Wanted magazine August edition: The most stylish read by SundayTimesZA

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ED’S LETTER

08 / 2020

Sarah Buitendach

WHAT A MIGHTY GOOD MAN

N EX OF MINE always had a gigantic glass jar of capers in his fridge. I remember being very impressed by that. Last-minute pasta puttanesca or boiled bagels laden with smoked salmon and cream cheese and piles of the salty little green gems — he was always prepared. A god of impromptu brunches and dinners, I fantasised. He also had a bathroom door that wouldn’t close properly. I liked that less. In my formative years, there was a boyfriend who had an utterly fantastic coffee machine. One of those fiddly ones that required a PhD from MIT to use it. It/he made perfect espressos. I

stored the info about the device in my brain under the headline, “Things that maketh the stylish man.” Likewise, the RM Williams Chelsea boots that said fella had had for aeons and lovingly looked after. Another chap I dated had a great local-art collection and wonderful books. The stuff to make a nerdy girl giddy, really. The shelves were packed with intelligence and charm. There were new releases by local journalists on various political brouhahas and sparkling, much-thumbed fiction. And then, tucked in between the Achebe, Roth, and Ephron were his favourite childhood books. Honestly, as soon as I clocked the latter, I was sold.

“My sister said, on hearing the above list, that I sounded just as weird as the guys I’d dated. And my composite dream man even worse”

Cover credits (From left): Coat, R43 000, Dolce and Gabbana, 011 326 7808; Trenery coat, R4 000, woolworths.co.za Photographer, Judd van Rensburg; production, Sahil Harilal

F O R

A L L

YO U

S E E

H E R E ,

P L U S

P L E N T Y

M O R E , V I S I T

WA N T E D O N L I N E . C O . Z A

My mental picture of a modish man very much still includes that bookshelf, those boots, and the jar of capers. I’d also like him to have a proper leather weekender bag, wear a kikoy instead of shorts when on holiday, and read the newspapers every morning. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all symbols of an easy sophistication, attention to detail, and an awareness of the world. My sister said, on hearing the above list, that I sounded just as weird as the guys I’d dated. And my composite dream man even worse. So perhaps gents, in matters of taste, you should not be listening to anything I say. Luckily, you don’t have to, because for this issue we’ve called in the experts. In our roundup of the stuff you need to truly exude style (page 14) we have asked the best for the best. This includes contributions from our grooming guru Nokubonga Thusi, décor doyenne Leana Schoeman, tech god Toby Shapshak, and fashion aficionado Sahil Harilal. They have gathered up the jackets and potions and day beds that are deeply desirable. Plus, we’ve got the most covetable gadgets and chic cars too. Men (and women in charge of men) — if you read nothing else this year, their findings will set you on the right stylistic trajectory. There is just one thing: I compiled the list of basics every good gentleman should always have in his freezer and pantry. I left out the capers, but you have been warned.

for the considered collector vilafonte.com/purchase

EDITOR Sarah Buitendach (sarahb@arena.africa) MANAGING EDITOR Matthew McClure 082 446 0747 (mcclurem@arena.africa) CREATIVE DIRECTOR Anna Lineveldt JUNIOR DESIGNERS Carike de Jager

and Manelisi Dabata SUBEDITOR Benazir Cassim FASHION DIRECTOR Sharon Armstrong (armstrongs@arena.africa) FASHION EDITOR Sahil Harilal BEAUTY EDITOR Nokubonga Thusi (thusin@arena.africa) FASHION INTERN Nombuso Kumalo DÉCOR DIRECTOR Leana Schoeman (leanas@sundaytimes.co.za) GROUP MOTORING EDITOR Denis Droppa (droppad@arena.africa)

FINAL EYE Elizabeth Sleith DESIGN HUB ONLINE EDITOR Stephen Haw (haws@arena.africa) WANTED ONLINE DIGITAL EDITOR

Katharynn Kesselaar (kesselaark@arena.africa) BUSINESS DAY EDITOR Lukanyo Mnyanda PUBLISHER Aspasia Karras HEAD: Advertising Sales Eben Gewers CEO Andrew Gill BUSINESS MANAGER Yvonne Shaff 082 903 5641 (shaffy@arena.africa) ACCOUNT MANAGER Johannesburg Tamara Nicholson 083 604 0949 (nicholsont@arena.africa) ACCOUNT MANAGER Western Cape Samantha Pienaar 082 889 0366 (pienaars@arena.africa) ACCOUNT MANAGER Durban Gina van de Wall 083 500 5325 (vdwallg@arena.africa) Wanted is available with Business Day nationwide. Subscription enquiries: 086 052 5200 PRINTED by Paarl Media for Arena Holdings, Hill on Empire, 16 Empire Road (cnr Empire and Hillside roads), Parktown, Johannesburg, 2193

12 Janez Vermeiren and Peri van Papendorp are kitting out creatives

14 Be the man you were meant to be with our ultimate wishlist

24 Hold on to your tinfoil hat: conspiracy theories and why we fall for them

CONTENTS 26 The art of numismatics (that’s coin collecting to the rest of us)

28 What should our cities look like when we break free from Covid-19?

34 Forget the Twitterati, these are the people to actually listen to

WAT C H E S

2020 / 08 text

HE OVERUSE of electronic devices is not only anti-social but it is also believed that, due to overexposure to the positive ions they produce, they can cause an imbalance in our body’s magnetic field. This over-exposure, especially during lockdown, has made me feel quite sluggish at times. Thankfully, I found an antidote in my daily trot along the Sea Point promenade. Water in motion — oceans, rivers, and waterfalls — has a superabundance of negative ions, which create more vibrancy and are an instant mood enhancer. With most of our interactions happening online these days, there is even more reason to get out of the home office for a breath of fresh air. I picked up this information on ions from a Netflix docuseries, which I recalled when I

have been through webcasts hosted by manufactures. So, there’ll be no proper hands-on experience of the new novelties until they reach our shores — hopefully in time for the holidays. While the Breguet Marine collection references the company’s historic links to the marine world as chronometermaker to the French royal navy, I think the wave design is also a lovely nod to watchmaking’s much earlier links to the sea and Englishman John Harrison who invented the marine chronometer in the early 1700s, revolutionising ocean navigation. This dial detail, first introduced in 2017, also adds a contrasting texture for better legibility. Breguet was the first to use guillochage on timepieces and is acknowledged as the industry leader in this technique. The Marine collection was launched in 1990 but has evolved over time into

the robust, applied Roman numerals, contribute to its bold, contemporary design. There is ever-increasing interest in premium luxury sports timepieces with integrated metal bracelets, particularly the more affordable all-steel models. But for collectors who prefer theirs a little more luxe, Breguet has introduced complementary metal bracelets in rose and white gold to three of its Marines — an option previously only available for titanium models. They include the time/ date Marine 5517, Marine Chronograph 5527 and Marine Alarme Musicale 5547, presented in rose gold for white dials, and white gold for blue dials. My favourite, the Marine Alarme Musicale is powered by an in-house calibre 519F/1 automatic movement, which can be seen through its open caseback. Its complications include an alarm, date, and second time zone. The

Gary Cotterell

Marine Alarme Musicale 5547 in rose gold

QUALITY TIME Breguet Marine Alarme Musicale

received the first images of Breguet’s Marine novelties for 2020 with their entrancing guilloche-wave-patterned dials and new integrated bracelets. By summer, let’s pray for a return to more active, shared experiences outdoors, with an opportunity to show off some of the new luxury sports timepieces in the lineup for 2020. For now, though, with the two major Swiss watch fairs postponed until next year, the first viewings of new product

a more modern, sportier line featuring a range of complications. As founder Abraham-Louis Breguet invented the tourbillon in 1795, the collection includes a tourbillion, as well as equation of time, GMT, chronograph, and the charming alarm of the 40mm Marine Alarme Musicale to remind us when to dip our toes in the ocean. The characteristic fluted case flanks of the Marine and its sculpted lugs accentuate its shape and, together with

alarm gets its power from a dedicated mainspring barrel with its 45-hour power reserve read off the diamondshaped markers positioned between 9 and 12 o’clock. Alarm time is read off the larger subdial at 3 o’clock, with the on/off indication displayed in a window at noon. The smaller subdial at 9 o’clock shows a second time zone. Water resistance is to 50m. From R757 400. Visit breguet.com or call Swatch Group (SA) on 011 911 1200

NEWS 01.

