molo: cape town's kids

April 2014

LISTEN UP!Hear what these kids have to say to the world.

PAGE 12

MAKING CHANGE IN MANENBERGMeet the girls who are making their community safer.

PAGE 8 & 9

FAMILY TALESGrandkids interview their grandparents.

PAGE 4 & 5

PLAY MAP We find the best parks and pools.

PAGE 6 & 7

MoLo | HELLo | GoEIEdAG

FREE

A PROJECT OF THE

CAPE TOWN PARTNERSHIP

www.capetownpartnership.co.zaIs Cape Town a child-friendly city?PAGE 2

Toddler about town: We see the city through the eyes of a child.PAGE 10 & 11

Cape Town’s

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to: L

isa

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eLL

KIDs

CHILdREN’S ART CENTREThe Children’s Art Centre was started in 1945 to give some of Cape Town’s less privileged kids a safe place to be after school and the opportunity to express themselves creatively. Today the Chil-dren’s Art Centre presents weekly extra-mural programmes for all learners with a special inter-est in the visual arts. These classes are on Satur-day mornings (10h00 to 12h00) and Wednesday afternoons (15h00 to 17h00). Cost per Saturday class is R25 and all Wednesday after-school programmes are offered free of charge.

Molo. Hello.

GoeIeDaG. Molo is a free community paper,

focused on the people of Cape Town, and published by the Cape Town partnership.

Published by:Cape town Partnership34 Bree streett: 021 419 1881

Created by: ambre nicolson, anneke rautenbach, Jaco Bester, Judith Browne, Maya Fowler, Lisa Burnell, sam Bainbridge, tanya Farber

Designed by: infestation t: 021 461 8601 www.infestation.co.za

EDITORIAL

Cape Town Partnership visionsome say cities are the futureWe say people are the future

this is our homethis is our hope

this is our chance

Believing there is more that connects us than

divides us

Speaking the language of hope

Working together for the common good

Building from the ground up

Sharing the spaces in between

We can plant our tomorrowsshape our future, heal ourselves

We can make our citywarm, open, welcoming,

rich in opportunities for all

Cape Towna city with a past. a people with a future

How can I be a part of Molo?We are always on the look-out for compelling stories told by ordinary residents of Cape Town. if you or someone you know has an interesting story to tell, mail us at [email protected] (no press releases, please). Every month, we’ll be continuing the conversations we start in the print edition of Molo online: Join us at www.capetownpartnership.co.za for more stories, more profiles and more citizen perspectives on this place we call home.

Where can I get the most recent edition of Molo?Molo is a bimonthly print publication, available in the January, March, May, July, September and November of every year. in the months it is not on street, it is supplemented by stories online. if you or your organisation would like to receive or distribute the print publication, please mail us at [email protected], including your postal address and the number of copies you’d like to receive.

Contact the creators of Molo: @CTPartnership #Molo

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 021 419 1881

www.facebook.com/molocapetown

Molo, Cape Town Partnership, 10th Floor, 34 Bree Street, The Terraces, 8001

CHIlDren anD THe CITyW

hen thinking about whether a city is a good place for kids, it’s important

to understand it’s not just about creating safe spaces, child-friendly public transport or a bigger variety of affordable housing in the inner city. It’s also about creating a gen-eration of engaged citizens. Citi-zens take an active part in the life of a city when they care about that city, and to care about something you have to know it. This know- ledge of the city is something that is gained over a lifetime and starts at an early age. Are the streets of our city easy to navigate with a pram?

Is the street where a child grows up a safe place to play? Do these streets lead to safe and interesting public places? Too often in Cape Town, marked as it is with the di-vides of an apartheid city past, the answer to these questions is no.

This lack of safe engagement with the city affects all children, regardless of their economic status. Children of low-income families are often forced to navi-gate public transport and busy city streets alone when travelling to school, thanks to families be-ing separated by the city’s daily commuter labour system. For children of wealthier parents the problem is one of isolation. These children are almost en-tirely denied the opportunity to engage with city spaces – except by car. In both cases we risk rais-ing a generation of children who do not have a sense of connec-tion or shared ownership of our shared spaces.

While the problems we face in making Cape Town more child-friendly are challenging, they are not insurmountable. Much is already being done, by public policy makers, private enterprise and individual citizens to ensure that our public spaces are being made more welcoming, our pub-lic transport improved and pedes-trian rights prioritised. As adults it is our responsibility to lead by example. If we want our children to grow up as active and engaged citizens, we must show them how.

Here then is our hope for the children of Cape Town: that each and every child feels safe to use

and enjoy the street where they live, that this network of safe streets leads to a diversity of pub-lic spaces and schools and that those places are populated with a diversity of people.

FIVE CAPE TowN PARTNERSHIP PRojECTS wITH A FoCUS oN CHILdREN ANd YoUNG PEoPLE

1 Trafalgar Park bandsTand ProjecT:

As part of the Cape Town partnership’s engagement with communities in the area, project co-ordinator Zarina Nteta is working with local children and the Children’s Art Centre to give the bandstand in Trafalagar park a creative update.

2 green clusTers: The Cape Town partnership

recently facilitated a dialogue with the Slow Food Youth Network and a number of urban and peri-urban farms around Cape Town focusing on ways to increase youth involvement in urban agriculture as a way of encouraging a collaborative approach to urban farming.

3 THe neigHbourHood communicaTion

ProjecT is currently involved is the DOO.co-lab pilot, a project which involves students and lecturers from the Cape peninsula University

for Technology’s Department of Design and informatics, interaction Design Depart-ment at Malmö University in Sweden and DOO.co, a design company interested in design for positive social change.”

4 low-carbon sTraTegy: The Cape

Town partnership, in collaboration with Sustainable Energy Africa (SEA) and the City of Cape Town, and with the support of the Swedish international Development Cooperation Agency, has mapped the carbon output and energy consumption of the central city. This blueprint of where our energy and emission challenges lie enables us to better plan how to conserve our energy resources for future generations.

