A woman named Anne Stevens recently proved that not all Durbanites are peace-loving, banana-eating hippies, when she lambasted Cape Town (“Cape Town, you can keep your mountain”) for its many flaws.
Hey, she’s got a few points. My hometown is far from perfect. It irritates the shit out of me that we’re such crappy drivers for example. But I think she was a little harsh and deluded, especially in her Durban comparisons. So here’s my argument for the defence.
Charge 1: The “bloody mountain” is everywhere.
Defence: Yes … it is … Seriously?
Charge 2: The traffic is a nightmare.
Defence: Dude, have you been to Joburg? The Cape’s hour-long drive home is a friggin’ nature walk compared to the Ben Schoeman highway. And Durban’s got its entire population travelling along one damn freeway every day because they’re too cheap to pay the new toll road. However, I do concede that CY drivers are pushy. You would be too if you lived in Belville.
Charge 3: Cold and rain make for a hellish winter.
Defence: This might come as a shock Anne, but that’s what winter is supposed to be like. You’re from a city where 21 degrees is considered a cold snap. Besides, there is a cosy pleasure in sitting by a fireplace with lamb curry and red wine while the rain lashes the windows. Try doing that in La Lucia.
Charge 4: “I would venture that [the restaurants] are not only characterised by indifferent service, but overpriced and over-hyped grub.”
Defence: First of all, it sounds like you haven’t even tried a Cape Town restaurant. What the hell does “I would venture” mean? I’ve sampled a few “good” restaurants in Umhlanga and I’m sorry to burst your bubble but they were priced the same as Cape Town. I found this exorbitant because the food was terribly average. Not bad, just not as good as when you have to cater to a bunch of fussy, fickle Capetonians who would never refer to food as “grub”.
Charge 5: The people are rude and irritating.
Defence: Now, now, play nice Ms Stevens. Every city has its fair share of tribes and snobs. I take the mickey out of Cape Town cliques all the time, but they’re no better or worse than anywhere else. There are “Sloane Rangers” in 4×4s in Ballito and Parkhurst too. As for Capetonians being rude, you’ve obviously never been to Paris. We’re really just straight-talking. Suck it up already.
In mitigation of sentence:
People live and work in the city centre. We have not relocated all our business and residential areas to outlying suburbs.
Muizenberg’s water is pretty warm.
The mountain really is spectacular and we’ll keep it, thank you.
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61 Responses to “In defence of the Mother****ing City”
Muizenburg’s water smells like ass.
And whilst I would concur that the people aren’t generally rude or irritating, they tend to be distracted… which makes conversation very difficult.
[…] Thought Leader » Amanda Sevasti » In defence of the Mother****ing City www.thoughtleader.co.za/amandasevasti/2009/10/16/in-defence-of-the-mothering-city – view page – cached A woman named Anne Stevens recently proved that not all Durbanites are peace-loving, banana-eating hippies, when she lambasted Cape Town (“Cape Town, you can keep your mountain”) for its many… (Read more)A woman named Anne Stevens recently proved that not all Durbanites are peace-loving, banana-eating hippies, when she lambasted Cape Town (“Cape Town, you can keep your mountain”) for its many flaws. (Read less) — From the page […]
Who on earth is Anne Stevens anyway? Maybe she expected too much from her first visit, and someone needs to remind her that Cape Town is not paradise, not perfect at all, but we try.
Contrary to Annes’s opinion:
Cape Town has a very mild Mediteranean climate, favoured by most normal people from across the world, as opposed to the hot, steamy, sweaty, smelly and dirty locale she hails from.
Cape Town and its locals, have been rated as the best City with the friendliest and most helpful people in the country. Thats why we get all the tourists.
We dont have to surround our properties with electric fencing, crocodile filled moats, killer pitbulls, burglar bars to rival prisons, and security gates on outer and inner bedroom doors. We also dont need panic buttons in every room, including the toilet, to summon a private army, armed to the teeth, to rescue us from being hacked to pieces while asleep.
To many visitors’s amazement, you can actually drive around Cape Town with your car doors unlocked, and your windows open to enjoy the sea, and mountain breeze.