DEEP BLUE CHIC The new Panerai 44mm Luminor Blu Mare (“blue sea”), with its deep-sea-blue dial, evokes the glorious marine heritage of Panerai. Forged and turned in AISI 316L steel, a high-performance low-carbon metal with good resistance to corrosion, its clean, angular case design also recalls the visual codes of ’90s Luminors. Inside is the calibre P.6000 manual winding movement. panerai.com or RLG Africa 011 317 2600

02.

NOMOS? YES, PLEASE Founded in 1990 in Glashütte, the cradle of German watchmaking, Nomos might be relatively young but is celebrated for producing accessibly priced watches, which continue to win industry awards for their Bauhaus-inspired designs, exceptional movements, and quality. This year Nomos celebrates 175 years of watchmaking in the region with three limited editions of its iconic Ludwig neomatik timepiece. nomos-glashuette.com/

Marine Alarme Musicale 5547 in white gold

03.

SKY’S THE LIMIT The new 41mm gents’ version of the timeless Omega Constellation is out. Its bold design includes the iconic claws and the half-moon facets at either end of the case. Available in stainless steel and 18k yellow or Sedna gold, or a combination of both, they also feature polished ceramic bezels, this one referencing the original Constellation Manhattan of 1982. The open caseback reveals the Master-Chronometer certified Co-Axial calibre 8900 or 8901 inside. omegawatches. com or Swatch Group (SA) 011 911 1200

STYLE NOTES

08 / 2020

Nokubonga Thusi Sarah Buitendach

text &

hatever your thoughts on post-coronavirus fashion and the virtual fashion weeks and shows that have taken place over the past few weeks, you’ve got to hand it to Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele for being a) perfectly on brand and b) a bringer of muchneeded joy. The Italian fashion brand’s new Epilogue collection is vivid, zany, and nostalgic — and we want everything in it. We also love that it was debuted on Gucci design team members, so the makers became the models! ME

LUXE CLEANSING Sensai embraces the luxurious Japanese art of double cleansing to give you radiant, resilient skin. The cleansing oil, with its lightweight texture, feels more like an essence than a heavy, greasy oil and melts away makeup. The foamy cleanser is best enjoyed worked into a rich lather with the softer-than-soft face brush. We think this duo may have you side-eyeing every cleanser you’ve ever known.

Go to gucci.com to see more.

S C’E

EI L RV !

Sensai Ultimate The Cleansing Oil, 150ml, R2 335; Sensai Ultimate The Creamy Soap, 125ml, R2 805

HERMÈS’ latest fragrance is peace of mind in a bottle. It has a woody oriental scent profile with notes of charcoal, tonka bean, and black tea. Hermès L’Ombre des Merveilles EDP, 100ml, R2 640

Fans of Bulgari’s beloved Omnia scents will be thrilled that all their favourites now come reimagined in the fantastical world of an amusement-park dreamscape. Leading the charge in the fairground-like “Omnialandia” world is the new Omnia Golden Citrine fragrance, inspired by the gemstone of the same name that symbolises light and positivity. The scent is luminous and floral, with a muted zestiness, thanks to notes of Sicilian mandarin, ylangylang, and golden benzoin. Bulgari Omnia Golden Citrine EDP, 65ml, R1 360

The Golden Ticket DR MARTENS X JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Docs adorned with the works of late creative prodigy and art icon Basquiat? We’re not sure if we can think of a more fun collab. They even have versions for toddlers’ and kids’ feet. Go to drmartens.com

IMAGES SUPPLIED

ABIT OF FUN

F R O M C L I N I Q U E TO C L A R I N S , W B E A U T Y TO E S T Ã&#x2030; E L A U D E R , O U R B E A U T Y E X P E R T S H AV E S E L E C T E D T H E B E S T S K I N C A R E P R O D U C T S TO G I V E Y O U A G O R G E O U S G LO W T H I S W I N T E R . K E E P Y O U R S K I N H Y D R AT E D A N D R A D I A N T W I T H Y O U R FAV O U R I T E E X F O L I ATO R S , S E R U M S , M O I S T U R I S E R S A N D M O R E .

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DOWN TO BUSINESS

08 / 2020

Lukanyo Mnyanda Freddy Mavunda

portrait

S FAR AS anniversaries go, this is an odd one. It’s also another reminder about how much things can change in a relatively short time. It was 12 months ago that I was writing to express my rage about being unable to organise my younger daughter a new passport. Well, perhaps more resignation than rage. Being in the midst of what Wanted editor Sarah Buitendach described last month as “this quasi-apocalyptic” world can make one reminisce about the strangest things. So, I found myself recalling, rather fondly, those futile visits to home affairs offices in Randburg and Edenvale. The comradeship and solidarity that one got from fellow sufferers struggling to achieve something that should really be simple. In this era of face masks and physical distancing, one misses some of the hitherto unrecognised pleasures of life, such as striking up a conversation with a complete stranger about nothing in particular. Twelve months later, the passport is still nowhere to be found — at least not at the time of writing. Though I’m not a superstitious being who’s generally bothered by concepts such as fate, I had begun to wonder if maybe this just wasn’t meant

L SHARE IN THE LUXURY text

Paul Theron

UXURY-GOODS sellers have been deeply affected by the Covid-19 disaster. Many high-end stores in malls and airports remain closed, and almost all promotional events have been cancelled. Online luxury sales have grown but tend to be at an earlier stage of adoption than broader retail. For example, Gucci’s online sales increased to just 9.5% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 6% in 2019. There seems to be increasing appetite from consumers to buy luxury goods online. Brand owners are certainly rethinking their digital strategies. Stateof-the-art websites are very visual and allow shoppers to closely examine the detailed craftsmanship in each item. Social-media efforts are being ramped up.

A BLESSING AND A CURSE “In the months that have passed, with cancelled reunions, the curse of this particular passport hasn’t exactly occupied the mind” to be. On the positive side, it’s not as if she’s missing it, though all kinds of cunning plans and travel itineraries were devised to try to get hold of it. That included a trip to London and a visit to one of my favourite places — the SA high commission office in Trafalgar Square. It was a bit of a homecoming and reminded me of another strange passport-related experience involving one of my children. I spotted a manager

grow up to be a top-notch spy. In the end, the manager intervened. Seeing her again in February, I wondered if she’d realised how stressful that situation had been. It was also so oldSouth Africa in that, as we stood there with the officials muttering among themselves, the (white) senior of the two didn’t even acknowledge our existence. This time, the process was painless. But then, less than a month later, Covid-19 struck and the world was simply shut. In the months that have passed, with cancelled reunions, the curse of this particular passport hasn’t exactly occupied the mind. And then out of the blue, there’s an e-mail from the high commission office in London asking for extra documents for the application to be processed. Last month, Sarah wrote about finding bright spots in this dark patch. Still no passport, but who would have guessed that home affairs would be a source of one such bright spot? Mnyanda is the editor of Business Day

According to a recent Goldman Sachs report, 178 luxury brands took part in the Tmall 6.18 festival this year, compared to 113 last year. This online event, created by China’s largest online retailer JD.com in 2004, has become almost as important as Alibaba’s Double 11 (Singles Day) shopping saga in November. For luxury brands, control of distribution and the customer experience is a priority, so they either run their own websites or partner with well-run third-party platforms like Farfetch or YNAP (Yoox Net-a-Porter). The latter is owned by Richemont. With its South African roots, Richemont can be bought on the JSE. Its jewellery maisons seem well positioned to bounce back, since they sell few items at very high prices. Rich people have been sitting at home like everyone else and now have cash to burn. Asian markets will be the first to recover. Theron is CEO of asset manager Vestact

PORTRAIT TREATMENT MANELISI DABATA IMAGE 123/RF

who, eight years previously, had had to intervene when I had gone to register the birth of my older daughter. Since her parents were not officially married at the time, we were told she couldn’t be registered with two surnames (double-barrelled is considered posh in the UK). We were advised to choose one. Other than the tricky question of which surname, said child — entitled to British citizenship — had already been registered and issued with UK identity documents with both surnames. Having to go through life with passports from different countries showing different surnames didn’t seem a thing with which sensible parents should burden a child -— unless they were completely sure she would

