Beating around the Bosch

with

Dear Reader,

This past weekend and the beginning of this week felt like somewhat of an apocalypse. I had gone back to Cape Town for our week off (hence your painfully empty inbox last Friday morning- I know that it ruined your week, please forgive me). Feeling slightly disoriented by our time off, I was ready to get back into my routine in Stellenbosch. But the Whatsapp groups soon devolved into a site of chaos. Kayamandi was on fire, oak trees lay collapsed and defeated on the road outside my apartment block, the Thirsty Scarecrow’s infamous giant strawberry was on the wrong side of the road, looking a little juiced, and Blaauwklippen’s Sunday Roast turned into a Saturday Roast (it didn’t involve ham). Not to mention, I had just finished my copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so it all really felt like a bad, slightly comical, dream. Alan Winde’s surname really felt like a piece of crass writing in this story, don’t you think?

Stellenbosch, which often feels like a manicured snow-globe, was shaken up and unsettled. Chaos hit close to home, breaking the illusion that news does not apply to us, reserved only for the places ‘out there’.

And as if all that wasn’t enough, Stellenbosch experienced the worst traffic jam in history, the strawberry kind:

🌍 Stories from ‘out there’:

🇲🇿 An overcrowded ferry sank off the coast of Mozambique, leaving 94 dead and 26 missing. The passengers were fleeing the mainland after a panic broke out about cholera - a product of disinformation. Among the victims were children.

🇹🇳Russ Cook finally crossed the finish line in Tunisia , 7 April, after running the length of Africa - Cape Agulhas (southern-most tip) to Ras Angela (most northerly point). If that’s not a show of ginger ferocity, I don’t know what is.

🇮🇹Immigration finally gained some positive traction in Sicily, Italy. Erica Moscatello, distant relative of guerrilla leader Ernesto “Che” Guevara, initiated a micro-immigration wave of Argentinian doctors to the picturesque location that has been struggling with a medical-care crisis. 99 Argentinian doctors now work in Sicily, satisfyingly completing a migration circle and providing healthcare to 75 000 people.

🇿🇦More back at home

The City of Johannesburg’s ANC-EFF coalition has upped its budget for security. Can’t blame them, I suppose, as declining service delivery certainly has people riled up. Amongst the ‘bodyguard bonanza’, as Daily Maverick calls it, Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has been assigned 10 bodyguards, flanked by 8 cars. The bodyguards and cars will be skimmed off the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, whose cars and police force are, last time I checked, meant to protect the public from the symptoms of a broken nation, not politicians from the consequences of their actions.

Zackie Achmat, queer, former sex-worker, HIV-positive, Foucault and Trotsky fan and politician, will be the first to run as an independent candidate in the 2024 elections. Alongside Zuma’s renewed legitimacy in running for a position in parliament, I think this epitomises South Africa’s tendency for juxtaposition - a welcome and hopeful surprise alongside a mind-boggling, but unsurprising disappointment.

Inauspicious (in-aw-SPISH-uss)

Accompanied by or predictive of ill luck; not favourable in portent.

Our newspaper production sprung from INAUSPICIOUS beginnings, but we are making a swift recovery.

To add fuel to fire, we began the production process of our very first print newspaper this week. Yes, print! Articles trickled into the editing team’s inbox during our week “off”, harmlessly at first..and then began feeling a little more like trying to scoop water out of a sicking ship with a teaspoon. Maliza began delegating layout tasks amongst her team members on Tuesday afternoon, breaking up the mountain into steep but friendly hills. Duné and Amy arrived in their pyjamas on Wednesday and I bought a 1kg box of Jungle Oats to stay in the department’s kitchen. The storm is coming, beginning with the patter-patter of fingers on keyboards, then the heavier drops of Sherie’s vicious backspacing, to the thunder of our dutiful printer thrusting out rough copies and the crackling lightning of pages torn and scrunched, with the echo of a frustrated scream into the void where a source’s reply should’ve been. A bit dramatic, I know. Bear with me. Amid the chaos, Kara said “this is starting to feel like a real newsroom”. And alas, I was reminded that the career path we have all chosen inevitably involves handing our lives over to precariousness, like a feather on a silver platter at the mercy of gale-force winds.

Visual of the Week

📸Some BTS from Ubaid:

I was in an area near Strand that was badly affected by the intense wind. I asked a man if I get enter his home, havoc surrounding him. I looked down briefly to change my camera settings and when I looked up, the man’s house had been swept away, with him in it. I managed to capture the movement of the wind in this heart-wrenching moment. It was tough to witness.

Read the story here

📚Good reads from SMF News this week📚

Hundreds left homeless after fire in Kayamandi

Emma Hamman got the run-down and the damage done by the fire in Kayamandi this past weekend. Over 1000 residents were left without homes, only to be hit by a raging storm starting on Sunday.

Storm takes on Stellenbosch Mediclinic’s roof

The roofs of the paediatric, surgical and neonatal intensive care units experienced significant damage amidst gale-force winds. Eugene Marais witnessed the chaos.

🎶What we’re listening to: (befitting of our current state of mind)

Hop over to our website to see our full range of articles :)

Until next week

Nicola Amon, newsletter editor