Vibrant atmosphere in Cape Town means just that. In other provinces it means that will probably get robbed, mugged or hijacked.
The first amazed comments I have heard from most visitors to Cape Town is, ‘ But its so clean!’
We also occasionally slap a coat of paint on our buildings, unlike Annes beloved, sweltering, backwater.
I read this exact same article a few days back. My expletives were so vehement that certain people who live with me (who know that although I live here I have a less-than-polite dislike for pretty much all of this place - for none of the reasons Ms Stevens cites) were totally freaked out.
Five hours in traffic? Whatever. I’d not hesitate to say that a person who finds themselves five hours in traffic just to get out of town isn’t equipped to be driving themselves anywhere. I suggest that she goes to London at her earliest convenience, also fails to learn how the hire car works (things like where the indicators are) and again fails to read a street map correctly. Hopefully she’ll get stuck in a one-way ring road and never be found again.
As an ex Capetonian I was extremely disappointed with the snobbish attitude on a recent visit to the Mother City. I was invited to breakfast at a restaurant in irstenbosch Gardens. Firstly, I had to pay R65 to get through the gate and secondly when I took my laptop out, not having seen a sign that said no laptops somewhere, the waitresse all but attacked me in such a loud voice as to make me cringe. Her reason being “that we don’t want you people to come in for a juice or coffee and sit all day!”… Now my friends, husband and I had just spent a lot of money for a second rate breakfast…. and doll, the weather is awful really with ongoing rain and wind for most of the year…and you DO have crime and rape in Cape Town - so much for leaving your doors open - naive I say… anyway, chill and stop defending the beautiful mountain - it needs no defence.
you know, there’s a lot i don’t like about cape town, but that bit by the durbanite really pissed me off, too.
for one, cape town does not get cold [says he who was educated not far from the usa/canada border]. joburg gets cold. cold enough to snow, in fact. the rain is unpretty, but a rainy nite is indeed a great night to have a nice meal by the fire.
i don’t understand how other cities in this country have left the city centres to the poor and illegals [two distinct groups of people]. i’d prefer to have a good night of sleep and walking to work to having to wake up at the buttcrack of down for a commute.
i think that durbanite woman is upset that, if you live in the right place, a middle class family doesn’t *need* a car, or at the very least, one car per adult in the household.
i think people in port elizabeth are far friendlier than capetonians, but you have to be in pe to see them. and there is no real reason to go to pe in the first place.
and yeah, the stereotypes are a bit dumb here. but also, what’s the point of knocking your teeth out if you don’t… um, that’s for another blog.
As for Durbanville Hills Wine Estate!! Well 3 years ago I wanted to spend quite a few bucks on wine (for sentimental reasons - I grew up in the near vicinity in Kenridge)in Durbanville… so off my sister and I trotted at around 10am during the week to Durbanville Hills wine estate. The reception building was huge and cold… the staff ice cold and disinterested in two middle aged women. The wine tasting glass terribly expensive and then there was the scrutiny of the staff as we tasted one or two wines… we felt so very uncomfortable that we left and spent 2 grand at the next stop and a further 2 grand at Nitida where the staff were magnificent… since then I refuse to buy or drink Durbanville Hills wine… typical snobbery!!
It is such a pity because instead of welcoming foreign money (even if it does come from Gauteng)they act as if the customer is an imposition… I am glad that I do not need to visit Cape Town much and agree with Anne…
Cape Town is over rated full stop.
It is the self satisfied smugness that hits you in the face when you do have to go there for anything. Fair enough the mountain ins impressive. But the Flats are a crime against humanity the water is cold and full of kelp.
KZn has Durban, the Midlands and the Berg as well as historic battlefields. I live in KZN by choice believ it or not.
Hey Amanda. I guess you’ve not seen that classic “Fuck Cape Town” thing that some disgruntled soul wrote from PE. Then again, if I lived anywhere else but Apetown I’d also spitefully dismiss this coastal collection of villages!
I am a Cape Town native, live in the city bowl, and love my city. But it is full of fickle, narcissitic types and I’m afraid everything you write in your defence of the City smacks of these character flaws. See you at Jardine.