2020 / 08

STOCKIST @SKCERAMICS_AND_ART ON INSTAGRAM AND SKCERAMIX@GMAIL.COM

OBJET

SUBVERSIVE CERAMICS

Ce rami c pl ate s by So nj a Kastne r, R1 4 0 0 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; R1 8 0 0 e ach

INTERVIEW

IMAGE SUPPLIED

CHANGERS

Matthew McClure

THE GAME

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08 / 2020

2020 / 08

WASN’T A COOL teenager. On a Saturday night, while my friends were out painting the town red, I’d be at home flipping through TV channels, getting a rare look at South Africa’s high flyers and their glitzy homes on SABC’s Top Billing. This was the height of early-2000s glamour as model Janez Vermeiren, looking dapper in a tailored suit, would present the show from inside the opulence of a local home. The debonair Vermeiren became as much a South African staple as Nando’s or Charlize Theron. Vermeiren, as you might already know, is more than just a good-looking Cape-Town boy. He’s done it all. Modelling, owning a modelling agency, and dabbling in business and acting. It’s fair to say that during his time on both sides of the industry, he’s garnered a considerable understanding of South Africa’s media landscape. Cue 2020 and the seismic shift in how the global community operates, precipitated by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, presented an opportunity. A small seed of an idea, germinating for a year in the fertile minds of Vermeiren and his business partner Peri van Papendorp, was ready to be transplanted into the real world. Fylmer is an online service designed to put businesses looking for cool, fresh, new ideas directly in contact with the large pool of African creatives eager to make their mark. The benefits of a service like Fylmer are vast. Companies that would conventionally use a media agency to

source creative talent for an advertising campaign can, for example, now upload a brief directly to the site and immediately have access to a massive portfolio of burgeoning local talent. Vermeiren and Van Papendorp co-ordinate and facilitate the collaboration for a small fee, depending on the scope of the project. “We started talking about this a year ago, then, when we realised that corona [Covid-19] was happening, we thought this was an opportune time to launch,” Vermeiren tells me over a Zoom call. He’s sitting with Van Papendorp, and their excitement and energy are palpable. I’ve caught them in between meetings. “We did over 130 hours of Zoom calls during lockdown to present the platform to clients and brands,” says Van Papendorp. “It’s just such a new way of working.” As inescapably awful as the pandemic has been, it’s presented rich soil in which Fylmer can take root. With most businesses operating from home during South Africa’s lockdown, the men had the ideal opportunity to present the game changer to industry players whose diaries would normally have been fully booked. As the virus has resulted in thousands of campaigns being scaled back or cancelled completely, the local creative industry (already under pressure before the outbreak) has been teetering on the edge of collapse. Fylmer now allows everyone — from the smallest graphic artist to the biggest production company — an equal chance to net that big contract. It’s here that the essence of Fylmer lies. For years, says Vermeiren, it wasn’t

“Anyone can now pitch on that brief. Anyone has the chance to win that brief. That’s why we call it a democratisation of the industry; a levelling of the playing field”

Business partners Janez Vermeiren and Peri van Papendorp are using the Covid-19 crisis to give Africa’s content-creation industry a much-needed shakeup

necessarily the quality of your work as a creative that would put you in good stead to be considered for a lucrative job. Sometimes, it’s all about who you know, as they say. “It was a very exclusive model, where only the established production companies got invited to pitch on work,” Van Papendorp adds. But Fylmer, he says, turns this on its head. “Anyone can now pitch on that brief. Anyone has the chance to win that brief. That’s why we call it a democratisation of the industry; a levelling of the playing field.” Quality content by South African creators that speaks to our unique social and historical context can now also be whipped up for a competitive rate as prices aren’t inflated to accommodate the middleman. Plans are in the works to develop a Fylmer app once its founders have a clearer idea of what functionalities are proving useful and what can be stripped away to make for a more streamlined user experience. By the time you read this, Fylmer will have been up and running for just over five weeks. The response by the industry to the model has been overwhelming, as Vermeiren and Van Papendorp field back-to-back meetings with businesses looking to connect with local content creators. It’s clear that they are busy, motivated, and excited by the momentum generated by their initiative as they detail some of the content that’s already in production as a result of Fylmer collaborations. On top of splintering the contentcreation mould, Vermeiren also has the full-time job of raising a young family with his wife Juliana. His oldest son is 16 and poised to enter a world that is forever changed. “This is a real shift, a real turning point that we’re going through at the moment. The world from here onwards is going to be completely different to what he’s experienced before.” Coming from an actively creative family, Vermeiren realises the importance of consistently challenging the status quo, continually producing new ideas, and facilitating an environment that removes the barriers that block free thinking. “The more cool content you’re creating, the more unique your voice is; the better your chance of winning the job.” Times of great social change have, ironically, always been the bedrock upon which invention and innovation find stable foundations. Vermeiren has come far from his beginnings as Top Billing’s Saturday-night presenter, but the same drive, motivation, and passion that kept so many of us entertained for years have evidently been poured into this new project. Watch this space. Fylmer.tv

14 production

TTRREENNDDSS

08 / 2020 Sahil Harilal Judd van Rensburg

photography

GENTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

CASUALS

1.Robusto briefcase, POR louisvuitton.com 2.Sandals, R12 000, Dolce & Gabbana, 011 326 7808 3.Outdoor Flap Messenger bag, R31 000, louisvuitton.com 4.Thermic SC boots, R4 299, Palladium, 011 444 2270

MUST-HAVE STAPLES FOR THE URBAN MAN

DENIM models:

GUIDE

Trench coat, R11 975, Burberry, 011 326 7835; Trenery knit jersey, R699, woolworths.co.za

slim cut

GEAR 2020 / 08

loose 1

Boss

IMAGES CATWALKING/ESTROP/ PETER WHITE/ GETTY IMAGES AND SUPPLIED

Jacquemus

FORMAL OR NOT

tailored

Lemaire

Dior Homme

The structured bag

1.Briefcase, R5 999, ingaatelier.com 2. Studio.W coat, R1 999, woolworths.co.za 3. Embossed derby shoes R8 395, Boss, 011 884 1437 4. Parka, R6 599, scotch-soda.co.za

The classic ACCESSORIES

regular

baggy

drop crotch

1.Card holder, R7 000, Dolce & Gabbana, 011 326 7808 2.Cap, R1 299, scotch-soda.co.za 3.Belt,R699, polo. co.za 4.Ray-Ban sunglasses R2 990, za.sunglasshut.com 5.Gloves,R1 699, scotch-soda.co.za 6.Socks, R2 000, Gucci, 011 326 7928 7.Scarf,R179, superbalist.com 8.Card holder, R999,scotch-soda. co.za

TRENDS

JEWELS 08 / 2020

CLASSICS REINVENTED signet rings:

1. Thomas Sabo ring, R2 500, bellaluna.co.za 2. Custom 18kt-gold pinky signet ring, R12 400, @oscar_henning_ jewellery 3. Hand-engraved snake ring with ruby eye, R4 250, Geraldine Fenn, tinselgallery.com 4. TG 2.0 ring, from R4 990, kirstengoss.com 5. Bull cameo ring, R35 000, sirkelshop.com 6. Minotaur Greek coin ring, R5 200, Geraldine Fenn, tinselgallery.com 7. Saint VI ring, R28 400, sirkelshop.com

3 1

cufflinks: 4

rings:

Datejust 41 watch, R137 900, rolex.com

1. Santos cufflinks, R10 400, Cartier, 011 666 2800 2. Chopard cufflinks, R9 435, Boutique Haute Horlogerie Hyde Park, 011 325 4119 3. Messika Move Titanium cufflinks, R16 910, Boutique Haute Horlogerie Hyde Park, 011 325 4199

1. Messika Move Titanium Graphite ring, R17 500, Boutique Haute Horlogerie Hyde Park, 011 325 4119 2. Tank Francaise ring, R38 300, Cartier, 011 666 2800 3. Juste un Clou ring, R20 700, Cartier, 011 666 2800 4. Chopard Ice cube ring, R22 000 Boutique Haute Horlogerie Hyde Park, 011 325 4119

08 / 2020

VERY GENTLEMAN deserves the best possible equipment in these trying times. Stuff publisher Toby Shapshak reviews the top five tech toys launched this year 1. Apple Watch Series 5 Cellular With an electronic sim (or eSim), the Apple Watch Series 5 Cellular connects directly to Vodacom’s network as if it were a phone. Calls to and from your normal number are rerouted to the watch, which syncs with Bluetooth earbuds. Ideal for exercise. 2. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra Who doesn’t want a camera with these lenses? A 108 megapixel (MP) Isocell main sensor, backed up by a 12MP ultra-wide and a 48MP telephoto sensor.