5 Public sPaces: We are working to make all of

Cape Town’s public spaces more welcoming and family-friendly destinations. in Church Square we are engaging with residents to better understand who uses the square and in what ways. in Harrington Square plans are afoot to add to the play facilities used by kids in the area and we are supporting the Company’s Garden’s efforts to host more events and child-friendly activities.

We asked some of the talented children who attend classes at the Children’s Art Centre in Zonnebloem to draw a picture of their favourite place in Cape Town or a map of the route they take from home to school.

Children must be at the heart of decision-making when thinking about a city. One of the aims of the Cape Town partnership is to support Cape Town’s move towards becoming a more child-friendly city, through better public transport and housing options, welcoming public spaces and safe street initiatives. BulelWA MAkAliMA-

NgeWANA, CTP CeO

PORTRAITS OF CAPE TOWN

SivAlele SiNqANA, gRAde 11

2 MOLO April 2014

Andile is eight years old and lives with his mother, auntie, cousins and three younger siblings in Khayelitsha. He is one of the few children born in Khayelitsha to have grown up here. Most born in his area have been sent to live with family in the rural Eastern Cape, forming part of the 55% of children who live in rural areas by the age of three.

Andile and his siblings make up some of the 2-million children living in shacks or in the backyards of other houses. They also form part of the 43% of children who do not have access to piped water.

They are four of 3,3-million children who are often hungry. Andile’s mother does her best to buy enough food for the children, but sometimes meals have to be skipped, or Andile is left hungry after a mealtime. This is getting worse as he is growing up. He is small for his age, making him one of the

17% of children between three and nine whose growth is af-fected by inadequate nutrition.

Andile is lucky enough to be one of 12,2-million children of school-going age enrolled at one of the country’s 26 000 schools. There is an equal number of boys and girls at his school but Andile is happy not to be a girl, because the school toilets have been broken for years, forming part of the 39% of schools with inadequate sanitation facilities. The chil-dren have to use the nearby fi eld, and while boys can be quick, girls have to squat and are shy to do so. Sometimes they just go home when they need to use the toilet.

Sophie is eleven years old and lives in Constantia with her parents, brother and two dogs. like Andile, she forms part of the 46% of children who live in urban areas. Unlike Andile, she and her brother form part of the 66% of children who live in formal housing. They also form part of the less than 3% of children who have access to a fl ush toilet on their property.

Her house is spacious, and she is lucky not to be one of the 25% of children who live in overcrowded houses, with more than two people per room. Her house even has a spare bedroom, where her friends sometimes sleep at the weekends.

Sophie is also lucky enough to go to school, and is not one of the 67 000 children between the ages of 7 and 18 who do not attend school. in total 31% of this group reports a lack of money for school fees, but Sophie’s parents

have disposable income not only for school, but for extra-murals too.

She forms part of the 86% of grade 6 learners at former white primary schools who read at the correct level, as opposed to the 24% at former black primary schools and the 46% at former col-oured primary schools.

Because of her supportive social structure and high level of education, Sophie is not likely to be one of the 2 500 primary school learners to fall pregnant annually.

Note: These fi gures are national, and from the university of Cape Town’s Children’s institute.

TWO CAPETONIAN CHILDHOODS, BY NUMBERS “Every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic healthcare services and social services…” – Section 28 (1) (c) of the Bill of Rights

THE TWO-FACEd CITy

I knew The Conversa-tion would eventually have to happen, but I didn’t realise it would thrust its thorny itself upon me quite so soon.

We had just moved from the concrete jungle of Jozi to spoilt-for-choice

Cape Town with our two-year-old daughter. We had a sense that shopping malls and the Zoo Lake (on repeat) were not re-ally going to cut the mustard as “things to do on the weekend with a toddler”.

For the fi rst months, I checked my social conscience in at the door and explored the child-friendly delights this gorgeous

city has to offer. The weekends soon become a swirl of beaches, mountain, forests, Kirstenbosch Gardens …

But then it happened.We were sitting at the restau-

rant at the Aquarium resting our tired feet.

“Mom,” Sophia said, tugging on my sleeve, “Why do all the people bringing the food have dark skin and all the people eat-ing the food have light skin?”

And bam! Just like that, it was there.

The Apartheid Conversation. And so it unfurled like a fl ag of shame from our past.

And that, of course, got me thinking.

Should I expose my child to the realities of inequality in Cape Town, or should I actively seek something more ideal, just to show her how it should be?

A few years later, now as a mother of two daughters (age 8 and 5) and as a journalist cover-ing social justice issues for a daily newspaper, each week brings me to a scene that makes my heart rattle inside my chest: tod-dlers roaming the dusty streets of

informal settlements unattended in the Winelands, sixty children squashed into a single room at an unregistered early childhood de-velopment centre in Gugulethu, endless stats and face-to-face in-terviews that speak of poor sani-tation, limited access to clean running water …

And each time I think, should I bring my children to see this, because this is, after all the real Cape Town?

But always, something stops me.

I need more time, I say to my-self, they need more time.

So for now, I deliberately seek out those moments and places that speak of a “togetherness” – however transient and however rare.

The train, I think, is always a good place to start. As it breathes and rattles along its iron tracks, it is a mobile piece of public space which, without fail, offers the most random and diverse collection of people a child could hope to encounter.

I love how my daughters are mesmerised by the orchestra of English, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and

that lyrical form of French that pours out of the mouths of Afri-can nationals from francophone countries.

My daughters often strike up a fl eeting friendship with other children in the compartment: children they’d be far less likely to encounter in the suburbs in the normal course of events.

Then there are the public events that make me want to bottle their essence and store them on the windowsill for those moments when I feel de-spair about the city’s future.

I have a very clear image of my daughters shuffl ing along the Fan Walk in the city bowl dur-ing the 2010 Fifa World Cup. There was no sense of “us and them” at all on this particular day – not along racial lines, socio-economic lines, or any other invisible boundaries that separate people.

They got swept up in the fes-tive mood that fl owed down the street that day and I remember wondering how it was all being etched into their minds.

Yes, that was almost four years ago, but I had the same feeling

when we took the girls along to the Mandela memorial concert at Cape Town stadium. Of course it was a more introspective and less festive occasion but again, I tried to imagine it through their eyes.

