Entertainment
TAKE A RIDE ON THE WILD SIDE
Katja Hamilton
The 50m Wheel of Excellence, a concept similar to the massive London Eye Ferris wheel on the bank of the Thames, will be one of the big attractions at the Waterfront during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, which starts on June 11.
There are 20 observation wheels in operation around the world. This is the first wheel, however, that has been built in South Africa.
The Wheel of Excellence offers 36 cabins that provide an amazing view of the city, Table Mountain and Robben Island as the wheel turns. It will remain operational for an extended period of time after the World Cup matches.
One ride lasts 20 minutes and costs R70.
The wheel is expected to open next Tuesday, June 8.
ALL EYES ON THE BALL
Katja Hamilton
Soccer Cinema will be hosting a seven-day movie festival in which a selection of some of the world’s best football documentaries will be screened at The Labia in Cape Town between June 4 and 10.
The official opening night will be on June 5 and will see the screening of a documentary on Soccer Cinema’s trip as well as the airing of Maradona by Kusturica by Emir Kusturica - a documentary on the life of the Argentine footballer, Diego Maradona.
The movie festival pays tribute to the end of a two-month trip in which the Soccer Cinema team – a travelling bioscope – screened football documentaries in eight provinces entertaining communities from Worcester to Tzaneen, and everywhere else inbetween. The end-goal: rallying South Africans with 37 screenings in 30 ‘fonteins, ‘spruits and ‘dorps to celebrate the 2010 World Cup. The initiative was a World Cup pre-event project sponsored by National Lottery.
Many locals gathered to learn all about local and international soccer stories and stars such as Didier Drogba and Sibusiso Zuma.
Other films that hit the mobile big screen included The Game of their Lives – a film that looks at what became of the North Korean national team that kicked Italy out of the 1966 World Cup, and Junaid Ahmed’s More Than Just a Game, about soccer and sports on Robben Island.
“This has really been a trip of a lifetime for me, it has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember to travel and see my own beautiful country and I got to experience the amazing landscapes that I usually see on television and the endless horizons,” said facilitator, Mbulelo Grootboom.
A highlight of Soccer Cinema’s journey was a screening for the soccer grannnies – soccer teams comprised mainly of seniors in Nkowa Nkowa near Tzaneen, and packed halls and churches in Gaybrook (KZN), Huntington (Mpumalanga) and Hamburg in the Eastern Cape.
Soccer Cinema furthermore made a stop in Qunu and Mthatha where the team hosted two screenings in association with the Nelson Mandela Museum. The screening in Qunu was a first for Madiba’s home village, which has never before enjoyed the pleasures of a bioscope.
“The FIFA Football World Cup taking place next month is a unique and very special event. It has the potential to unite South Africans as no other event since democracy was established in 1994. It is vital that everyone feels part of this and our trip through South Africa has been one way of achieving this, as will our soccer movie festival,” said brainchild of Soccer Cinema, Don Edkins.
Don is a film producer known for his award-winning non-profit documentary film company, STEPS Southern Africa.
Don is also known for producing the International global documentary project Why Democracy? – 10 long and 18 short films. “The Free At Last Film Festival”, co-produced and organised with Nathalie Rosa Bucher and Pia Tedeschi, for the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s release in February this year, showcased some of the best films about former President Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement.
During the Soccer Cinema movie festival at the Labia there will be two daily screenings, one at 18h15 and another at 20h15, and soccer fans will also get to meet the Soccer Cinema teams on opening night.
For more information or to view the schedule visit www.soccercinema.co.za.
TRAVELLING CINEMA ON THE BALL
Katja Hamilton
Cradock seems further than two hours from Grahamstown. The R350, a bit of a dribble through pothole at times, winds north, past the quaint town of Bedford and paparazzi-shy monkeys, through canyons and across the Great Fish River.
The car kicking up dust in its wake is headed to Lingelihle Stadium where an annual soccer tournament, in its ninth edition, draws 17 teams competing for the R12 000 prize money. Braving an early cold front, local supporters come out in strong numbers, some staying into the early hours of the morning.
This is a recent blog entry of freelance journalist, Nathalie Rosa Bucher who is on the road as we speak capturing the sights and sounds of off-the-beaten tracks through South Africa motoring through 50 ‘fonteins, ‘spruits and ‘dorps. She and Luke Hutchison will be on the go for two months and on their trail, a few days behind, is their team – Hisham Samie, Mbulelo Grootboom, Alasdair Ross Mcculloch and Tee Nguyen. Their van is packed with an overhead projector, movie screen, laptop and sound system.