THE PERFECT SETUP text

Toby Shapshak

3. Jabra Elite Active 75t Because sportspeople sweat so much, Danish audio experts Jabra have made an Active edition of its amazing earbuds. Excellent sound quality, great battery life, and easyto-use buttons make them my personal favourite. 4. Sonos Arc The latest TV companion speaker from Sonos is a musthave for decent sound on an ultrathin television. It has 11 high-fidelity drivers that produce great sounds, while the app allows you to mute loud noises at night but boost inaudible dialogue.

Moccamaster Filter Brewer, R4 000, father.coffee

1. Apple Watch Series 5 Cellular, POR, vodacom.co.za 2. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, From R27 000, samsung. com 3. Jabra Elite Active 75t, R4 000, mea.jabra.com 4. Sonos Arc, from R20 000, sonos.co.za 5. Microsoft Surface Pro 7, from R18 000, vodacom.co.za and incredible.co.za

5. Microsoft Surface Pro 7 At last Microsoft is selling its excellent range of tablets and laptops in South Africa. The Surface Pro 7 is a powerful tablet that will give Apple’s iPad Pro a good run for its money. With a smart keyboard and stylus, the Surface Pro 7 aims to be the ideal combination of both devices.

GADGETS & DECOR 2020 / 08

LEISUREWARE models:

daybed

armchair

5 compiled by

Leana Schoeman

SOUNDPROOF models:

4.Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth speaker, R5 299, superbalist.com 5.Skullcandy Venue 3 Bluetooth headphones, R3 000, clicks. co.za 6.Bang & Olufson Beosound Balance speaker, R40 899, ultrasound.co.za

lamp

1.Legs 22 day bed, from R16 000, studio19.co 2.HG armchair, from R36 000, tonicdesign.co.za 3. Pointsman black lamp, R13 000, studio19.co

CARS Brian McKechnie

RUGGED

NZO FERRARI described the 1961 Jaguar E Type as “the most beautiful car ever made”. How could anyone with eyes and a heart disagree? The Jag’s lithe, athletic profile and gorgeous curves are the stuff of unbridled automotive fantasy. Ferrari’s own GT 250 California is every bit as beautiful. If go-anywhere practicality is more your thing, there’s the iconic Range Rover Series 1, Merc G-Class, or Jeep’s rugged Wrangler. For pure pleasure, Alfa’s Giulietta Spider oozes Amalfi sunshine. Imagine winding along Chapman’s Peak in the XJ-C, with the growl of six cylinders underfoot. The uber-aggressive Mercedes E500, Lexus RC, or Volvo’s understated Polestar all check the school-run box without losing any curbside cool. Steve McQueen chose the perennial Porsche 911 as his daily, while the racy Bentley Continental GT fits in elegantly anywhere.

models:

3. Jeep Wrangler 2020 4. Range Rover Series 1 5. Mercedes G-Class AMG 2020

RACY models:

1. Jaguar E-Type 2. Ferrari 250 GT California

illustration

RETRO models:

NEW models:

HOT WHEELS FOR BIG DEALS

Shaun Uthum 5

illustration

Shaun Uthum

Jaguar XJ-C

Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider

Mercedes W124 500E

Lexus RC

Porsche 911

Volvo Polestar 1 coupé

Bentley Continental GT

Porsche 911

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TRENDS

08 / 2020

FUEL 2020 / 08

De Cecco Fusilli,R35, theonlineitalian.com

Terbodore limited-edition Winter Spice coffee, R85, terbodorecoffee.co.za

Fontanella peeled tomatoes R55, theonlineitalian.com

Baleia extra virgin olive oil, R125, baleiawines. com

Morgenster green Nocellara olives, R79, yuppiechef.com

Pasta Di Martino special edition D&G spaghetti, R46, fineandfabulous. co.za Minerva sardines, for similar, giovannisdeli.co.za

De Rustica 1l bag in a box extra virgin olive oil, R199, derustica.co.za

Gin Mayo, R85, yourewelcome. co.za Peck’s Anchovette fish paste, from R22, woolworths. co.za

Oak-smoked salmon ribbons, R150, woolworths. co.za Pommery Moutarde Royale mustard with cognac, R105, woolworths. co.za

Kleinsky’s frozen bagel pack, R55, granadillaeats. co.za

A MAN’S PLACE IS IN THE KITCHEN

LUNCHBOX models:

paper

Wilkin & Sons Ltd orange marmalade with malt whisky, R100, fineandfabulous. co.za

Maldon Salt, R70, woolworths. co.za

Dope drinks CBD sparkling water, R109 for 6, yuppiechef.com

Banhoek chilli oil, R98, banhoekchillioil.co.za

Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise, R119, a-mart. co.za Jack Rabbit milk chocolate caramel sauce, R70, jackrabbitchocolate. co.za

metal

set of 4

vacuum stack

1. Uashmama lunch bag, R1 119, yuppiechef.com 2. Portable picnic lunchbox with compartments, R585, lightinthebox.com 3. Stainless-steel Bento lunchbox, R265, faithful-to-nature.co.za 4. Zoku 4-piece Neat Stack snack set, R229, yuppiechef,com 5. Vacuum-seal stacking insulated lunchbox, R266, za.newchic.com

GROOM 08 / 2020

OLD SCHOOL models:

1. Philips OneBlade Shaver, from R499, takealot.com 2. Tom Ford For Men Conditioning Beard Oil, 30ml, R950, edgars.co.za 3. Coach For Men After Shave Balm, 150ml, R455, woolworths. co.za 4. Dunhill Icon Absolute EDP 100ml, R2 049, truworths.co.za 5. Edwin Jagger 4-Piece Blue Bulbous Shaving Set with Mach 3 Razor Blade, R3 480, takealot.com

BUFFED AND POLISHED Nokubonga Thusi

IMAGES JUDD VAN RENSBURG, KRISTY SPAROW/GETTY IMAGES AND SUPPLIED

compiled by

he modern gentleman is not afraid to delve into the evolving world of tech-heavy grooming, but heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never forsake his appreciation for old-school craftsmanship. California Dream 100ml EDP, R4 000, louisvuitton.com

NEW SCHOOL models:

6. Dermalogica Active Clay Cleanser, 150ml, R579, dermalogica.co.za 7. SkinCeuticals Physical Matte UV Defense SPF 50, 30ml, R680, dermastore.co.za 8. Lab Series BB Tinted Moisturiser SPF 35, 50ml, R550, woolworths.co.za 9. Foreo Luna 2 For Men, R3 500, hermanos.co.za 10. Neostrata Skin Active Intensive Eye Therapy, 15g, R1 110, dermastore.co.za 11. Chanel Baume Essentiel Multi-Use Glow Stick in Transparent, R860, woolworths.co.za 12. Bleu de Chanel Parfum, 100ml, R2 665, woolworths.co.za