And what I saw was a city where the colour of your skin was of no consequence at all.

Imagine that!

TANYA FARBER

Should i expose my child to the realities of inequality in Cape Town, or should i actively seek something more ideal, just to show her how it should be?

Text: Anneke Rautenbach

mEET anDIle mEET sopHIe

43%of children do not have access to piped water.

67 000 children between the ages of 7 and 18 do not attend school.

colUMN

M.Nur Ras, 7

Siseko, 7

deen, 8


3 IN SHoRT

Emmy mACFARlANE (6) INTERvIEWEd HER OumA, mINNIE mACFARlANE (70).

02Photos: lisa Burnell, Skye grove

lIly ANd vAugHN BOluS (TWINS, 6) INTERvIEW THEIR gRANdPARENTS, dONNA ANd CHRIS BOluS, WHO HAvE BEEN mARRIEd FOR 32 yEARS.

Lily: How did you and Granny meet, Grandpa?Chris: I met your grandmother when we had a date to go to the opera, an Afrikaans opera no less, and six weeks after that we were married. We got married in Rondebosch and we have been married for 32 years.

Vaughn: 32 years? That’s like me and Lily times a lot.

Lily: Grandpa, did you have a pet when you were little?Chris: I had lots of pets, includ-ing two vervet monkeys. They lived in our fl at and ran around, on top of the curtain rails and all over the place. They made a huge mess.

DOnna: We also had a monkey, actually. We lived in a house in Pretoria and the monkey lived in a little house at the top of a pole in the garden. We also had dogs and bantam chickens. That’s a kind of little mini-chicken.Chris: I once scared the milk-man with my snakes …

DOnna: Do you two know that we used to get milk in a glass bottle every day? The milkman delivered it to our house.

Vaughn: did he walk to the house? I think milk costs R15 now, how much was it when you were young?

DOnna: We didn’t have rands and cents. We had English mon-ey, so it was pounds and shillings and pennies. Milk would have cost a couple of pennies.

Lily: what did you do that was really naughty, Grandpa?Chris: When I was young my parents would feed me very well: porridge, eggs, bacon and sau-sages. I could never get through it all so when my mom wasn’t watching I would throw those sausages out the window and over the fence. In the morning our neighbour used to be out-side hanging up washing and she would keep seeing these sausag-es sailing by.

Lily: Flying sausages!

Vaughn: where did you go on holiday, Grandpa? Chris: We would go to the fam-ily farm outside of East London. Once the whole family spent a day travelling across the farm on an ox wagon.

Lily: what’s an ox wagon?DOnna: It’s a big cart but instead of a horse in front they had oxen, which are male cows.

Lily: what was Cape Town like when you were little?Chris: We lived in Rondebosch, and do you know what was next door? A dairy farm. That was in 1956. Where we lived at that time there was a lot of forest and unde-veloped land very near our house where we could run around and have fun. My father – that’s your great-grandfather, Vaughn and Lily – was a crazy car man, he loved his old Citroën and he also loved fi shing. We would go with him when he fi shed and so I spent a lot of time outdoors. I even walked to school. How do you two get to school now?

Vaughn and Lily: Car!

Family stories are precious commodities, but how do they get handed down from one generation to another? We asked six grandkids to interview their grandparents. Here’s what they discovered.

wHenwe

were younG …

FaMilY MEMoRiEs

01

An outing to the golden Acre was a big thing. We all dressed up to visit

the shops, sometimes in my dad’s car and

sometimes on the trams that ran in

Adderley Street. MiNNie MACFARlANe

Emmy: How did you meet Grandpa?minnie: I met your Grandpa at a braai. We were young and care-free and I never expected to meet the man of my dreams at that mo-ment. When I fi rst saw him I im-mediately knew he was the man for me. But it took a little bit of patience from my side until we got together. I am a living proof of love at fi rst sight. And today, after 47 years, three children and fi ve grandchildren later, I feel exactly the same about your grandpa as the fi rst day that I saw him.

Emmy: what was Cape Town like when you were little?minnie: Hout Bay, where we live, was very different. It was like a fi shing village, and it took hours to travel to Cape Town along a narrow road along the coast. It felt like a different town altogeth-er. But Cape Town had the same vibe it has today – it was always a very diverse city with people from all different kinds of races and cultures meeting up. An out-ing to the Golden Acre was a big thing. We all dressed up to visit the shops, sometimes in my dad’s car and sometimes on the trams that ran in Adderley Street. The Adderley Street fl ower sellers are one of the traditions in Cape Town that haven’t changed one

bit. They are still as colourful and entertaining today.

Emmy: when was the first time you flew on a plane or drove a car?minnie: I fi rst fl ew on a plane when I was 18 and went to Amer-ica as an exchange student. It was almost unheard of for young wom-en to leave their family and travel on their own. I learnt that it’s very important for young people to travel when they have the oppor-tunity. Travelling opens so many new horizons and teaches you the way other people live. What I love most about it, though, is coming home to Cape Town. The combi-nation of wonderful people, the sights, sounds, tastes and fl avours of this place are something I have never experienced in any other city in the world.

We lived in Rondebosch, and do you know what was next door? A dairy farm. That was in 1956. CHRiS BOluS

4 MOLO APril 2014

This is a double bed and an apple tree and my dog george and also a soccer field and a

lollipop. i like my house the best because it’s ours and it has a garden that i like to draw.

JAqueliNe AdAMS, 7

Nuhaa: did you have TV?yasmina: Nope, we didn’t have any television at that time. We just had a Welcome Dover stove, the one you had to put the coal in. It was so much work to clean that thing! Stuff was cheap at that time. For 5c you could buy some sweets, like stars and Wil-son’s blocks.

Zuleigha jr: when you were young, did you go dancing? what did you do for fun?zuleigha sr: The only thing we did was to go to movies, to the bioscope. We did have little flings in the house, but just for family.

yasmina: We used to have par-ties, but only ones in the after-noon, at home. You know at that time there were no discos, just some dance halls. And we used to play lots of games at home. Things like dodgeball out in the garden. There were so many games – it was the highlight of the week. And I loved to read. I could read forever.

