South Africa is the first country in Africa to have joined the international The Plastics Pact, and the City of Cape Town is the first municipality in our country to have joined the South African Plastics Pact, which was established last month. Continue reading →
Tourism, Food, and Wine news headlines
* Renowned international Chef Paul Bocuse is to open Ratatouille Bistro and the L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy ride at Disneyland Paris, inspired by the 2007 ‘Ratatouille‘ animated movie. One will be able to taste Bocuse’s ratatouille. It is Bocuse’s second restaurant in the theme park.
* Cape Town has been awarded the honour of being the Earth Hour Capital 2014 for South Africa, and is competing against 33 Finalist cities from around the world for Global Earth Hour City 2014, reports the Cape Times. Earth Hour will be held from 20h30 – 21h30 on 29 March, as many lights being switched off as possible in that hour. The Earth Hour City Challenge has been created by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Local Governments for Sustainability.
* The Company’s Garden is to return to its roots, in having a vegetable garden reinstated by the City of Cape Town in what was Cape Town’s first fruit and vegetable garden, established by the Dutch East India Continue reading →
For the past few weeks intense debate has taken place about the Government’s announcement that it is considering applying for prospecting rights on a number of Stellenbosch wine farms, including Saxenburg, Jordan, Langverwacht, Haasendal, Rosendal and Zevenwacht, and De Grendel, Highlands and Hooggelegen in the Tygerberg/Durbanville winelands area in Cape Town.
Intense lobbying by the Winelands Action Group has led to the announcement last Friday that the application for the prospecting rights has been withdrawn.
Gary Jordan, spokesperson for the Winelands Action Group, announced the good news about the withdrawal of the prospecting rights application on 19 March. The Winelands Action Group was supported by Cape Winemakers Guild, Wines of South Africa, the Stellenbosch Wine Route, the Durbanville Wine Route, the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature, the WWF Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, the Bottelary Conservancy, wine writers, heritage groups and the public to lobby the Department of Mineral Resources to withdraw the application for rights to prospect for tin, zinc, lead, lithium, copper, manganese and silver.
The mining rights application threatened the wine industry’s International Year of Biodiversity, and the new ‘Sustainable Wines SA” certification seal for wines, a world first.
Despite the announcement by the Winelands Action Group, reports remain contradictory about the withdrawal of the applications.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com