *there are plenty of options for your way down. The easiest on the legs is the signposted Platteklip Gorge route, although it is far from a leisurely stroll, hiking down a mountain was never going to be like a quick walk to the corner shop. The advantages of going down instead of up are endless: passing struggling and sweaty ‘uppers’ who glare at you with envy is only some of the fun. Most will strike up a quick conversation along the lines of, “You’ve already walked up?!” to which you can answer how you wish, i.e. “Yes, I’m a very fast and excellent hiker,” or the truth, “No, I took the cable car up; goodness, you look tired,”. Either way, they will wish they were you. The other, and more to the point, advantage, is that walking down will allow you keep the view in your sights the whole way. Climbing up gives you an excellently close encounter with the rocks and roots you are clambering up, but it’s not quite the same.

Give yourself 2-3 hours for the journey back and don’t be ashamed to go slowly; your legs will ache for days afterward, so it’s best you feel like you’ve taken advantage of your day and not just been robbed by baboons that size up no taller than your hip bone, followed by an extensive amount of severe exercise.

1 km above ground sits the top of Table Mountain, your Everest

for the day; but instead of snow, it’s monkeys...

10

1 12

It’s 3am. The sun has barely tried to make an appearance, but there are a small group of men who have already been awake for an hour or so, ready to start their 14 hour day’s work.

Andris has kissed his wife and two children goodbye in their beds. His stubble was a little too rough on the youngest, waking him up.

The first time Andris stepped on a boat, he was 10 years old. Now, he is 50, turning 51 next month, and spends six days a week in the open sea with his fellow crewmembers and their captain, the great Syril Frank. The men have been working together for more than 30 years and have developed a routine that is repeated day after day.

“I only hate one part of the day,” Andris explains in his thick Afrikaans accent that dismisses the ‘h’ sound. “This. I really hate this.” They are carting equipment to and from the boat. Fishing nets, crates and hooks. Intimidating looking objects are also flung aboard, that Andris reassures me are mostly just for show. “They’re only for if we get real troublesome fish,” he laughs.

Once the little boat, Adelaine, sets off, she will be

gone for about two hours making it back for the 6am sell. Then, Andris, Syril and the rest of the men will go deep sea, which is where they find the likes of the yellow tail.

Some underestimate the sea and the danger of Andris’ job, he explains as we set off, the water calm. “Some men have lost all of their brothers and I’ve only ever had one taken from me. I’m a lucky guy.

“We’re underrated, you see? I don’t like to blow my trumpet or whatever, but what would your supper be if it wasn’t my fish?”

“Some body else’s fish!” yells Syril from below, cackling. We ride back to Kalk Bay (page 23), where the produce is sold – the catch was good, today.

Despite the routine, one contender they cannot rely on for consistency is the powerful force of the ocean. “If she wants to throw us about, she will.” Luckily for me, today wasn’t one of those days and we are carted back to land in time for a well deserved nap and fish breakfast – Andris’ fish, that is. Not someone else’s.

Andris Claassens

When in CT track down...

1 2

1 16

The city

gatewayIt’s nearly 11 years after Apartheid was abolished, but there are some parts of South Africa that are still suffereing the consequences. District Six, once known as the City Gateway, is one of them. local looks at the history, people and what

potential there is for a future

1 2

In simple terms, District Six – or Distrik Ses – is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town. The longer explanation is significantly more complicated, politically fuelled and heart breaking; the phrase, ‘in

a nutshell’ is no use here. Post-WW2 South Africa was under the control of

the National Party who, at the beginning of their ruling in 1948 introduced laws that meant the segregation of people based on their colour, maintaining a white Afrikaner minority rule. The legislation put its people into four racial groups: “black”, “white”, “coloured” and “Indian”. Residential areas were segregated, as were schools, hospitals, water fountains and families.

If you were a part of a mixed-race family, in the eyes of the law you didn’t and shouldn’t exist.

Then, in 1948 the government set their eyes on a particular part of Cape Town with distaste. District Six, a cosmopolitan part of the city that was home to a vast array of different people with different backgrounds, jobs and families, was, to the authorities, a crime-ridden slum where residents engrossed themselves in immoral activities – drinking, gambling and prostitution were their favourite choice of deeds.