Together they form part of a travelling bioscope, otherwise known as Soccer Cinema, that is screening football documentaries in nine provinces entertaining communities from Kosi Bay to Tzaneen, and everywhere else inbetween.
In days to come, many locals will gather to learn all about their West African soccer stories and stars such as Didier Drogba, Maradona, Brazil’s Garrincha and Pele, as well as one about our very own Sibusiso Zuma.
Other films that will hit the mobile big screen include The Game of their Lives – a film that looks at what became of the North Korean national team that kicked Italy out of the 1966 World Cup, and Junaid Ahmed’s More Than Just a Game, about soccer and sports on Robben Island.
A World Cup pre-event project sponsored by National Lottery, Soccer Cinema is the brainchild of film producer Don Edkins known for his award-winning non-profit documentary film company, STEPS Southern Africa. Don is also known for producing the International global documentary project Why Democracy? – 10 long and 18 short films. “The Free At Last Film Festival”, co-produced and organised with Nathalie and Pia Tedeschi, for the 20th anniversary of Mandela’s release in February this year, showcased some of the best films about former President Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement.
This time he is hoping to rally South Africans in even remote areas to come together and celebrate the 2010 World Cup, and co-producers Nathalie and Pia are achieving just that.
Nathalie and Luke have since launched into new towns making contact with town patrons and scouting for ideal venues where the screenings can take place. “We put up our posters and hand out flyers, engage with people we meet and get them excited,” says Nathalie.
“The screening team then arrives a week later, drives through the area with a “buffalo” magaphone announcing the event in Xhosa, Afrikaans and English, sets up the screen and projector and facilitates the screening. Weather permitting, some screenings may take place outside, but most have been in town halls or at schools,” says Nathalie.
On the go for three weeks now, the Soccer Cinema team already has much to write home about.
A run-in with the world’s biggest pineapple standing 16.5m high in Bathurst had the team in peals of laughter. 15km from Port Alfred. Natalie climbed the fibreglass steel and concrete superstructure and was photographed with her “travelling gnome” – a soccer ball that has accumulated many a signature from prominent town folk (the Soccer Cinema patrons), and which of late also encountered a strike from the hoof of a pet zebra ‘Johnny’ at a recent B&B rest stop. Since Mthatha it even features the signature of local patron Phumeza Mandela!
Luke also acquired a pothole certificate on the bumpy stretch of road to Tshani on the Wild Coast.
Highs too have been accompanied by sobering moments. Turning up the volume of a news broadcast on the car radio Nathalie was shocked to hear the announcement that Eugene Terre’blanche had been killed. Ironically, her and Luke were on their way to visit the gravesite memorial of Cradock 4 – the United Democratic Front (UDF) activists Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhauli. The four were murdered by South African Security Police recruit, Eric Taylor, their burned bodies left in the bushes alongside the road.
It will be 25 years ago in June this year that the four activists were killed.
Reaching the black marble headstones, the enormity of the political strife in South Africa’s history sank in.
“We stood, humbled, deeply moved, surrounded by a sea of headstones, crosses, metal hearts, make-shift graves. The sight silences us, swallows question marks,” Nathalie later wrote in her blog.
To this end, Nathalie feels it’s important for her and the team to acknowledge the rich political history of each town they visit. At the end of the Fort Hare leg of the journey, she says she couldn’t help but ponder how the town’s university was the only one to offer Black people a tertiary education during Apartheid.
Last I heard from Nathalie she’d most recently made a stop in Qunu and Mthatha where Soccer Cinema will be hosting two screenings in association with the Nelson Mandela Museum. The screening in Qunu will be a first for Madiba’s home village, which has never before enjoyed the pleasures of a bioscope. For the screening in Mthatha, the museum plans to close off the street outside Bhunga, where the former Transkei parliament used to reside. There have also just been successful screenings in Lingelihle/Cradock and the Gwalana location, a village near Peddie.
After 50 towns in total, De Doorns will be Soccer Cinema’s last stop in early June. Local organiser, Masabatha Mema responded with enthusiasm to the team’s promise to entertain the small strife-torn town. She said she could “guarantee that almost the entire community” would gather. The town, recently driven by xenophobic attacks against Zimbabweans over seasonal grape-picking jobs, was not quite ready to host the team at the time Soccer Cinema first arrived. Tents housing displaced Zimbabweans were pitched on the town’s soccer field.
The residents’ plan to view the films next month may do much to contribute to efforts to reconcile the community.
With the journey ending on June 2, this will be the highlight of one unforgettable roadtrip.