Nuhaa: Me too, I love to read. Granny, did you have a boyfriend when you were young?zuleigha sr: No, not really… I married your grandfather when

I was very young. And you know we lived far out of town so there weren’t many other people there.

yasmina: Yes, I had lots of boy-friends (laughs).

Nuhaa: Lots and lots Granny? yasmina: You must have a lot, then you can choose between them.

zuleigha sr: At that time we used to walk everywhere, even late at night. It was safe. Not like today. When I moved to Cape Town we would walk all the way down Hanover Street in the eve-nings and it was always safe.

Yunus: were the clothes that you wore different from the clothes now?yasmina: We had minis, you know the kind that stood out like this (motioning with hands) and with the bobby socks and the tackies.

Yunus: And how did you meet your husbands?zuleigha sr: My sister moved to Cape Town when she was mar-ried and we would come to visit her for holidays. That was when I learned to love Cape Town. I came here on holiday and we met and well, we just kind of clicked. I was 18 at that time.

yasmina: I was visiting some family friends. I saw this gen-tleman there and I saw he was watching me and I was so shy when they wanted to introduce me I said, “No, I know that one already…” and then I used to like to visit that house very often just to see him. He used to walk me to the bus stop. After a year

my father said it was time for us to marry.

Zuleigha jr: Today women have lots of opportuni-ties, like at school and for education. what was it like when you were young, were there opportunities or as ladies were you expect-ed to stay at home and get married?yasmina: I finished Grade 5. At that time there was no TV, and early bed times, so there were lots of babies. I was one of 19 chil-dren, although not all survived, so I had to leave school when I was 12 to look after my younger sisters and brothers.

zuleigha sr: Where I came from there were no high schools. Grade 8 was still part of primary school but from there I had to travel about 30km by bus to town and my father would never have allowed this. So I was just 13 years old when I left school. He didn’t want me to come here to Cape Town on holiday. He was Indian and very strict. When I was born he was 64 years old al-ready. By the time I was a teenag-er I was cooking for nine people every night. That’s why I am still busy in the kitchen even today.

Yunus: That’s why you’re such a good cook, Granny!

ZulEIgHA HENdRICkS SR ANd JASmINA CuPIdO, INTERvIEWEd By THEIR gRANdCHIldREN, ZulEIgHA HENdRICkS JR (16), yuNuS HENdRICkS (13) ANd NuHAA HENdRICkS (7).

03

When i moved to Cape Town we would walk all the way down Hanover Street in the evenings and it was always safe. zuleigHA SR

i was one of 19 children, although not

all survived, so i had to leave school when i was 12 to look after

my younger sister and brothers.

yASMiNA


This is my house and this is where i drive along these roads to get to my school.

NiyAAl RAS, 7

going out to Century City and Sea Point is my favourite thing to do in cape Town. i

hate the cold in ganzekraal.SeAN MuTAkiWA, 10

CAleB liAM THOMAS, 9

5 FEATURE

playful CITy

PARKS

Play is not just a mindless activity for children. it’s the sandbox in which we build relationships and discover new ideas, fi nd ourselves and learn about the world. No matter our age. Anonymous

PAROW NORTH

KENSINGTON

RUYTERWACHT

ATLANTIS

STRAND

DURBANVILLE

GOODWOOD

OBSERVATORY

GUGULETHU

WYNBERG

NEWLANDS

RONDEBOSCH

GREEN POINT

ATHLONE

SEA POINT CITYCENTRE

GARDENS

CLAREMONT

MITCHELLSPLAIN

CONSTANTIACONSTANTIA

BELLVILLE SOUTH

PHILIPPI

MANENBURG

PAROW VALLEY

WOODSTOCK

RETREAT

HANOVER PARK

LANGA BONTEHEUWEL

DELFT

ELSIESRIVIER

RAVENSMEAD

MUIZENBERG

BELLVILLE

PAARL

KHAYELITSHA

There are so many community parks (many of them with playgrounds and jungle gyms), green spaces and nature reserves around Cape Town that we can’t possibly list them all here. For now, here are the city’s larger parks and play areas.

01 ARdERNE GARdENS

What started out as a family garden has become one of the best collections of exotic trees in the country. Meander along the dappled walkways, through Japanese gardens and past hidden nooks (and any number of wedding parties). local life includes waddling ducks and fi sh fl icking about in the ponds. ■ 22 main rd claremontT: 021 689 8930

02 THE CoMPANY’S

GARdENThe Company’s Garden has it all, from grassy lawns to lush foliage, aviaries to fi sh ponds – and is at the heart of a cultural precinct that includes the National Gallery, parliament, St George’s Cathedral and the Centre of the Book. Not only does it have free WiFi in and around its tearoom, but a playground is also in the works.

■ Queen Victoria st cape Town cbd T: 021 400 2521

03 dE wAAL PARKDe Waal park is probably best known as the dog park (although these days, it also has resident owls and hawks). There’s a playground for children, a Victorian fountain for hot days, and a series of free Sunday concerts in the summer.■ upper orange rd gar-densT: 021 400 2521

04 GREEN PoINT URBAN PARK

This “people’s park” includes natural playscapes for kids of all ages, a stage for functions, a number of shaded eating areas, a biodiversity garden, a labyrinth as well as an outdoor gym.■ opposite cape Town stadium accessible via beach or bay rd mouille Point

05 KHAYELITSHA wETLANdS

PARKThis urban wetland is home (or host) to many birds, both local and migratory. it also boasts a playground, a skate park and mosaic murals. ■ makhaza (between govan mbeki rd [formerley lansdowne] and Hlanga crsnt) khayelitsha T: 021 364 0960 or 021 417 0111

06 MAYNARdVILLE PARK

You probably know Maynardville best for its open-air theatre, which hosts renditions of Shakespeare every year. But the park also promises a playground and some good climbing trees, as well as varied bird life, including cormorants and coots, Egyptian geese and the sacred ibis, egrets and moorhens.■ corner church and wolfe st wynberg T: 021 710 9403

