Nine months after the worst fires for 50 years swept across the Cape Peninsular, fynbos reclaims the scorched earth. Only three months after the tall, flame-charred, alien pine trees over Silvermine were chopped down, the marsh disa – last seen here decades ago – and seven other kinds of orchids - bloom in profusion.
Nature is becoming more natural again – with some help from that most unnatural of beasts – mankind.

I listened to the music of the 180 strong choir drifting down from the fifth floor, through the central atrium, to the second floor where we were taking our leave. Around us, a 1000 more business students, from about 18 years old up, were occupied in a 100 activities from dj practice, to ballroom dancing, chess and table tennis. And I remembered the times I used to come here, to 55 Fox Street, Johannesburg, when it was the smart, thrusting corporate hq of Investec Bank.

Cape Town has a serious risk of becoming a festival city – like Cannes, compared to Paris... The world descends on it for a few weeks for gigs like the Film Festival, but by and large it’s populated by purple rinses – and nearly every youngster with an idea has left…

Cape Town has been haemorrhaging in the last few years – many businesses have moved their headquarters or engine rooms to Jo’burg....it’s going to face a serious challenge to get its mojo back.

Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Proverbs 29:18

11 years ago Jo’burg began a visioning process that transformed and continues to transform, the perceptions and realities of South Africa’s largest city.