Tag Archives: Kayamandi

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 31 July

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   After a meeting yesterday about the controversial new Immigration Regulations, between Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom and Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba, they have announced that some of the onerous requirements will be made less stringent for tourism purposes, in preventing them from becoming an ‘administrative nightmare, causing foreigners to go elsewhere’!   The Department of Home Affairs has agreed to allow any equivalent document to an unabridged birth certificate for children from the country of origin.  More centres to issue biometric visas to South Africa will be opened in India and China, where there are only two per country.   One wonders why the Ministers took more than a month to meet, and allowed so much damage to be caused to our country’s Tourism industry!

*   Stellenbosch 360, the town’s tourism promotion agency, is determined to make every day a ‘Mandela Day‘, and assisted ‘boutique impact investment company‘ Heart Capital in its Foodpods Project in the Kayamandi township.  The project encourages locals to grow vegetables.  Stellenbosch 360 would like Stellenbosch residents to ‘live a life of 67 minutes as opposed to making it a yearly activity’. (received via media release from Random Hat Communications) Continue reading →

Stellenbosch honours Nelson Mandela with new urban art!

Madiba Stellenbosch Town Hall Whale Cottage PortfolioI was working late last Thursday and had the TV on kykNET (having watched Chef Reuben Riffel’s new ‘5 Sterre met Reuben’ fresh herb cooking program) when I saw an eTV news broadcast, which reported on a toi-toi demonstration outside the Stellenbosch Town Hall at the inauguration of the new urban art installation.  The local ANC branch members were protesting against the R800000 spent on the new art work erected by internationally renowned Stellenbosch-based landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe in honour of former President Nelson Mandela.

When I arrived at Clos Malverne on Friday morning, to attend the opening of the pop-up art exhibition ‘A Void in the Landscape‘, I bumped into Strijdom, recognising him from the TV news broadcast, and we had a long chat about the Stellenbosch Town Hall transformation, and the publicity it had received as a result of the demonstration. Strijdom’s artwork ‘Heaven is a place on earth’, angel Strijdom van der Merwe Clos Malverne Whale Cottage Portfoliowings erected on street lamp-shaped posts in the Clos Malverne vineyards outside the restaurant, is part of the Clos Malverne exhibition.

I had wanted to meet Strijdom ever since Casparus Restaurant opened two years ago, as photographs of his urban art are exhibited in the restaurant, which once was my favorite.  The Continue reading →