I find it totally ridiculous that a pleb from Durban would have the gall to comment on a place as classy as Cape Town. Her opinion counts for less than nothing to a true Capetonian.
Good grief, next thing we will be having a cheeky native casting aspersions on us and calling us racist.
Of course Capetonians are rude and arrogant. When you are as great as we are it’s terribly hard to be humble.
Other SA cities. Pshaaw! A curse on all their houses.
LOL - I especially enjoy the Kugels in Jozi.
I am not a fan of CT - not for climate but the horrid Afrikaans accent!
I would not relocate to “pseudo-Europe” though as I would miss the vast expanse of urban and suburban sprawl that makes up Gauteng.
And it is really not as dangerous as it is portrayed, like any city you have to be vigilant, you probably have an equal chance to be pick-pocketed in London…
Remember what we used to say about Durbs…what was it now….something about cockroaches and dutchmen on holiday. Has anything changed? I can’t be bothered to go and look…
I used to get mad when coming behind someone driving at a slow speed on the fast lane but, over time I’ve come to accept the Cape Town rule: Keep Right Pass left. It seems to work all the time. Watch how everyone would be driving on the “supposed to be fast (right)” lane even when the whole “supposed to be slow (left)” lane is virtually empty on Cape Town Free Ways!
But this is a great city and the mountain is just something to behold!!
Ms Sevasti, one wonders wher the poor people of cape town are mentioned in your defence of the mother city? or do we as the m&g clique have to focus our attention solely on the plight of the branded gentry and the suburban sociolights? in defence of durban, my city, i will say that we have a greater integration and mixing of social classes in durban. a reading of my anti-jhb diatribe will indicate that jhb is a city that is physically divided along socio-economic lines. and while yes cape town has some dodgy stops along the southern suburbs line, and while yes the crcakerton phenomenom is clear for all to see. the fact is that durban’s privileged suburbs are all without exception next door to a poorer community, and in the case of umhlanga/dbn-north, we have inanda, ntuzuma, kwamashu and phoenix making umhlanga work, pouring money into umhlangas shops and generally living in western umhlanga/dbn-north. whereas the people from mannenberg and athlone are not enmasse able to afford a cup of coffee at a cafe in say Claremont or Newlands are they? and why is it that 1 supermarket chain will have different prices for the same can of beans as u travel along lower main road, and then into the real cape town… being the cape (salt) flats?
could it be that the capetonian slave trade has evolved over the last few hundred years into a two tier society, with white capetonians and cape kleurlinge? and that the divide is such that the rightful people of cape town, the coloured people, are made to work, but denied their right to participate in the mainstream of cape towns society. this is such that the coloured people are reduced to simply being able to speculate what life would be like if they had the opportunity to participate in the society dominated by the baas. is this the source of the emasculation of the dignity of cape towns people? is this the cause of the violent anti-social and self destructive behaviour which prevails in poorer communities?
but most of all isnt it true that the so-called capetonians (who are white people without exception) are in fact settlers and immigrants?
no-one disputes that durban is a Zulu-Anglo-Indo outpost - but we the settlers do not prevent the Zulu people from participating in the life of the city?
what do u do… ensure that the city council sponsors the coon, sorry minstrels carnival?
govender, the other on October 18th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Amazing how south africans find it very difficult to love at least 2 cities at the same time.. The love for one city instantaneously seems to result in hating another. I for one love some positives of Cape Town, Durbs (warm ocean only, sorry), JHB AND even PTA… And hate ??.. no, maybe dislike some things, but hate is a waste of time and heartbeats.. so get a grip folks, each and every city had its pre’s and cons.. Rick Meijer, Dutchy living in Cape Town..
Having lived in all three of our largest cities, I can assure South Africa each has good points and bad.
I lived in Cape Town before tumble dryers were invented, with a disgusting miffy scent in the nostrils all winter.
I live in Durban where living without a tumble dryer can be challenging when it rains for three days (summer or winter) and steam irons only encourage the disgusting miffy smell in your clothing.
I probably lived longest in Johannesburg, where clothes dry eventually and smell sweet, rain or tumble dryers be damned!