READ ALERT

2020 / 08 text

Michele Magwood Shannon Daniels

portrait

OTHERS AND mental illness loom large on the bookshelves this month, and though their publication date would have been set in motion last year, the books ride in on a wave of anxiety around mental health. Sean Baumann worked for 25 years as a psychiatrist in the male unit of Valkenberg Hospital in Cape Town, with a special interest in schizophrenia. Madness: Stories of Uncertainty and Hope ( Jonathan Ball Publishers) chronicles some of the cases he treated over the years and it makes for poignant and illuminating reading. Baumann writes with a sort of impassioned compassion, crying out for better understanding and acceptance from the community for these afflicted people. It is his dream, he says, “that otherness might not be a source of anxiety and dread but a source of wonder”. He brought that wonder to life in 2017 in a powerful stage production at the Baxter Theatre, a cantata titled Madness: Songs of Hope and Despair that used his patients’ own words. It is a moving view of the unquiet mind, the anguish and, at times, elation of their suffering. “Madness is not shameful,” he writes. “It is dismaying and perplexing why extremes of human suffering should be considered shameful.” Brent Meersman’s mother Shirley was just 29 when she was first diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to Valkenberg. She was there for more than two years and, when she was released, she learned that her husband had divorced her and blocked her access to her young son. Such a wound is unimaginable, especially for an already fragile woman, but she remarried and had two more sons, Brent and his brother Paul-Henri. His book A Childhood Made Up: Living with my Mother’s Madness (Tafelberg) was written after a period of psychoanalysis, when forgotten memories and images would break through and shake his carefully accreted sense of self. He had constructed an idealised childhood, but psychotherapy began to erode this and dark images crept through the cracks: a glimpse of his mother in the dead of night with a carving knife; another of her squatting in the passage, urinating, her eyes wide and glassy; a bowl of soup being thrown across the kitchen. Back into hospital she would go. Shirley was an artist but she was thwarted not only by her mental illness but the dreariness of keeping house and their relative poverty. She detested cooking and cleaning, which took away time from her art, and her husband worked all the hours he could in a factory

MOTHERS, MADNESS Three new books give real, AND local faces to mental health MEMORY but could barely put food on the table. He slipped slowly into alcoholism, but supported her art. The years creaked by, and as a teenager Meersman noted, “I was as always overwhelmed by my love for my mother. I loved her all the more because she was in pain... but her manias, her muddled cogitating, her neurotic inquests, her deep emotional needs were all smothering me.” He loved her and cared for her until she died, as she had left her husband years before. In an almost unbearably moving resolution, Meersman arranged after her death for her paintings to be framed and hung in an exhibition in a gallery. Her first-born son was there, as was her former husband. It was a gesture of rare grace. Colleen Higgs is a poet and the dauntless founder of Modjaji Books, a small publishing house specialising in women writers. She was, however, utterly daunted by her mother Sally, another woman who had suffered an appalling psychological wound. At just seven years old, she was given away to a childless aunt and uncle and was only reunited with her biological parents when she was

38. Higgs writes: “My whole life has felt like a long, deeply unsatisfying love affair with my mother. She is the beloved who doesn’t love back.”

A CHILDHOOD MADE UP: LIVING WITH MY MOTHER’S MADNESS

Brent Meersman

My Mother, My Madness (Deep South) is Higgs’ diary of her mother’s last 10 years, spent in a “Luxury Retirement Resort” near Century City. It takes courage to be truthful about the frightfulness of a parent, but Higgs writes with frankness and the tale is tender and compelling. Sally sees out her days in a recliner, smoking three-and-a-half packs of Rothmans and drinking two litres of Coke a day. The walls are yellow with nicotine and the carpets grey with fallen ash. She looks, says Higgs, like a bergie — dank hair, crumpled clothes, and long toenails. She had been diagnosed with bipolar syndrome and early-onset dementia, but often doesn’t take her meds. Her teeth fall out. She flushes away her soiled broekies and Higgs is constantly buying new ones, along with the monthly Cokes and smokes, four packs of nine double-ply toilet rolls, snacks, and You magazines. “I’m the receiving station, a clearing house for all of Sally’s problems and troubles, claims and payments, woes and needs, complaints, sadnesses, despair, discomforts and small pleasures,” she writes. At the same time, Higgs is mothering her own young daughter and drifting apart from her husband. Her insight and resoluteness are admirable. “When you have a mother like Sally, how do you recover?” she asks. “How do you make something of your life that isn’t all about suffering, reluctance, resistance, bushels and hiding under them? Sally is what there was. She was my mother, the roots that fed me as I grew.” *Sean Baumann’s cantata Madness: Songs Of Hope and Despair can be viewed on YouTube

MADNESS: STORIES OF UNCERTAINTY AND HOPE

Sean Baumann

MY MOTHER, MY MADNESS

Colleen Higgs

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08 / 2020

THE BIG READ

Rob Rose Shaun Uthum

illustration

OUTH AFRICANS RARELY have the chance to witness a high-profile madman in action on home soil. True, we do have the occasional privilege of reading statements penned by the periodically orphaned Carl Niehaus, reciting how the media is controlled from within an oak barrel in Stellenbosch. But world-famous, certifiable, batshit crazy is an altogether different pleasure. Finally, a few weeks ago, we hit the Big Time. David Icke, the king of conspiracy theorists (assuming that there was such a coronation, and it hadn’t been rigged by George Soros) was interviewed on eNCA by former Idols judge Gareth Cliff. With delicious congruity, Icke swung into top form by explaining how even the term “conspiracy theory” is, itself, a conspiracy. “The term conspiracy theory came into widespread use thanks to the CIA. In the 1970s — 1967 it was — they were getting concerned that people were not buying the official version of the Kennedy assassination, which involved bullets doing U-turns and going through several people at the same time. It was ludicrous. And so they wrote to major media organisations in America, saying they should use the term “conspiracy theory” to discredit those who were not accepting the official narrative,” he said. The CIA, JFK, and a media cabal in the first sentence; at such a pace, the Rothschilds weren’t even going to be needed. But this was just the hors d’oeuvres: Icke’s explanation for Covid-19 was vintage, truffle-drizzled lunacy. “There is no virus,” he declared. “Did you know that there’s not a scientific paper on planet Earth that has isolated the virus they call Sars-CoV-2 to show it exists? They had to admit that.” Icke didn’t say who “they” might be — but it wouldn’t be doing him a disservice to suggest he might have been referring to the “lizard people” who run the world. He was wrong, of course. The genome for this virus has been sequenced, repeatedly, by unrelated geneticists. And there are plenty of scientific papers with titles like “Isolation and characterisation of Sars-CoV-2”. Also, there’s the rather inconvenient fact that over 650 000 people so far have actually died from a virus he claims doesn’t exist. Icke being Icke, he has a rejoinder. “How do you know they died of Covid-19? Let me give you one example of how this is being scammed: in America, they changed the law when this pandemic first started to arrive... hospitals who diagnosed people with regular pneumonia were paid $4 600.

REACHING FOR THE BAROQUE Rob Rose takes a look at how Covid-19 reshaped conspiracies

Suddenly if they diagnosed Covid-19 pneumonia, they’re now being paid $13 000,” he said. These are unrelated facts, tethered together to create the illusion of causation. How do you know you’ve met a conspiracy theorist, the joke goes. The answer is, it’s right in front of you — open your eyes and connect the dots. As Joanne Miller, an associate professor of political science, who specialises in conspiracy theories, told Huffpost: “We may very well make connections between things that shouldn’t be connected and create a narrative, and sometimes those narratives

end up being conspiracy theories.” Icke, a footballer and former BBC journalist, must have been a delight as a kid, arguing that he couldn’t eat his peas since they were mind-control pellets. But, as a Holocaust denier, he’s not just a hoot; he’s certifiably dangerous. That much was clear from the fact that even Facebook, which would presumably have published Mein Kampf in 1933 Germany with a disclaimer like “NSFW — frowning emoji”, booted him off its platform.

MY CELLPHONE WANTS TO KILL ME Icke might be the most famous, but

2020 / 08

“How do you know you’ve met a conspiracy theorist, the joke goes. The answer is, it’s right in front of you — open your eyes and connect the dots”

Covid-19 has unearthed an epidemic of loonies bearing ideas that would make Sharknado seem like a yawn-a-minute documentary. For starters, there is Plandemic, a movie in which virologist Dr Judy Mikovits spins a yarn about how the US’ Dr Anthony Fauci and other immunologists are part of a conspiracy to push vaccines on people, so they can make money. “The game is to prevent the therapies till everyone is infected and push the vaccines, knowing that the flu vaccines increase the odds by 36% of getting Covid-19,” she says. That figure is entirely fabricated. And