. For those of you in Cape Town who feel like you’re missing out, don’t worry: Soccer Cinema will be hosting a five-day movie festival at the Labia on their return to Cape Town between June 5 and 10. Don’t miss out on your chance to view the best in football documentaries and to meet the Soccer Cinema team.
HUNDRED DAYS TO GO AND SA IS READY
As South Africa today celebrates 100 days until the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, it is a time to reflect on the progress the country has made since first winning the right to host the tournament.
“As we mark 100 days to the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, we do so with immense pride. We are proud because, in many respects, we are able to pronounce ourselves ready to welcome the world three months ahead of schedule,” said the Deputy President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe.
“On 15 May 2004 we were in Zurich and I was sure when I opened the envelope that it would be South Africa, and it was. When Nelson Mandela took the trophy that night he said that a dream had come true. Together we can do this,” said FIFA President Joseph Blatter, speaking of the night South Africa was awarded the hosting rights.
For the Chief Executive Officer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa, Dr Danny Jordaan, the 100-day milestone is as much a celebration of the work achieved as it is the expectation of the world’s greatest football event.
“We have come a long way since our name was pulled out the envelope in 2004. The hard infrastructure work has been largely completed. Our stadiums will be ready to host the fans and teams, and our airports will be ready to welcome the influx of visitors. For the next 100 days it is the people of South Africa who need to prepare for the celebration that awaits them. As South Africans we have encountered a lot of skepticism but today, as we celebrate this milestone, we can confidently say to the World that we will be ready,” said Jordaan.
The celebrations in Durban are the culmination of a four-day long tour of all the stadiums and Host Cities with a contingent of 100 journalists, accompanied by Jordaan and FIFA Secretary General, Jerome Valcke. The tour started on Friday, 26 February with a tour of Johannesburg’s two stadiums – Soccer City and Ellis Park – and ends today with a tour of Durban stadium.
“Over the last few days we have travelled across the country to see the level of preparation for the World Cup and what we have seen gives me the confidence that in 100 days the only concern that the teams and fans will have is who will lift the trophy on 11 July 2010. I congratulate the Host Cities on the hard work they have put in over the last few years to make sure they are ready for the tournament. What I can say to them is that the hard work has paid off – we stand today with 100 days to go until the World Cup and today is the day that we can celebrate the hard work and the people that have contributed to our World Cup success,” said Jordaan.
. Issued by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa Communications Division
* Photo Katja Hamilton
Grooving on down: Zolani Mahola and Kyla Rose of Freshlyground, kicked off the celebration of the 100-day countdown to the 2010 World Cup yesterday when they performed at the Cape Town campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Ilana Abratt
The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has launched a multi-campus Football Frenzy campaign.
A major part of the campaign is the weekly Football Friday Frenzy, in which staff and students are encouraged to come to campus dressed in soccer supporters’ gear. Specially designed Football Frenzy t-shirts will be available from campaign
co-ordinators this month.
The campaign, a joint initiative between the Sport Management, Student Affairs and Marketing and Communication departments, kicked off on February 5 on Mowbray Campus, with over 60 energetic staff and students participating in a mass Diski dance.
The dance, developed by South African Tourism as a way of building fellowship among local and international soccer fans, pays tribute to the special flare found in local football. The steps incorporate football-style moves such as the ‘Header’, ‘Juggle’ and ‘Table Mountain’.
The Diski dance has been performed in international locations from London’s Trafalgar Square to Hong Kong’s Times Square, as well as at local landmarks, such as the top of Table Mountain.
Mowbray-based Sport Management lecturer Brendon Knott, one of the Football Frenzy campaign co-ordinators, was among the CPUT Diski participants. His campaign team, which includes co-ordinators representing Bellville, Cape Town, Wellington and Granger Bay, will roll out similar football support events on other campuses over the course of the World Cup run-up period.
Knott said CPUT’s initiative was part of the Western Cape’s campaign to engage all citizens in the province around the 2010 World Cup.
“It also aims to promote a sense of national pride and broaden knowledge and awareness of the event and sport in general,” he said.
Knott added the campaign will additionally benefit the University by promoting health awareness and physical activity and will provide opportunities for teambuilding and cohesion among staff and students, as well as between campuses.
He also noted that some of the events will be co-ordinated by Sport Management students, who will use the opportunity to practise some of the organisational skills they will need in their future careers.
. For enquires about Football Frenzy activities, contact one of the campaign co-ordinators: Mowbray: Brendon Knott (knottb@cput.ac.za) and Jacob Moroe (moroej@cput.ac.za)
* Photographs: (top left) An instructor from Cape Town Tourism, teaches the steps to the Diski dance (top right) Sport Management lecturers Jacob Moroe and Brendon Knott, two of the Football Frenzy co-ordinators (bottom) Mowbray staff and students get into the spirit of 2010.