I woke up one morning and wondered what on earth had kept me in Jhb so long (27 years). I moved on.
It is sad to realise that we are all so spoilt by this country’s beauty, that we cannot recognise our luck. Who cares about the people you don’t like? Find ones that you do.
If you didn’t have enough money to have seen the three biggies and your immediate view was from your shack, you’d have more reason to complain…
…but Durbanites would pay you to take Mike Sutcliffe off our hands, it’s true!
Well, I always say, if you don’t like Cape Town don’t come back…we’ll gladly keep our mountain while you keep whatever it is that Jo’burg and Durban supposedly have
I’ve lived in Benoni, Kimberley, Durban, Pretoria, Jo’burg and now Cape Town - which I hope never to leave. Why are non-Capetonians so threatened by this city?
Have just been to Cape Town on holiday. Had a great time - it’s a beautiful city environment. But the service (restaurants, shops, tourist destinations) lets the side down in a big way.
the only reason the cbd has not relocated in that the powers that be wanna maintain migrant labor (khayelitsha - largest township in SA, is 50 km from the city centre!!!) and maintain the historic spatial divisions in this city…
I think her insecurities about Durban are clear for all to see. CT is absolutely not perfect but I think her article actually has more to say about Durban than Cape Town.
Durban is fantastic but Cape Town is much better.
One also wonders whether we are talking about Durban or the surrounding areas that are actually quite nice e.g. Umhlanga.
Sensational journalism is an old and hackneyed ruse used in this case by an old and bitter hack. Anyone can write an offensive, malicious article on anything just to stir people up, but that’s not good reporting. Her article was not insightful, informative nor amusing, it was merely petty.
Old Annie should get her facts right too - we certainly don’t spend 10 hours a day in rush hours, when would we ever do all the work which makes Cape Town great and a tourist mecca?! Perhaps the hot, sweaty, steamy humidity she’s had to endure for many a year has finally boiled her brains.
She probably can’t afford to move to Cape Town now because she worked in Durban where salaries are notoriously lower ’cause no one wants to live there.
Mother city….my goodness..this is an insult to Mzanzi.
I am damn serious on this. Before you become jumpy, am a CapeTownian by birth with a long lineage way many ages. I dont agree with the ‘exotic, very foreign-look’ that CT has become.Classy, clean, yap, thats a fact, and important to mention the LACK of an African-touch, the Mzanzi-feeling..
Mzanzi, Africa, Africandom, Africanessence is a proudly Durban, KZN feel.This is just a clear-to-see TRUTH, a fact.
Rally all calls, defense but CT fails Africa with its ‘pseudo-Europe’ look an feel period.
Wow, Lynne and co, its so perfect in capey land is it?, how is your kids respect and the tik problem, you aloof people can’t even shake hands and use your manners, well I’m generalising a hell of a lot, but since that’s what you pro ct folks do well, how’s it taste, like reality!? Come to proper Africa or are you too scared, poor little capeys whinging again, woza lapha real Africa, where we work and sweat and toil in the boiler room of South Africa. We put up and shut up, no moaning here, keep on the narcissism its like lank capetonian.
It doessn’t really matter whether Anne Stevens likes or dislikes Cape Town.
But “I venture” that the reason she had her little hissy fit was that she personally prefers her own home city and could not understand why Cape Town is regarded as superior, not just by Capetonians which one could understand, but by most other South Africans and tourists who visit both.
But wait, maye that’s the problem. Most don’t even bother to visit both.
Getting off the plane at Cape Town International back from the horrid and absolutely filthy Durban, I have never been more thankful to live in a spectacularly safe and clean city.
After driving through Durban’s grime and filthy central city you become aware of how well Cape Town is managed.
I get up in the morning look at the gorgeous view - Table Mountain, Lions Head, Signal Hill and the harbour, and all I can say is thank you. Thank you that we have Helen Zille as the premier and that us city dwelling yuppies have Cape Town Partnership and the Central City Improvement District to do their magic.