Mikovits, a discredited researcher who argues masks can “activate” Covid-19, seems to believe the entire medical establishment is in on this. Actually, it’s more likely that Steve Hofmeyr is a secret EFF operative, tasked with infiltrating the Afrikaans-music establishment to smuggle out boerewors recipes. And then there’s Bill Gates. Plandemic, like many room-temperature-IQ WhatsApp groups, names the Microsoft founder as the mastermind behind a plan to push vaccinations, so he can secretly implant a microchip in everyone. Why? Mind control of some sort, presumably. Or the world’s most intricate game of Tetris. Who knows? It may surprise you to learn, as the BBC points out, that there’s a “total lack of evidence to substantiate this”. And yet, this Gates theory spread around the world, with the microchips now being dubbed “Antichrist chips”. And if that sounds like you’ve been spiking your Bioplus with a little too much LSD, just wait until you hear all about 5G… For years, activists have argued that electromagnetic radiation from cellphone masts causes cancer. The evidence for this was never great, but Covid-19 brought a dark twist. The premise, as former Nigerian senator Dino Melaye explained, unblinking, is that 5G “mobilises flu that comes in the form of the coronavirus”. Batshit, sure — but it’s a theory that sparked attacks on cellphone towers, from Europe to the US. It didn’t help that in March, R&B singer Keri Hilson said on Twitter: “5G launched in China, Nov 1 2019. People dropped dead”. (Connect the dots, people …) Others who should know better — such as world-number-one tennis player Novak Djokovic — evidently don’t. The 33-year old Serb, being no Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, has always been hard to like. But it’s become a heap harder since April, when Djokovic said: “Personally I am opposed to vaccination, and I wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel.” A day later, his wife Jelena shared a 10-minute video on Instagram, which laid out the case for why 5G causes Covid-19. “What do you think?” she asked — and one of the first to respond was Instagram itself, which slapped a “false information” tag on the video. So when the Djokovic family contracted Covid-19 in June, there was plenty of schadenfreude. As the UK Independent put it: “While the first thoughts will rightly be with Djokovic and his family’s health… many will hold few sympathies for a man they’ve seen become a victim of his own negligence.”

DUMB AS A BRICK The question is, why would ostensibly thoughtful people believe dumb-as-abrick conspiracies about Bill Gates and 5G? Why has the Covid-19 inflection point caused this thinking to mushroom outside of just the mould-sodden basements of the internet? Experts say it makes sense: as one study puts it, the impulse towards conspiracies is “stronger when events are especially large in scale or significant and leave people dissatisfied with mundane, small-scale explanations”. A study by Harvard’s Kennedy School in June, titled “Why do people believe Covid-19 conspiracy theories?”, discusses what happens when two psychological predispositions collide. The first is to “reject information coming from experts and other authority figures”, and the second is “to view major events as the product of conspiracies, as well as partisan and ideological motivations.” The study says these theories are more likely to abound when “party leaders and media personalities” promote this sort of misinformation. This is why Djokovic’s anti-vaccination statements are so dangerous, and why Trump’s early claim that Covid-19 was a “Democratic hoax” laid the platform for the wildfire-like spread of the virus through that country. As it is, 31% of those polled in the Harvard study believed Covid-19 was “purposely created and spread”. Even in a country where nearly 40% of the population believed, according to a Gallup poll, that God created humans in the past 10 000 years, this is remarkable. And conspiracies are so delightfully insulated from challenge because, if you ask for evidence, you’ll get the answer: “Of course, they’ll never tell you that…” Another University of Kent study says conspiracies are attractive as they provide “causal explanations for events,” which allow people to create a “stable, accurate, and internally consistent understanding of the world”. The glaring problem is that while these theories provide comforting certainty, they’re hardly ever true. However, the Kent study says believers tend not to worry about this too much, partly because they “lack the ability or motivation to think critically and rationally — conspiracy belief is correlated with lower levels of analytical thinking”. Instead, they prefer to see patterns, an intentional hand behind events — when there isn’t one — and over-estimate the odds that things happening at the same time are connected.

CONSPIRACIES HAPPEN — BUT HARDLY EVER Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t real conspiracies. Chris Fleming, an Australian professor and co-author of the book Modern Conspiracy: The Importance of Being Paranoid writes that real conspiracies aren’t as sexy as the ones that suggest a cabal of Babylonian aliens orchestrated JFK’s assassination. Real conspiracies, he says, are often banal and disorganised, while the average conspiracy theory entails “countless numbers of conspirators from multiple organisations marching in evil lockstep ad infinitum”. This is a point that South Africans, who’re conspicuously vulnerable to a good conspiracy yarn, should note. In our willingness to believe Jacob Zuma was the puppetmaster of thousands, all yoked to the task of shovelling assets into a shebeen in Saxonwold, we forget that we never once saw that efficiency in anything he did. As someone smart once said, never ascribe to malice that which is better explained by incompetence. And yet, just occasionally, conspiracies do actually turn out to be true. For example: the Guptas and their associates did hijack Transnet and Eskom; big tobacco knew that cigarettes caused cancer, but hid it; the CIA did test hallucinogenic drugs on people; and the apartheid government did secretly launch The Citizen so it could serve as a propaganda tool. But that doesn’t mean we should suspend skepticism. It just means that gargantuan claims require gargantuan evidence rather than, you know, none. So, if Icke ever produced evidence for his theory that the moon is a hollowedout space station, or of the “predator race which takes a reptilian form” living amongst us with the goal of enslaving humanity, it’d be a different story. As Icke said in 2012: “There are dots — like banking, government, 9/11 — which are interesting and you can see something’s not right. But when you connect the dots, that’s when the tapestry appears and you go, ‘Whoa, so that’s what happening.’” It’s the best example of something science-fiction writer Philip K Dick once said, which was that the mentally disturbed don’t reach for the simplest theory to explain a set of facts; rather “they shoot for the baroque”. Perhaps you can’t blame them. In a complex and nuanced world, where the real explanation for events is often wearingly prosaic, who wouldn’t prefer to believe there’s a far spicier secret lurking beneath the surface?

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THE LONG READ THE LONG READ

08 / 2020

Graham Wood

“D

O YOU r e a l i s e what the future value of those coins is going to be?” asks Rael Demby, COO of the South African Gold Coin Exchange and The Scoin Shops. He’s talking about the commemorative coins issued by the Japan Mint for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, part of an explanation of how rare and collectable coins find their value. Christine Roux, general manager: sales and marketing at the South African Mint elaborates, “The inherent value of bullion coins lies in their metal content and they are usually produced in large numbers based on demand.” She’s talking about “collectable coins and investment coins like the Krugerrand”. In other words, their price is determined largely by what Demby calls their “inherent value”: the value of the gold they’re made from. But then, some coins gain a “numismatic premium” — something that marks them as rare and special, particularly when they’re associated with major historical events. It’s the magic ingredient that differentiates a truly collectable coin from its intrinsic value.

MINT CONDITION

SOMETHING SPECIAL The global Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the Olympics being moved out a year, and so the coins bear the “wrong” year. In time, these coins will become a historical embodiment of the discontinuities and upheavals of our own time, which coin collectors, years from now, will very likely prize. While national mints issue limited editions of certain coins to ensure their rarity — “Only 125 of the R500 gold coins of the SA25 Celebrating South Africa collectable range were produced,” says Roux — this X-factor cannot be predicted or manufactured. Often in the world of collectable coins, it’s the anomalies and mishaps, where the currency has a quirk that comes to embody a historical event, that send prices through the roof. It’s that sense of being able to touch history — to hold an object in your hand charged with significance that connects with another time — that coin collectors prize. The pandemic and its resulting economic fallout, however, also have

R500 gold coin

2020 / 08

IMAGES SUPPLIED

people reconsidering their assets and investments. In this period of history, where so much of life seems strangely digital and vaguely unreal, the tangible quality of gold, for example, is reassuring. There’s a surge of interest in what analysts call alternative-investment categories, which include the likes of coins, art, classic cars, and wine. Dr Paul Bayliss, senior specialist art curator at Absa and head of the Absa Money Museum, points out: “During any uncertain time, like we find ourselves in now, gold tends to become a safe haven.” Gold and silver coins — Krugerrands, for example, which are among the bestknown gold coins in the world — are, of course, one of the best and most accessible ways for ordinary people to own gold. Demby believes that gold is an excellent “hedge against the rest of your investment... 10% or 15% of your money should be in gold,” he says. Brian Hern, author of South Africa’s best-known handbooks and catalogues on numismatics, explains that such gold coins are generally produced en masse according to demand, and are primarily a “store of wealth”. As Demby explains, they will always retain the value of the gold they’re made from, at the very least.