07 RoNdEBoSCH PARK

Amble down this park’s tree-lined avenues and picnic on the lawns. Cycling, jogging, dog-walking and shopping (at the many craft markets held in the space) allowed. ■ corner campground and sandown rds rondeboschT: 021 689 4185

08 TRAFALGAR PARK

Trafalgar park, other than being next to Trafalgar park Swimming pool, also includes a playground and a whole lot of history (such as an old kiln and French fort). The space is great for a leisurely lunch or after-school romp. ■ corner Victoria rd and

searle st woodstockT: 021 400 3031

09 wESTRIdGE PARK

Westridge grows everything from Cape fynbos to roses, and has play equipment for all kinds of kids, as well as a skate ramp and park.■ corner morgenster and de duin aves westridge mitchells PlainT: 021 371 3191

10 wYNBERG PARK

Wynberg park marks the beginning of the Krakeelwater river, and includes a conifer garden, playground and duck pond. ■ corner klaassens and Trovato link rds wynberg T: 021 710 9403

11 ZANdVLEI RECREA-

TIoNAL PARKZandvlei park is an open-water wetland, river system and estuary where you can go canoeing, sailing, windsurfi ng, fi shing or simply unwind over a braai or a light picnic.■ Promenade road muizenbergT: 021 701 1233

Each of these pools are kid-and-parent friendly: they have kid’s pools and toilets with shower facilities (although on busy days, toilet paper can become a rare commodity, so take your own).

POOLS

01 ATHLoNE SwIMMING PooL

Adults r5, children r1, pensioners free

■ Hickory st athlone kewtown T: 021 637 6334

02 BELLVILLE SoUTH

SwIMMING PooLAdults r5, children r1, pensioners free

■ industrie rd bellville south T: 021 951 4879

03 BELLVILLE SwIMMING

PooLAdults r20, children r10, pensioners free

■ 12ab Voortrekker rd bellville T: 021 945 2705

04 BoNTEHEUwELPooL


■ jakkalsvlei ave bonteheuwel T: 021 694 1007

05 BRowN’S FARM SwIMMING

PooLAdults r3.20, children r1, pensioners free

■ bristol rd browns farm Phillipi T: 021 371 6524/3

06 dELFT SwIMMING


■ Voorbrug st delftT: 021 954 2708

07 EASTRIdGE SwIMMING


We focused on pools and parks – but beyond these the city has some extraordinary beaches (eight of which are blue fl ag), nature reserves, sports ground facilities and community centres where kids of all ages can play. Go to www.capetown.gov.za to fi nd the one nearest you.

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FIRST AID ROOM

SUNDECK

KIOSK

GRASSY AREA

DIVING BOARD

TENNIS OR VOLLEYBALL

WATERSLIDE

KID’S PLAY AREA

Photos by: Jaco Bester, Compiled by: Judith Browne

2215,29

3 2

6 MOLO APril 2014

PAROW NORTH

KENSINGTON

RUYTERWACHT

ATLANTIS

STRAND

DURBANVILLE

GOODWOOD

OBSERVATORY

GUGULETHU

WYNBERG

NEWLANDS

RONDEBOSCH

GREEN POINT

ATHLONE

SEA POINT CITYCENTRE

GARDENS

CLAREMONT

MITCHELLSPLAIN

CONSTANTIACONSTANTIA

BELLVILLE SOUTH

PHILIPPI

MANENBURG

PAROW VALLEY

WOODSTOCK

RETREAT

HANOVER PARK

LANGA BONTEHEUWEL

DELFT

ELSIESRIVIER

RAVENSMEAD

MUIZENBERG

BELLVILLE

PAARL

KHAYELITSHA

Each of these pools are kid-and-parent friendly: they have kid’s pools and toilets with shower facilities (although on busy days, toilet paper can become a rare commodity, so take your own).

■ jakkalsvlei ave bonteheuwel T: 021 694 1007

05 BRowN’S FARM SwIMMING

PooLAdults r3.20, children r1, pensioners free

■ bristol rd browns farm Phillipi T: 021 371 6524/3

06 dELFT SwIMMING


■ Voorbrug st delftT: 021 954 2708

07 EASTRIdGE SwIMMING


14 LENTEGEUR SwIMMING


■ merridale rd lentegeur mitchells PlainT: 021 371 8148

15 LoNG STREET SwIMMING

PooLAdults r14, children r8

hot baths

Attached to long Street Swimming pool is also the long street Turkish baths (T: 021 423 9849) Access the sauna, steam rooms, hot room, showers, plunge pool and massage area■ long st cape Town cbd T: 021 400 3302

16 MANENBERG SwIMMING

PooL Adults r5, children r1, pensioners free

■ olifant st manenbergT: 021 637 4374

17 MNANdI RESoRT SwIMMING PooL


tidal pool■ weltevreden rd mnandi mitchells Plain T: 021 392 5520

18 MoRNING-STAR SwIMMING


■ Pikkewyn st morningstar durbanville T: 021 970 3607

19 MUIZENBERG SwIMMING


(no kid’s pool), ■ beach rd muizenbergT: 021 788 1929

28 STRANd SwIMMING

PooL Adults r14, children r8, pensioners freeno additional facilities■ beach rd strandT: 021 850 4170