CAPE TOWN IS SO AYOBA!
Katja Hamilton
The Long Street Party, which kicked off the Final Draw for the 2010 World Cup, was a huge success. It is estimated that 50 000 people attended. Fancy Galada, Flat Stanley, K’Naan and TKZee rocked.
I remember the pulse of the crowds, their cheers, the heat, the ice-cold beers, South African flags flying, and huge street puppets dancing and manoeuvering their way through the Long Street mile.
I remember yellow soccer-themed hats, drag queens and vuvuzelas announcing their arrival. I remember children’s smiles, some perched high on their dads’ shoulders.
The highlight of the day was when TKZee got hold of the mike… it was a pivotal moment in my life.
I was shoulder to shoulder with such interesting people from all walks of life, from China, America, Korea, Nigeria, Somalia, others from the Cape Flats and from our townships. Suddenly TKZee came on and everyone, and I mean everyone, started jumping in unison, waving their arms, punching the air, singing his lyrics together.
I remember thinking to myself: This is a dream come true. Here we are in Cape Town all united, having fun together, singing and dancing to the same music. It didn’t matter which suburb you were from, whether or not you were a refugee, rich or poor - we were all swinging our hips to an African jive.
I had goosebumps the entire night, not to mention very sore feet at the end of it all, but it was so worth it.
For me, this moment in time, of us all playing together in Long Street, of our bodies in tune to the same beat, is the very vision Nelson Mandela had for us all - the new South Africa.
Thank you Mandela for making this day possible, for daring to dream, for the sacrifices you made. Because of you a united democratic country is so very tangible. Most importantly, we not only have political freedom today because of you, but are enjoying the fruits of social integration too.
If this is what the Final Draw was like, can you imagine the experience of the World Cup kickoff next year?
We South Africans are so Ayoba!!!!
Katja Hamilton
All eyes will be on South Africa next week with the staging of the FIFA World Cup Final Draw in Cape Town.
Set to be broadcast to 130 million fans in 200 countries from the Cape Town Convention Centre on the evening of Friday, December 4, the glorious red-carpet affair will have celebrities, sports stars, world leaders and dignitaries sitting among the audience, eager to hear the draw results.
This is the moment the football world has been gearing itself up for, a pivotal factor that will determine how the 2010 World Cup teams will be seeded and where they will based during the tournament.
A star-studded line-up of entertainment is anticipated. With the input of top creatives such as executive producer of M-Net, George Mazarakis; Idols producer, Gavin Rattin; sound producer, JB Arthur and Marianne Nicolette of Ministry of Sound, the entire show is expected to thrill.
Speaking of the creative team’s preparations for the show at a media conference yesterday (Thursday, November 26), Mazarakis said their focus was to give the programme a distinctly African footprint. “We’ve ensured that the show honours our African identity and that it is authentic,” he said. “Above all, it will be memorable.”
SABC,will be broadcasting live from the venue together with co-host HBS. South Africans in particular will be able to tune into SABC 1 between 18h30 and 20h00 to see the action as it unfolds or can turn their dials to Good Hope FM, Metro FM and Umhlobo Wenene for live coverage.
“We want to provide all our citizens with an insider’s view to the draw so that they too can enjoy the festivities,” said Peter Mahlangu, producer and general manager of SABC Sport.
SABC will also be broadcasting the Final Draw live on large screens in a public viewing area at the top of Long Street, making the event accessible to all. An array of entertainment leading up to the final draw will be hosted in the area from Buitensingel to Wale Streets.
The street party’s programme will kick off at noon with cultural performers, while Fancy Galada, Coda, Flat Stanley and TKZee will keep the crowds jiving. And the action doesn’t end after the final draw either as Freshlyground, Cassette and Jimmy Dludlu will keep you partying right into the night.
All in all this will be a night to remember.
* The final line-up of the countries who have qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is: Nigeria, Cameroon, New Zealand, Japan, Netherlands, Korea Republic, Korea DPR, Australia, USA, Brazil, Ghana, England, Paraguay, Spain, Denmark, Cote d’Ivoire, Chile, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Serbia, Switzerland, Argentina, Honduras, Slovakia, Algeria, Portugal, France, Slovenia, Greece, Uruguay and hosts South Africa.
RECORD NUMBERS AT FESTIVE-LIGHTS SWITCH-ON
About 10km of rope lighting was used to create this year’s displays. By using energy-efficient rope lighting the City will more than halve its electricity consumption.
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