Thinking about alternative assets? What about rare coins? Graham Wood speaks to the experts to unpack the complexities of the value held by these strange, talismanic objects

But there’s another side of the story: numismatics — which, Bayliss explains, are “coins, banknotes, tokens, any form of currency” — that are rare and sought after can carry huge premiums. Walking me though the history of numismatics in South Africa, Hern points out that the last gold coin made for general circulation was minted in 1932. The first Krugerrand was issued in 1967. Demby says, “We [Scoin] have some incredible South African coins from the late 1800s, and these coins have an intrinsic value of R5 000 to R10 000, but they retail for over R1-million. So there’s nothing but the story, the sentiment, and

the rarity that prove coins stand the test of time. It’s not just the gold.” True coin collectors — essentially hobbyists — collect coins, notes, and tokens for all sorts of reasons, and it’s seldom for investment or to make a profit. Their collections, often painstakingly assembled over a lifetime, all have their own individual logic and raison d’etre. “Coin collecting is a specialised pursuit and, while it is an investment class that can provide returns, many factors come into play to determine the value of a collectable coin. It is not a straight science like investing in bullion,” says Roux. “It is very much like buying art.” “Collectors tend to focus on certain things,” explains Bayliss. “You might have collectors [who collect] only paper money, but they’re only going to collect money that comes from a certain governor… or they might only collect R10 notes through the history of time.” They’re looking for completeness, and know all sorts of baroque details

Queen gold coin (front and back)

Homer Simpson gold coin (front and back)

SELLING A STORY

about minting and the different weights, patterns, and designs of coins. “To build up a collection is not something that you’re going to be able to do overnight. It almost becomes a lifetime goal. What you find with most collectors is they actually don’t want to then sell their works, because they become collectors from the point of adding to the collection, filling gaps… that’s where they find their joy.” The rule of thumb for figuring out whether an old coin has special value touches on three elements: “How many were minted, the condition of the coin, and then [whether there is] a historical event attached to that coin,” he explains. When it comes to contemporary collectable coins, Roux says, true collectable coins “come with their own special packaging and certificates of authenticity, making them unique and more valuable to the numismatist”. For historical coins, international grading agencies authenticate collectable coins and rate their condition, which helps establish their value.

A PIECE OF HISTORY Bayliss points out that, especially when it comes to old coins, an interest in history is essential to recognise and appreciate their significance. For example, the time around the South African wars produced some highly sought-after coins. They are not only of historical interest, but also, at that time in history, not many coins were minted, so they are “like hen’s teeth”, as Hern puts it. One example that captures the imaginations of everyone I spoke to is the “Veldpond”; gold coins minted in Pilgrim’s Rest on an emergency makeshift mint during the South African War. The Boers sought temporary refuge in the town, where they built a die from mining equipment. Fewer than 1 000 of these coins were minted. Between them, Bayliss and Hern can rattle off numerous other examples. Hern mentions the Griquatown coin produced

in the early 1800s, South Africa’s first local currency. Bayliss mentions others, all saturated with human drama while dovetailing with historical narrative. He’s particularly fascinated with various forms of non-official currency, such as the tokens that were created in concentration camps in the South African War. He also mentions the notes that British commanders issued when money ran out while they were under siege in famous stand-offs like Mafikeng and Koffiefontein. They carry with them that historical charge, that electricity of significance, their materiality imbued with meaning. But as far as their investment value is concerned, they’re unlikely to suddenly gather value. “You’re not going to buy a coin today and sell it in two years and make [a huge profit],” says Bayliss. More compelling is the possibility that you already have something, but just don’t know its value: the Antiques Roadshow fantasy of finding something rare and valuable along with some junk you inherited, in the attic or in the basement. It’s not often, but also not unheard of, that real gems turn up unexpectedly. Usually, they had sentimental value to the owner, or were mementoes of travels, but weren’t bought or kept for investment purposes. “Eight out of 10 times, people will come to us and say, ‘Look, I’ve got some stuff here.’ And they pull out 500 silver coins from their grandpa, and it’s worth the silver, not really worth much more,” says Demby. But every now and again something like a Veldpond turns up among them. “And it could be worth halfa-million rand.” Bayliss recalls being called out to do valuations and being presented with a shoebox with 25 extremely rare coins that had been sitting in the back of a cupboard for decades. Demby recalls one client who found 150 Krugerrands in his father’s safe, which he knew nothing about. “So, yes, there are gems around there,” says Bayliss.

South African coins from the late 1800s

LIVING

Brian McKechnie

HO’D HAVE guessed that a microscopic virus, invisible to the naked eye, could vanquish the daily routines we so easily took for granted? Mundane mall dashes to grab the Sunday paper or a bottle of bubbly; breakfasts at the local cafe without a side of sanitiser; the mask-free magic of shared popcorn in a hushed cinema — all now unimaginable luxuries in our “new normal”. Forbidden fruits of a distant civilisation. The enclosed, air-conditioned convenience offered by suburban shopping centres, gyms, open-plan offices (privatised, pseudo-public spaces). The previously desirable domains of safe, suburban privilege, subverted almost overnight into perilous minefields of viral danger. As the pandemic envelops us, nostalgia abounds for the carefree lives we left behind. Hope for a return to our former status quo seems increasingly misplaced. The new normal seems, well, so abnormal. This unsolicited paradigm shift does, however, provide the opportunity for fresh exploration of the ways we live, interact, and connect. How will the virus reshape our futures? What will our new (sub)urban landscapes look like once it leaves? If it leaves! Let’s hope the resilience of the 24-hour pyjamas, 2020’s biggest look, eventually fades like the viral traces on day-old shopping bags. Other trends promise more sustained longevity. The workspace shift from centralised office nodes to private homes is already reducing our reliance on motorised transport. Sure, a home office means the end of checking out at 5pm, but it also means skipping the morning traffic. Shifting those gruelling client meetings to the virtual universe not only reduces pollution but also frees up extra leisure or production time. The virtual-office vogue has been around a while; 2020 only accelerated the inevitable. Moves in shopping and entertainment reflect a similar swing to cyberspace. The “dead mall” phenomenon, nothing new in the US, is gaining traction across Europe and further afield, as retailers abandon traditional physical infrastructure in favour of more flexible, cost-effective, and germ-free digital platforms. In South Africa, the pandemic has spurred a renaissance of public appreciation for our excellent climate and abundant open spaces. Suburban mall-rats, cocooned in commercially controlled comas for decades, are rediscovering their cities, parks, and sidewalks. Durban, Cape Town and Umhlanga already boast impressive

Brian McKechnie imagines new ways of living, post-Covid-19. Spoiler alert: the future looks pretty refreshing

promenades — connected community amenities linking fitness fanatics, leisure seekers, pavement vendors and, on occasion, even our president taking his morning constitutional. Joburg, however, lacks a grand outdoor space. The city may ooze gritty, can-do character, but is missing an urban heart — an anchor — like New York’s Central Park or Paris’ Jardin des Tuileries. Surely, successful city neighbourhoods should connect via open-air malls, parks and pedestrian-friendly pavements rather than giant motorways? As trends shift away from large chain stores, giant corporate-office nodes, and acres of boxed-in mall space to online retail, bespoke local eateries, and neighbourhood-centred mixed-use high streets, perhaps it’s time to remove motorcars from the centre of society too? Carefully selected carless streetscapes could provide perfect open-space amenities for al-fresco dining, community activity or even outdoor markets — a mini High-Line opportunity at the centre of each suburb. Imagine green public arteries in Linden,

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

The High Line development in New York City

Rondebosch, Menlyn, Berea. At the very least, imagine progress towards welltended pavements, pedestrian paths, and public parks with pop-ups for coffee and pastries. The move would promote not only appealing, open-air, virus-free, green experiences, but also a desperately needed step onto the economic ladder for small and informal business owners. A glimpse at US architect Harvey Wiley Corbett’s City of the Future, with its crazy, layered activity, or the homogeneous order proffered in Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse suggests that urban ideals almost always miss the mark. City tectonic transformation is organic, as unpredictable as the cough from a mask-free jogger as he brushes past. However, the pandemic paradigm shift provides the perfect opportunity to move our cities in a direction that’s greener, healthier, more democratic, equitable, connected, and accessible to all who live in them. I’ll take one flat white, with a side of uninterrupted blue sky and a sparkling vista across Emmarentia dam please. I hope city bureaucrats are listening.