29 TRAFALGARPARK SwIMMING


■ searle st cape TownT: 021 400 3802

30 VULINdLELA SwIMMING


■ corner ny145 and ny117 gugulethu T: 021 637 5097

31 wESFLEUR SwIMMING


■ corner grosvenor and reygersdal aves saxonsea atlantis T: 021 572 0835

32 wESTRIdGE SwIMMING


■ silversands rd westridge mitchells Plain T: 021 371 8332

33 wYNBERG SwIMMING

PooL Adults r6, children r4.50, pensioners free

■ rosmead ave wynberg T: 021 797 0747

2

12

18

5

28

■ alpine rd eastridge mitchells Plain T: 021 397 8194

08 ELSIES RIVER SwIMMING


■ corner Halt rd and landdros st elsies riverT: 021 936 8823

09 Goodwood SwIMMING


■ corner milton and riebeeck rds goodwood T: 021 592 5141

10 HANoVER PARK SwIMMING


■ surran rd Hanover Park T: 021 692 1430

11 KENSINGToN SwIMMING

PooL Adults r4.20, children r2.10, pensioners free

■ dapper street kensingtonT: 021 593 8312

12 KHAYELITSHA SwIMMING


■ walter sisulu dr khayelitsha T: 021 367 0909

13 LANGA SwIMMING


■ washington st langaT: 021 695 1044

20 NEwLANdS SwIMMING


■ corner main and sans souci rds newlandsT: 021 674 4197

21 oBSERVAToRY SwIMMING

PooL Adults r4.20, children r2.20, pensioners free

■ willow rd observatory T: 021 689 4578

22 PARow NoRTH SwIMMING


■ de grendel st Parow north T: 021 938 8166 / 021 918 2276

23 PARow VALLEY SwIMMING


■ duncan st Parow Valley T: 021 936 8792

24 RAVENSMEAd SwIMMING

PooL gym

■ florida rd ravensmead T: 021 936 8833

25 RETREAT SwIMMING


■ concert blvd retreatT: 021 701 1513

26 RUYTERwACHT SwIMMING


■ jan van riebeeck st ruyterwacht T: 021 534 4875 / 021 534 1262

27 SEA PoINT PAVILLIoN

SwIMMING PooL Adults r20, children r10, pensioners free

■ lower beach rd sea Point T: 021 434 3341

Splash about in these public swimming pools, or in any of the many tidal pools (at Camps Bay, Dalebrook, Glencairn, Kalk Bay, Maiden’s Cove, Monwabisi, Silwerstroom, Soetwater, St James, Strand and Strandfontein).

7 FEATURE

In the second of our series on individuals who have created positive change in Cape Town, we meet a group of girls who are working to make their school and their community safer.

MaKInG CHanGe In

ManenberG

The newest bench, named the Afrikaburn Mighty bench and designed by Mark Thomas, is made of

wood and sits on the grass near the Prestwich memorial in the central city. Two others of curvy concrete and mosaic tiles live permanently at the CTICC and in Khayelitsha. Another two shiny red metal ones straddle St George’s Mall and

who created the first safe space, a bench that they designed and built themselves, at their school in Mannenberg in 2010.

These girls, the core group of learners who participate in the Rock Girl project, are the em-bodiment of Arthur Ashe’s fa-mous quote: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

STARTING wHERE THEY wEREThe partnership between the girls of Red River School in

Manenberg, an area well known for its gang violence, and India Baird, a human rights lawyer from Tennessee in the US and co-founder of Rock Girl, is not an obvious one. But when India first visited the school in 2010 they discovered they shared common goals: India wanted to support projects that addressed the prob-lem of violence against women and girls and the girls wanted to do something to make their school better and their surround-ings safer for themselves and their classmates.

For India it was important that the project was initiated by the girls themselves. “We asked the girls what they wanted to do and then we listened. The best part for me is that they naturally understood it’s not about grand goals, it’s about making small everyday changes with immedi-ate concrete benefits.”

The girls set about researching what form their project should take. They took photos of the school, interviewed their class-mates and came up with the idea of a creating a safe space on the school grounds where girls could congregate without feeling threat-ened, especially by the men and boys in who catcalled and oc-casionally threw stones from the blocks of flats overlooking the school. With India’s help they built the bench near the tuck shop, planted a garden and painted mu-rals. Word of the project spread fast and soon sister benches were being built around Cape Town, in-spired by the girls’ example.

text by Ambre Nicolson photos by lisa Burnell

These girls, the core group of learners who participate in the Rock girl project, are the embodiment of Arthur Ashe’s famous quote: ‘Start where you are. use what you have. do what you can.’

another, known as the Sisters bench, lives at the Amy Biehl Me-morial in Gugulethu. These are the safe-space benches, symbolic reminders of the urgent need in South Africa to keep our women and girls safe from violence and sexual assault. To date there are more than 35 benches dotted cross the city. They are all inspired by a group of primary school girls

ORDINARY PEOPLE

8 MOLO April 2014

learners from the Red River school in Manenberg have been working with Rock girl for the last five years on a range of projects which address the issues of violence against women and children in Cape Town.

Rock Girl is a grassroots movement to inspire, encourage, and invest in girl-initiated and girl-focused projects in the private and public sectors. It connects girls and women to champi-ons in government, business, the media, sports, fashion, and the arts; seeks to reduce violence against women and girls through the creation of safe spaces and encourage girls to stay in school and women to become economi-cally independent.Current projects include the ongoing installation of safe-space benches around the city (head to Prestwich

memorial to see the newest installation, made possible by Marc Truss of the Green Point CId), documentary projects in collaboration with the Children’s Radio Foun-dation and the Cécile and Boyd Foundation, the wall of women project created with the help of architect Mokena Mokeka and the Trantraal brothers and the “Boek Hoek” project created with the Shine Centre to create safe reading spaces for girls around the city.

Want to get involved?Visit www.rockgirlsa.org.za to find out more.

be no more gangsters here any-more, and no more violence, and there is a lot of that still going on. But if we stick together we can make it better for ourselves and our friends.”

When she is older Rashieda says she hopes to help old peo-ple in her community. Tyrene Gilbert, 13, wants to be a singer, Fadwa wants to become a chef, Kelly wants to become a nurse and Regina Buys, 15, wants to be a teacher. When Mishka Abra-hams, 15, who has been part of Rock Girl for six years, says that she is hoping to stay in Cape Town and preferably Manen-berg, all the girls agree. They also say that they will continue to be a part of Rock Girl until they older, in Rashieda’s words, “be-cause our wish is that there will

USING wHAT THEY HAVE The girls and India meet twice a week to discuss and execute projects and go on outings where the girls meet prospective role models and get to visit new places around the city. Together, using minimal resources, they have created an art room at their former school, attended work-shops with creative practition-ers like Heath Nash and Paul du Toit and collaborated with other community organisations and NGOs to create events that address the issue of violence against women and girls. Rock Girl has also run a leadership camp for the girls, giving them the chance to learn new skills and ways to work together.

