Tag Archives: SABC3

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 23 March

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   The cost of the devastating fires to the Table Mountain National Park early this month is estimated at R6 million, not only for the fire-fighting costs, but also for facilities damaged or destroyed, and lost income in having to close the Silvermine and Tokai recreation areas for the next 6 – 24 months.

*   Sun International is to buy the Peermont Group, consisting of nine casino resorts in our country and in Botswana, for R9,4 billion.

*   The second season of the ‘Clover Little Big Cook Off‘ will be aired from 28 June on SABC3, with judges and hosts Continue reading →

WhaleTales Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines: 23 February

WhaleTalesTourism, Food, and Wine news headlines

*   Meetings Africa was opened in Johannesburg by Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom today, the leading business tourism expo, and runs over three days.  Johannesburg is attracting global events, including the following forthcoming business events: Breakbulk Africa 2015, CIDESCO World Congress from 20-25 May, the Summit on Healthy Ageing from 30 July to 2 August, Johannesburg International Motor Show from 14-25 October, as well as the 2016 Africa & Middle East Conference of Junior Chamber International from 4-6 May 2016.

*   Our country’s newest low-cost local airline Skywise will take off on 5 March.  The airline has been welcomed by SA Tourism:  ‘We wish Skywise every success, and we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship that will help grow tourism in South Africa‘.  Initially two return flights per day between Cape Town and Johannesburg will be scheduled, with Durban to follow over time.

*   World Travel Market (WTM) Africa will be held in Cape Town from 15 – 17 April, with 400 exhibitors, and Continue reading →

Woolworths under consumer pressure, on the back-foot, in massive Sunday Times supplement?!

Woolworths Good Food News Front page Whale CottageWe wrote recently how Woolworths has been misleading consumers with claims about its Ayrshire milk, deceiving food labelling, and how it tries to create an image of healthy produce via its ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘ series on SABC3. The group Grass Consumer Food Action has been persistent in its criticism of Woolworths, and appears to have hit a raw nerve in the Good Business Journey division at Woolworths, the retailer having launched a brand new ‘Good Food News‘ 16-page insert in the Sunday Times yesterday! It looks like a Taste magazine (the Woolworths sponsored magazine published by New Media Publishing) but printed in Tabloid format on recycled paper!

While the Tabloid has ‘headlines’ on page 1, to attract one’s attention to the content, it consists of a mix of ‘advertorials’ of its award-winning wines (since when are wines a food, as per the name of the publication?) in ‘Crowned as the best‘; ‘responsibly sourced‘ fish;  braai suggestions for ‘Ready Steady Braai’; and ‘Flavours of Home‘ (preparedWoolworths Good Food News Responsible Sourcing Whale Cottage foods with strong spices such as curries, and traditional foods such as koeksisters and milk tart); as well as editorial. It is obviously planned as a monthly insert, numbered ‘Issue 01′, and dated September 2014.  The focus of the first issue is ‘lovelocal‘:

*   ‘New on the shelf‘ (page 3) showcases new pack designs for wine boxes, braai tins, braai marinade, braai Continue reading →

‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa’ episode 10: Beautiful BaSotho Lesotho, ‘puristic’ trout!

Hayden Quinn 10 Lesotho title page Whale CottageLast night’s episode 10 of ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘ showed Hayden Quinn leaving South Africa, and visiting the beautiful Lesotho, ‘Kingdom in the Sky‘, southernmost land-locked country in Africa, and completely surrounded by South Africa.  The content of the episode was motivated by the Katse Fish Farms, which grows trout in Lesotho, a supplier to Woolworths in a production process which is linked to the company’s sister operation Three-Streams Smokehouse in Franschhoek.   Content-wise it was the thinnest episode, both in terms of little meaningful information provided, and even in terms of the few TV commercials flighted!

Hayden was seen on a horse in a traditional BaSotho outfit, with a blanket wrapped around him and wearing a BaSotho hat.  It was explained to him that Lesotho isHayden Quin Basotho outfit 3800 meters above sealevel, its lowest regions still being higher than South Africa, and therefore the locals keep warm by wrapping the blankets around them.  About three-quarters of the country is rural.

In a village near the Katse Dam, Hayden met Rose Lekhoakhoa, a teacher and cook, who grows vegetables Continue reading →