I was born and lived in Durban. It’s sleepy hollow, dirty and the only good service you get is from the indian community. I worked in Cape Town for several years, it’s the only place where the drivers are worse than Durbanites. In 3 years I don’t think any meeting ever started on time, and it wasn’t surprising when people didn’t arrive for appointments or invitation dinners at all. There is an inbreed rudeness and incompetance in Capetonians - as well as a fake gentility. Both places are arrogant and rude to visitors - I think it’s because both are “tourist towns”.
I moved to Jo’burg in 1994 and the first thing that blew me away was the friendliness. People invited you over to their homes for dinner, and there is definitely greater racial/religious tolerance. You are judged largely for what you are capable of - a meritocracy. High service levels are an expectation - and although you pay for it, you can get things done amazingly fast and well. I LOVE the climate - the autumn reds, and the incredible burst of colour in Spring that is all the more appreciated because the winter is so dry. I understand that Cape Town and Durban will always be at odds - they are both striving for second city status!
Maybe, instead of driving each others cities into the ground, we should tell of our positive experiences and encourage internal tourism…
You guys are all behaving like little children.
I live in Durban and I love the relaxed atmosphere, I love going out and bumping into at least 20 people I know because Durban is small and friendly like that.
I have only been to Cape Town twice and both times I was very sad to leave. Love the beaches and the restaurants, the sea is too cold for me but I don’t really venture into the Indian Ocean either.
Hi Avish. My piece was a lighthearted response to unwarranted vitriole. It certainly wasn’t meant to address the very serious divisions in Cape Town. The people I know from Athlone would be upset with that coffee comment by the way. But then, I know people from Athlone, Retreat, Gugs and Khayelitsha who all regularly buy coffee in Claremont and Newlands because that’s where they work. I know these people because we work together or move in the same social circles.
The divisions I see seem massively class-based. I have more in common with my Xhosa colleague who grew up in Khayelitsha than I do with the white housekeeping lady who grew up in the same area as me. There is a two tier society with a definite skew to white wealth, but it’s fallacious to say all whites are rich and all coloureds are poor.
As for all the settlers and immigrants in Cape Town, yes, the Germans do get a bit tiresome after a while. The DRC car guards are very friendly though.
I am from Durban, have lived here all my life. Sorry Cape Town, I apologise for Anne Stevens article. Amanda, this article hits the nail on the head. But I will admit that CPT driving is horrendous. Durban drivers suffer from “I own the road” and JHB drivers just know how to drive and they all expect each other to drive fast.
That’s my only grip with Cape Town. Would I move there? IN A HEARTBEAT
I would never ever want to live anywhere else in the world but Cape Town. OK, the traffic sucks, we are very bad drivers, and when the South Easter is howling no-one in his right mind goes outside. However, the people are fabulous and easy-going, we have eight of the top ten restaurants in the country, the beauty is totally breathtaking and the notorious winters are, in fact, stormy and exciting. When I get off the plane in Durban and that wave of hot air hits me I feel exhausted immediately. Haven’t been to Jozi since 1980, suits me fine. PE is very clean and pretty but it is a total misconception that PE people are friendly. Viva Cape Town!
so, let me get this right, if cape town isn’t an african city because its most-seen streets are largely clean with minimal potholes and is, overall, well-run…. where does that leave harare? can some of you “cape town isn’t really africa” people answer that one for me.
hm. while joburg and/or durban may be better for me socially [being a middle-class black person and all], i absolutely refuse to live in a city that gets cold enough to snow [joburg] or doesn’t have a real airport [durban].
some people want different things out of a city. what i want are a) adequate mass transit [cape town has that] b) year-round temps above 10 degrees [check] c) close access to an airport that will fly me almost anywhere i want without having to change in tambo [check].
in less than 10 minutes — that is, i can get up from my computer and walk from my house — i can have a steaming plate of mofongo or poulet yassa or thieboudiap, but cape town isn’t an african city. nope. not possible.
oh, and another thing. it really annoys me to read that cape town’s cleanliness makes it un-african somehow. we’re sorry that the wind comes from the west and south instead of from the north and east — if it came from the latter, cape town would look amazingly like dakar [another well-organized african city that almost none of you have been to, but anyway] because, like dakar, the winds would be blowing sands in from the desert to the northeast.
being late to work because of a sandstorm — and this happens, often, in senegal — is a much crappier experience than being late to work because there was a blockage on the N2.