Kelly Petersen, 14, has been participating in the Rock Girl project for five years. “We made the first bench because there were no safe spaces in our school. Now we are working on other projects, but they are all about trying to make our com-munity better because right now there is a lot of violence here. I think that if people stick together then they can make change.”

Fadwa Fredericks, also 14, is a newer recruit. “I joined Rock Girl because my friends told me that it was interesting. I’ve been doing this for a couple of months now and I like that we get to help our community while also having fun.” Asked who her role models are she replies, “Any adult who respects children.”

doING wHAT THEY CANAt present the girls are work-ing on a project documenting what the lives of girls are like in Manenberg. Their work, ex-pressed through photographs and writing, will be exhibited later this year. The girls have also recently completed a project that was co-sponsored by the Cécile and Boyd Foundation, to revamp an art room at Red River primary school and last year Rock Girl partnered with comedian Amy Poehler’s Girls of the World TV project. One of the original girls from Red River primary school, Rashieda took viewers on a tour of a day in her life.

We asked the girls what they wanted to do and then we listened. The best part for me is that they naturally understood that it’s not about grand goals, it’s about making small everyday changes that have immediate concrete benefits.

What is Rock GiRl?


i like Sea Point and the big wheel there. i like to go there and then go to the park to play and then go to Shoprite or Macdonalds. My favourite though is the ice cream at grand West.guRSHWiN leWiS, 9

kHWezi MBONi, 10

9 FEATURE

What does the city look like to a small child? How

child-friendly are the streets of Cape Town? We

decided to find out by accompanying

a two-year-old as he toddled

from Adderley Street to the

Company’s Garden on a weekday

afternoon.

Text: Ambre Nicolson, Photos: lisa Burnell

THrouGH THe eyes of a CHIlD

A city is the place of availabilities. it

is the place where a small boy, as he walks

through it, may see something that will tell

him what he wants to do his whole life.

lOuiS kAHN, ARCHiTeCT

10 MOLO APril 2014

to ask what each of the other items on display are, variously: nail polish, chips, fruit, sun-glasses and cellphone accesso-ries. He chats amiably with the stall keeper for a couple of min-utes before abruptly moving on to the next stall. Seeing a long line of informal traders’ stalls ahead of us I decide it’s time to change direction and we turn left up Longmarket Street to get to St George’s Mall.

St GeorGe’S Mall 14h35: “PIGEoNS!”Being in the shade and quiet of the pedestrian mall is an imme-diate relief because it means I no longer have to spend every sec-ond making sure my son doesn’t dart into traffic. He seems to like it too, but for a different reason. His love of anything with wheels pales in comparison to how much he adores chasing pigeons. He runs helter skelter down the pe-destrian walkway getting in the way of lots of people. Nonethe-less everyone smiles when they see him. This is something I have experienced before and confirms urban studies that have been con-ducted around the world: it’s not just kids who benefit from discov-ering a city, it’s also good for city streets and their inhabitants to experience kids.

14H40: ELEPHANTS, GIRAFFES ANd HIPPoS, oH MY!Other than the pigeons my son is most interested in all the other animals he can see, in the form of paintings, sculptures and printed fabrics. As a toddler he has a ob-sessive desire to name things, and the stalls of St George’s Mall of-fer rich pickings. We count whole herds of wooden giraffes, a dozen elephants, lions, ostriches, wilde-beest, some tortoises and an owl. Who knew that you could go on safari in the central city?

14H55: CCId SECURITY oFFICERWhen a green-bibbed CCID of-ficer holds out his hand my son immediately takes it and wanders off. The CCID officer laughs and jokingly waves goodbye. My son follows suit. I am unsure whether to be glad that my son is so trust-ing or horrified that he is willing to wander off with a stranger. Either way I’m impressed by the friendliness of one of our city’s public safety officials.

has shown that kids who have a “windshield perspective” are less able to accurately draw a map of where they live, whereas kids who walked or biked could produce ac-curate and detailed maps of their communities.

14H10: THE RUBBISH BINHaving finished a snack my tod-dler tries to give me the empty wrapper. I tell him to find a rub-bish bin. At the end of the next block we find a green litter bin and by standing on his tippiest toes he manages to throw the packet away. He looks triumphant at this small act of independence.

14H15: “wHERE’S THE GREEN MAN?”I take his hand to cross a side street. I have taught him about traffic sig-nals and the rule is we have to wait for the green man. Sadly, on this street there is no button to push on the traffic light and we wait for the green man in vain. All the while my son watches worriedly as pedestri-ans cross the road despite the red man shining. Eventually I give up and we cross too.

As a toddler my son is too young to navigate the streets alone but I wonder if I will let him walk to school or bike to the park when he is older. A 2012 Danish study of over 20 000 children found that children who walked or biked to school showed better concen-tration and ability to solve puz-zles. The effects lasted for up to four hours and mattered more than whether the child had eaten breakfast. Of course, Copenhagen is not Cape Town. In a city like ours many children don’t have the choice, they’re forced to commute to school by foot or public trans-port, often by themselves and often with disastrous results. Mitchells Plain for example, a community hemmed in by large highways, has the highest child mortality rate in the country due to pedestrian traf-fic accidents.

14H20: wINdMILLS Although I have told him he can go into any of the shops we pass, he is uninterested in anything retail-related until he spots a tin can of colourful foil windmills on the ground next to an infor-mal trader’s stall. The windmills are tantalisingly close. He con-templates them seriously for a bit and I steel myself for a sen-tence starting with “Mommy, can I …” but then he moves on

“Let’s be clear about this up front: this article owes its inspiration to Alexandra Horowitz’s

book On looking: eleven walks with expert eyes, in which she examines how much we miss of everyday reality through our selec-tive attention. In one of the essays she accompanies her nineteen-month-old son on a walk around their block in New York City, dis-covering some interesting things she hadn’t noticed about her sur-roundings along the way (as well as how long it takes a toddler to walk around a city block). In this article a photographer and I ac-company my son, who is almost two and half, as he takes us on a walk (adventure) around the city. It turns out I also have much to discover about the familiar spaces of Cape Town (and yes, it really does take that long for a toddler to walk a couple of blocks).

adderley Street 14H00: “BEEP BEEP!”We start on Adderley Street, which is crammed with cars, taxis, buses, people, informal traders and people wearing sandwich boards advertising places to sell gold jewellery. My son has some experience of being a pedestrian but it’s generally on quieter streets, and he is mostly either in a stroller or on his father’s shoulders. How will he react to not only walking the entire distance himself but also being given the choice about which way to go and how long to take about it?