The 11th February 1948 saw the District declared a “whites-only” area under the Group Areas act. Removals began in 1968. By the time Apartheid had been in force for more than 30 years, around 60,000 people had been relocated and their houses bulldozed. But not everything went to plan for the authorities. The severe backlash on the government from international and local pressure – namely the Hands Off District Six Committee (HODSC) – meant that their redevelopment plans were halted indefinitely.

“We refused to be a part of their game,” says Bonnen Gertz, a member of the HODSC. “No, we didn’t know these people personally, but they were our fellow Cape Tonian brothers and sisters; they had been made homeless and we were not going to support it.” Bonnen, who will turn 91 this year, was not the only one with this view. She was, and still is, a small part of the long struggle to rid their country of it’s racial prejudices and divides that will exist until “we are all dead, and beyond. I hope” continues Ms Gertz.

With no one willing to move in, District Six therefore became as many know and think of it now, a deserted wasteland, ruined by the greed and ignorance of a government that were perfectly awful products of their time. This did mean, however, that there was room for the land and people to meet again.

Apartheid was abolished in 1994 but it has only been within the last ten years that an effort has been made to try and rehabilitate the District Six area. By 2003, 24 houses had been re-built that will belong to ex-residents, many of them now over 80 years old. Then in 2004, Nelson Mandela – former late president and the country’s Father – gave the keys to the first returning residents, Ebrahim Murat, who was 87 and Dan Ndzabela, who was 82.

The District Six museum, which was established in 1989, acts as a reminder of a part of history that

the world would rather forget, and gives you an idea of what the place was like before the removals. And, in an effort to shun those that agreed with, supported and enforced the laws

that tore those District Six families apart – these are the stories that should be remembered throughout time. Through tales and personal photographs from some of the families who lived there, the museum does this in a way that is most dignified and serene. Set in one room with a balcony second floor, the gallery floor holds a map of the District. Hung high from the ceiling is a tapestry that drapes onto the floor, filled with messages and notes from ex-residents like Mrs Abrahams, who in 1994, said: “No matter where we are, we are here.”

Recipes that were once made in the houses of those who used to call District Six home have been made into small hangings and sit on the back walls of the museum. The first thing you are forced to read on entry is a quote from The Background of Segregation speech that was made on May 29th by B M Kies.

“The deception of people is an art of government which has been practiced by every ruling class since the dawn of society. Oppressors have used whips and chains; they have used torture, bullets and prisons. But their most important weapon has been the enslavement of the mind.”

“To the authorities, District Six was a crime-ridden slum”

219

This is not simply a tourist destination. Those whose families’ older generations once lived there, or had friends there, visit; South Africans that have lived in Cape Town all their lives and like to remind themselves of their countries’ history, also visit; and parents and grand-parents that have nothing to do with the city or District but want to educate their children on how far the world has come, visit. Their conversations of lessons to be learned and stories to be told echo throughout the room that is otherwise silent with the thoughts of those taking in what they are seeing, watching and reading.

Not just a host for those who are new to the

history of Cape Town, the back of the venue acts as a meeting place for whoever wants to use it. More often than not, ex-residents or people with some sort of history tied to the District congregate. They chat, they laugh and they reminisce. The café that plays host to these informal and unscheduled assemblies sells hot tea

and great cake, should you need it. At only R30 for entry, which equals to the cost

of a portion of chips – and you’re going to get more nutrients out of a visit to the museum than grease soaked chips – it’s a must-see, no-excuses, un-miss able visit.

“Ex-residents chat, they laugh and they reminisce”

1 2

MeetAhnah.

more than 50 destinations around the world – see the people that make the place

www.ttcruises.com

Editorial

Travel Travel Cruises bring you the most original way of seeing the world. Jump aboard ship with all your essentials for a month or so, and sail across the seas into an adventure. Stopping

off at several ports in exciting countries that are sitting at different corners of the earth, TTC invites you to get into the real feel of your host town. Meet the locals and spend a night doing exactly what they do, be it making fires in an igloo with Ahnah, being taught how to make Momos by Vaani, or grabbing a pair of pliers from Tenen to help him make jewellery out of rubbish, ready to sell the next day. Every stop is guaranteed to be an experience and with chunks knocked off of the prices for under-25’s, why are you still sitting there?

2322

Food of the ocean

A short but beautiful train ride South of Cape Town city centre transports you right out of the busy cars and hustling people and into the beach suburbs. One of these sandy

delights is Kalk Bay – but do not go to swim or to sunbathe. Go here to buy and eat fish.