[and, by the way, not only does the city of dakar hire people to sweep the sidewalks in the city center, but so do most of the individual shop owners. by 11am, you’re often surprised about *where*, exactly, all the sand has gone.]
i, personally, don’t understand why other cities don’t make more of an effort to be clean. i just realised just how much i’m being ripped off on electricity rates, but then i realised that that spare cash is what is paying for a clean city, and i stopped complaining. imagine.
and… eish, who else thinks this captcha is downright pants?
Being an ex-Durbanite who once considered emigrating to the mother city, here’s my cat among the pigeons.
Four years ago I moved to Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay)for work purposes and I have found it to be one of the country’s better kept secrets - exquisite undeveloped coastline, unpretentious people, fascinating local history and architecture (sadly decaying in parts,granted) and the gateway to Addo and other game parks. Along with being just up the drag from the second largest Arts Festival globally. And so much more besides. Great restaurants, natural paradise of Sardinia Bay 20 minutes from the city centre, surfing mecca Jeffreys Bay just round the corner….
I won’t be moving anywhere else anytime soon. Detractors can weigh in now - best that you do, I’d hate for PE to become a destination of choice, we all know what damage that can cause.
As a durbanite I love both cities. Durban does have a better climate, and we do have that wonderful warm water. CT is more beautiful though, and there is more to do. The prices are expensive though, but so what you can expect that of a world destination.
The only thing that annoys me about Capetonians is their cliche about “You know, CT has everything!” -when it clearly is only a slice of the SA pie. They only think so because very few capetonians ever seem to travel anywhere else in South Africa. They are like Americans who never leave their state.
Small potatoes though, Otherwise I have a lot of good friends there, and I find capetonians as friendly as Durbanites. If I had my way I would spend the winter in Durban and summer in Cape Town. Now that would be cool. Its hard to beat a clear winter day surfing in Durban, and its hard to beat a long summer afternoon sitting on CT’s many beaches, especially that gem Kogelbaai.
Cape town can go stuff themselves! Durban 4 LIFE! We got the better weather, better stadium and a better mix of CULTURE. Wtf have you got? The mountain and a pretty waterfront! Woo hoo! Not that you can swim anyway, water’s too bloody cold!
Anne Stevens recently visited Cape Town and stayed with my mother-in-law (seriously!). She is a journalist who has a food and restaurant review column in a Durban paper (Mercury or Daily News, can’t remember which)
I have for the last decade spent alternate weeks in Cape Town and Ballito and found; What Durban has going for it is the rich heritage of the Indian community (culturally, economically), way friendlier shop assistants, juicier fruit, a larger black middle class and one can surf before work in summer.On the negative side,
Mike Sutcliffe doesnt care if the beaches lose their blue flag status, major roads in the inner city have two names (one crossed out), the city is a no go area at night and those who can afford it are heading for gated communties. Cape Town has beautiful walks, stunning views from so many restaurants (which are no more expensive), the Labia, better nightlife, foreign tourists and beautiful winelands within an easy drive. Negatively, the drivers are inconsiderate, the sea is freezing, the soil is less fertile, UK swallows decend in summer, and people are less likely to invite you to their homes for dinner.My rating? Cape Town 60, Durban 40 and both cities have impossibly beautiful girls.
As the self proclaimed Lord Mayor of Durban, and the Honourary Consul General of the Durban Fretus Society; the “chip on my soldier” is a throwback to my youth when we were bred in the belief that one must be prepared to die to protect the realm. As a patriotic citizen of the Sovereign Kingdom of KwaZulu, I find that my response is no more than would be expected from a person in my position.
Kind regards,
His Worship, the Lord Mayor of D’Urban
govender, the other on October 19th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Goodafternoon Ms Sevasti
I see that my reflection; on the fact that D’Urban was named about Benni D’Urban, the governor of the Cape Colony, under whose generosity the Colony of Natal existed, before the importation of my ancestors to save the Colony of Natal from bankruptcy, in 1859/60; was not overt enough.