He sets off down the crowded pavement at a toddler’s mean-dering pace, unbothered by the crowds of people or the traffic sounds coming from the street. When a taxi hoots close by I jump, but he turns around joyfully: “Look Mommy, the cars say beep beep!” My son, like Alexandra’s, is head over heels for any form of wheeled transport. Within the first 30m of our journey he has pointed out a red bus, several taxis, a bicy-cle and a shiny black motorbike. Later in our journey he will be stopped, spellbound for almost 10 minutes, by the sight of a reversing garbage truck.

While my son loves cars, it has been shown that spending too much time in one means leaves kids without a healthy sense of connection to place. American ur-ban researcher Bruce Appleyard

the CoMpany’S GardenS 14H50: “SqUIRRELS!”Next we pass one of the city’s rough sleepers having a nap on a bench. I am bracing myself to try and explain homelessness to a two-year-old but my son just puts his fingers to his lips and whis-pers, “Shhh, he’s sleeping.” After crossing Wale Street, we make our down Government Avenue and my son spots more wildlife, in the form of the Company’s Garden squirrels. He’s off again, chasing the creatures and squealing with glee.

15H00: A BENCH, A wELL ANd A PoNdHe stops only long enough to take off his shoes before continu-ing into the gardens to try and climb a tree, throw sticks into the pond, scale a bench and scurry under it in search of another squirrel. When I see he’s trying to climb onto the edge of the old well, the bottom of which is a long way down and strewn with evil smelling rubbish I am quick to intervene. At the same time I remember a recent Atlantic arti-cle written by Hanna Rosin, “The Overprotected Kid”, in which she shows how harmful it is for chil-dren never to exercise their risk-taking skills. I decide the least I can do is show him the hazard. He stares into the darkness of the well for a couple of seconds be-fore solemnly throwing his stick into the depths. Not long after that his pace starts to slow, fol-lowed by him halting, mid-stride, and reaching both arms up to me. Universal toddler code for “This walk is now finished.”

15h30: IT’S A wRAPOver the course of our hour and a half adventure we have covered less than two kilometres but my son has enjoyed himself immense-ly and has had positive interac-tions with dozens of people (and animals). I have discovered it’s not as scary as I thought for a tod-dler to be let loose in the city, that when it comes to universal access and pedestrian rights Cape Town is moving in the right direction but still has a long way to go and that the informal traders of Adderley Street sell an amazing array of col-oured nail polish.

at open streets we think cape Town is not child friendly. on a regular day, streets are not inviting to children. However given a safe platform, streets become places where children engage with each other and take ownership. during open streets days last year parents displayed a genuine desire to encourage their children to explore: There were no cars on the street, other children and parents were engaging in the same activities and the environment invited everyone to try something new.

MARCelA gueRReRO CASSAS, OPeN STReeT CAPe TOWN

Having lived in london, frankfurt and Zürich i can honestly say we are tremendously excited to settle here. i could mention the lack of good child-friendly restaurants, mobility (struggling to walk anywhere with my buggy ... grrr), and a lack of good baby and toddler play groups. and suddenly we are finding ourselves explaining to our daughter why she can’t wander off on her own in a shop. yet libraries have become a lot more child-friendly than i can remember, playgrounds appear to be much safer and cleaner and we chose cape Town for its array of wonderful natural outdoor activities and great schools.

IS CAPE TOWN A CHIld-FRIENdly CITy?

NAdiA BevAN, TeACHeR ANd MOM

11 FEATURE

Students from the Centre of Science and Technology in Khayelitsha – who are exercising their ability as young reporters with help from the Children’s Radio Foundation – speak out on what matters most to them. What one thing would they say to the world, the president, the mayor or their parents?

STREET TALK

lIsTen up

Photos: lisa Burnell

THoKoZANI NqwILI (14)

love each other and care for each other, because you don’t know what the future holds for you.

Olwethu SipakiSi (15)“What you do today may affect you tomorrow. But don’t let it put you down. if yesterday was bad, tomorrow might be the greatest day of your life.”

ELETHU RoTSHo (13)“(laughs.) i would say to my parents that i love them. Yah, i love them.”

KUHLE SPEELMAN (14)“There is only one race, which is the human race. Don’t use your past as an excuse. No excuses, only success.”

SipheSihle Xheketwana“i would say the world must live in peace, and i would ask the president why he must have several wives.”

LUYoLo BooI (16)

We are one and we should treat each other equally. There’s no reason for corruption, no reason for unfair treatment of other people. We are one. united as one.

AMANdA MaXOngO (16)

“peace and love are important to have in life. Because if you don’t have peace, how would you rule people in a country? And if you don’t have peace as a parent, how would people live in your home peacefully? And if you don’t have love, how would you love you children? if you don’t have love as a president, how would you love your country?”

KoBUS YEKELo (13)

To make amends is the best thing to do when you have a guilty conscience.

Jabulile thwala (14) “i would say to the people of our country and the whole world that everybody should look at themselves in the mirror. See if you are living according to God’s purpose for you. To my parents i would say: why did they give birth to me if i can’t make my own choices?”

THe CHIlDren’s raDIo founDaTIon6 Spin Street | T: 021 465 6965 | www.childrensradiofoundation.org

The Children’s Radio Foundation trains young reporters across Africa, giving them the skills to make their voices heard. These young reporters not only gain experience to last a lifetime, but ignite important conversations too. Tune into what the youth of Cape Town and South Africa are thinking and talking about at Young Reporters Network: South Africa on www.soundcloud.com.

12 MOLO YoU SAYAPril 2014

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