It is one of the most delightful fishing ports in Cape Town and the produce is as fresh as can be; if you get there at the right time – 6am, 11am and 2pm on weekdays – you can even see the catch being flung onto the hot ground.

Toothless Afrikaaners bring in their days’ work whilst nattering with the women who cut and gut the fish to your liking. You’re never short of choice: yellow tail, snoek – a cape favourite – and halibut. The harbor heaves with activity all day long, with a built in entertainment system of three seals, who regularly slop in amongst the action. They are spoilt with the tail ends, insides and bits of fish that the humans would rather not eat and will even pose regally for pictures

if you point a camera at them. No matter how gorged, though, the seals always managed to slither back into the water with the upmost delicacy and grace.

Kalkies, a fish and chip place that rests right next to the harbour and in view of the tables of fish, used to be a treat; an example of what you could do with the stock that you had just bought, or are just about to buy. Unfortunately, the ‘coat everything in grease’ fad arrived at Kalkies about four years ago and is yet to change its tune. The fish is as they beautiful as they advertise but it’s what they do to the wonderful sea creatures afterward that ruins the whole thing. More batter than flesh, Kalkies isn’t worth more than a can of cooldrink.

Instead, take your fishy findings back to where you’re staying and grill it on a braai for about ten minutes on each side, or an oven if you’re ill equipped. Keep it in foil with a couple of slices of lemon if you want it juicy and pungent.

1 25

Palm trees, suave restaurants and South Africans kitted out in sleek running gear jogging alongside the sands: Camps Bay is a site not far off of a LA look-a-like,

minus the Americans. There is, however, something more glorious to find here. Agreed, the people are gorgeous and the theatre that rests right on the bay hosts marvellous plays and comedy shows; the food is also excellent though expensive and the cocktails are alcohol-laced cups of gold. Nevertheless, hold your head high (or sink it down, whichever works best when you’re avoiding temptation) and stroll past the excitement of the trendy South African scene at twilight to something a little different, but a lot more magical: a

7:30pm at Camps Bay

small slice of serenity. Light in South Africa doesn’t vary as majorly as in

the Western part of the world – winter happens, but not with four hours of light a day – at an average, the best time to visit Camps Bay is 7.30pm; the sun is it’s lowest in the sky but nightfall hasn’t yet had it’s grasp on the horizon. The wind is more often strong than not – if you ask a native, they’ll say it’s the “south easterly”, but no one actually knows what that means – so take a few layers to wrap yourself in; once the sun goes down, it can get a little bitter.

Then, find a spot on the sands that have been warmed by the days heat, sit, and enjoy the gift given from the very clever genius that is Mother Nature.

226

“How much do you want to spend,

Madam?”

Green Market square is a-buzz with traders and buyers all year, each of them dependent on the other. The customers need to make their purchases of masks and exotic materials

in order to affirm their new cultural wisdom, displaying it on the mantelpiece for their less-educated friends to see. The traders need to sell their goods that are sourced locally in order to feed their families and

support the artists, jewellery and trinket makers that live in the area. This, however, doesn’t mean that the items

aren’t over priced – the sellers are like any other you know and prices will start as high as they dare.

Bargaining begins the moment they see you. You’ll be sized up: fancy camera, backpack worn on the front, pink nose – you must be a foreigner. Like taking candy from a baby, as they say. The line, at the

moment, is “How much do you want to spend?”. To this, you answer with anything that sounds reasonable. Nothing too low, or they’ll express outrage and then advise a much higher price in order to rip you off because, well, you deserve it. From there begins a to-and-fro of costs and eventually a settlement will be reached.

The “don’ts” are pretty obvious: don’t buy from the first person you see and acting with superiority isn’t the way you gain any kind of buyer-seller respect. The “do’s” are a little less apparent: answer the “how much?” question – if you tell them what you have to spend, it’s more likely a good deal will be made. Finally, always ask where the produce came from – there’ll be an interesting story and, after all, it’s important. The new fertility Zulu mask that sits in your living room and tells everyone that you’re now a better-travelled individual is only there because the man or woman who carved it, did so.

“Prices will start

as high as they dare.”

2928

1 31

issue 2: 06/15 Lhasa

Join us in the second issue, where we travel to Lhasa in Tibet and venture

amoungst it’s people. Jokhand, the Potala Palace and Barkhor Pilgrim circuit will be just some of the places we explore. Lhasa translates literally to the ‘Place of Gods’, so how bad can it be?

32