So too was the reflection of the “names” of Bennie D’Urban’s wives, and where their relatives now live, i think
As regards the suggestion that white people are wealthy and coloured people are poor, while it is true that the wealthiest people in the WesKaap in 1908 were coloured land owners and farmers and that indeed the coloured people have suffered greatly through deprivation and relocation, the facts are that while a few will escape the poverty of the flats and go to varsity and get middle class jobs (like your colleagues). the vast majority do not get this opportunity - for whatever reason.
Madam, it no surprise that people are offended by what I write, in this regard I take my cue, in this regard, from our leader, the late “Dr” Steven Bantu Biko; and write what i like…
govender, the other on October 19th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
god, you people trip me out.
if you can’t handle *cape town* drivers, how would you expect to survive in, oh, lagos? or nairobi? or kinshasa? [or london? or rome?]
and really, i don’t think cape town drivers are that bad. i try not to drive because i don’t like people in my way, but when i’m behind the wheel, my only gripe is with the koeberg interchange, which is, literally, down the street from my house.
i don’t understand the appeal of gated communities. a gilded cage is still a cage. but if that’s what people want….
maybe durban and cape town arent that different after all? “The modern city of Durban dates from 1824, when a party of 25 men, under British Lieutenant F. G. Farewell, arrived from the British Colony in the Cape and established themselves on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal, in what is now Farewell Square. The previous year, Lieutenant Farewell had taken shelter there during a violent storm, and had built a small settlement. With Farewell was the adventurer Henry Fynn. Fynn befriended the Zulu King, Shaka (claiming, falsely, to be an envoy of King George), and having helped him to recover from a stab wound received in battle. In thanks, Shaka granted Fynn some prime land, a “25-mile strip of coast, a hundred miles in depth” (over 9,000sqkm). Fynn styled himself ‘King of Natal’ and took numerous Zulu wives, producing many children by them. On the 23rd June 1835, at a meeting of the 35 white residents in this ‘kingdom’, it was decided to build a town and name it D’Urban after Sir Benjamin D’Urban, then Governor of the Cape.” http://guides.travelchannel.com/durban/city-guides/historical-background
Last time i went to Cape Town to jol, i had a genuinely great time, and enjoyed whatever and wherever - with whoever…
Not a few weeks later back in Durban, chilling at my local watering hole (Thunder), some guy starts bitching about the live act or the establishment or something, but starts his sentence with: “In Cape Town, bla bla bla bla…” FOR F**K SAKES dude, can’t you just be and enjoy whats happening around you, without ‘comparing’? Can’t we all just relax and love each other rather than flip out ?
Love to all: even moaning Capetonians stuck in Durban
[…] Dirtbin! There’s this turf war going on. Cape Town versus Durban. Peeps are getting fired up, calling each other out and throwing down with the […]
They should make it that people from Johannesburg and Durban need visa’s to come to Cape Town. Every Durbanite i work with, says they could not leave the place quick enough after matriculating. Go figure.
CPT may have it fare share of problems but, the thing I love most about our city is that it is a grand dame, it has history and class…. even that aweful Afrikaans accent that someone disliked, is grand… It so helped me in Amsterdam because the way afrikaans is spoken CPT is the closest to dutch you’ll find in the country.
LOVE Cape Town, Loathe the rest… We really should declare independence…
I have to agree with Ms Anne Stevens with regard to charges 4 and 5.
Cape Town restuarants are awful. The service isn’t indifferent, it’s non existent.
As for the people being rude, after having lived in Cape Town for 10 years, I learnt that there’s no point in trying to be friendly, you will only be on the receiving end of a confused glare.
Otherwise, keep your mountain and ocean, they’re beautiful, and I will come and visit them once a year for the two weeks that you have good weather
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Amanda studied at Rhodes and nearly became a journalist but decided to sell her soul to the corporate whore instead. That's okay though, she loves advertising. When she's not keeping the world safe for sugar water and insurance companies, she likes to write deep and meaningful stuff. Her bribe of choice is single malt whiskey.
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Muizenburg’s water smells like ass.
And whilst I would concur that the people aren’t generally rude or irritating, they tend to be distracted… which makes conversation very difficult.
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