IMAGE MICHAEL URMANN/123RF

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08 / 2020

PA R T N E R S H I P

R A D I T I O N A L LY , TAILORED portfolios were known as private share portfolios and were only available to the very wealthy. However, today’s investors can construct a tailored portfolio across many asset classes and different markets, combining growth, flexibility, and better risk oversight at a relatively low cost.

THE POWER OF TAILORED PORTFOLIOS

IMAGE MAXIM BASINSKI/123RF

CUSTOMISED TO INVESTORS’ UNIQUE OBJECTIVES When investing in a tailored portfolio, clients have full access to a private portfolio manager who is at their disposal should they wish to discuss any aspect of their investments. The transparent nature of a tailored portfolio enables investors to be more informed about the characteristics and performance of the underlying holdings. Fees are typically negotiated on an individual basis and a lineby-line disclosure is available for every holding in the portfolio, every transaction, and every fee charged. Portfolio reports and statements are typically available online.

WHY BUILD UNIQUE PORTFOLIOS? Investors may seek to personalise their portfolio holdings for various reasons, such as building positions in specific growth sectors or more appropriate diversification. An example may be an investment portfolio comprising a number of unit trusts. While investors may be under the impression that they have a well-diversified investment portfolio, the combined underlying holdings of the unit trusts may have too little offshore exposure or too much concentration in specific sectors or companies. In this instance, the investor’s portfolio may benefit from restructuring to include direct holdings of both local and offshore equities in preferred sectors, together with an appropriate allocation to local fixed income and cash. The portfolio would then be better diversified and possibly have lower management fees. It is also possible to use a tailored portfolio within retirement funds, endowment funds, and living annuities. One of the key advantages is also that, upon retirement, the tailored portfolio can be transferred to a living annuity from a retirement fund such as a retirement annuity or preservation fund, thus avoiding unnecessary trading costs and time

Managing director of Old Mutual Wealth Private Client Securities, Chris Potgieter, on how to best tailor your investments to suit you text

out of the market. These “in specie” or “script” transfers are also readily done if a client wishes to transfer their portfolio from one investment manager to another.

DEBUNKING THE MISCONCEPTIONS A key misconception is that tailored share portfolios are riskier and more expensive than alternatives such as unit trusts. However, these portfolios can be constructed to carry no more risk than comparable unit trusts. The transparency of a share portfolio, combined with the ability to transact globally and efficiently, means that investors are offered a direct route to investment markets. Lower transaction costs and negotiated investment-management fees mean potentially lower costs compared to unit trusts, especially for larger investment amounts. Another criticism is that share portfolios incur excessive capital gains

Chris Potgieter

tax (CGT) due to frequent trading. A tailored portfolio is typically not frequently traded, at least not when a professional portfolio manager is involved. These investment portfolios are mostly for the long term and the holdings are selected on this basis. Frequent trading will detract from performance due to costs and unsuccessful attempts at timing the market. CGT is therefore less of a concern if the portfolio is constructed and managed with a long-term view and even more so if the portfolio is within a beneficial tax wrapper such as a retirement fund or an endowment. In the case of unit trusts, CGT is not incurred until the units are sold by the investor. Ultimately, investors will pay CGT, now or later. One could argue that when paying it now, as in the case of a share portfolio, you are at least sure about the CGT rate. In the future, if you defer the CGT, you

cannot be certain about the tax rate that will apply. A tailored portfolio is an attractive investment alternative for discerning investors. Everybody’s financial needs and goals are unique and a tailored portfolio offers a viable alternative to accommodate this.

ABOUT PRIVATE CLIENT SECURITIES Private Client Securities (PCS) is a capability within Old Mutual Wealth, an elite service offering brought to you by several licensed financial services providers in the Old Mutual group. PCS specialises in bespoke investment management for high net worth investors. The above content is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial or tax advice in any way or form. It is important to consult a financial planner before acting on any of the above information.

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08 / 2020

MOTORING

Denis Droppa

START YOUR ENGINES

Toyota Land Cruiser 79

These cars are roaring beasts, but we know the gals love â&#x20AC;&#x2122;em too

2020 / 08

IMAGES SUPPLIED

OUTH AFRICAN supermodel and photographer Josie Borain starred in an iconic Toyota TV advert many years back, in which she took on a rugged guy in a Hilux-bakkie duel. In the ad, neither driver wanted to give way when coming nose-to-nose on a narrow bridge, and the two proceeded to drive under the bridge and manhandle their 4x4 Hiluxes through the river in a scene of wheel-spinning, watersplashing action. The ad challenged the stereotype that the Hilux was just for square-jawed, tobacco-chewing okes who’d just stepped out of a Wilbur Smith novel; women could like Toyota’s bakkie too. In today’s ever-more-woke society, veering into narratives that refer to cars as being for women or men is tricky territory. Assigning masculine or feminine genders to vehicles isn’t easily done without treading on sensitive toes — and where do we even begin with identifying a transgender car? But in the interests of light relief and since this issue of Wanted is guy-themed, we take a tongue-in-cheek look at the most masculine vehicles you can buy (with apologies to womenfolk who, like Borain’s character, may also find them very much to their liking).

TOYOTA LAND CRUISER 70 SERIES Since we started on a Toyota note, let’s get straight to the brand’s most cherished tough-guy vehicle. Where the modern Land Cruiser 200 SUV has gone its own, luxurious way, the Land Cruiser 79 bakkie — and its SUV counterpart, the 76 — is a throwback to simpler times when blokes shaved with cutthroat razors and smoked Texan Plain. Eschewing modern trends like aerodynamic body curves, the rugged 70 Series has a boxy body on a ladderframe chassis and old-school tech, and selecting 4WD is done in the original manly way: by yanking a lever instead of pushing a button. No namby-pamby, downsized, fuel-sipping engines here. It’s all grumpy big V6 and V8s all round, with the smallest one being a 4.0-litre. Modern-shmodern. It’s tough as nails, which is why farmers dig it. FORD RANGER RAPTOR With a towering ground clearance, monster-sized tyres, and rally-bred Fox suspension, this is the bakkie for Sarel van der Merwe wannabes. Its blacked-out grille and all-round mean look further ensure a position on our masculine-vehicle list.

Clockwise from top: Porsche GT3 RS; Ford Ranger Raptor; MercedesAMG G63; Nissan GT-R

Having said that, it was a woman who taught me how to drive it properly. She was a driving instructor at the Raptor’s media launch held in the Kalahari Desert, and before I got my turn at the wheel I was strapped into the passenger seat as she jumped and power-slid the big Ford around a rally course like Van der Merwe himself. PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS Sports cars nowadays tend to be more user-friendly and easy to drive, able to switch from fire-breathing performance to meek and comfy commute-mode at the press of a button. Not the GT3 RS, which is an unashamedly focused track-taming sports car with rock-hard suspension, an engine wail that will strip the spikes off a Rottweiler’s collar, and (optionally) a roll cage that clunks against the body when you drive over small bumps. Loud, lewd, and virile. MERCEDES-AMG G63 This boxy, ballistic SUV is quite possibly the most senseless vehicle around. Who would really want a high-riding Land Rover Defender lookalike with super low-profile tyres and a turbocharged V8 engine that is powerful enough to affect the Earth’s spin? Manly men who don’t know any better, that’s who. And if they have to explain it, you won’t understand. So it guzzles fuel like a cruise ship, but it makes a Jurassic yell from its side-exiting exhausts. Utter senselessness is part of this galloping Geländewagen’s appeal. NISSAN GT-R “Godzilla” to its adherents, this angry Nissan is probably the epitome of the boys’ car. Oozing raw masculinity, this brash Japanese sports car is a steel fist in a reptilian-skinned glove. As subtle as a sledgehammer, the GT-R is a favourite among modders who soup it up to beastly levels of performance and use it to win hillclimbs (the black one you see here won last year’s Knysna Hillclimb with Franco Scribante in the driving seat).

NAVIGATOR 08 / 2020

D i sp a t ch e s o n a l l t h i n g s c ool , c ove t a bl e , a n d c onve r s a t i o n - wo r t hy

travel

people

food

Paint with all the colours of the Wa t e r b e r g

Ready to learn a thing or two? Read on

Our favourite eateries now serve art prints to go

Publik wine is selling its amazing wine and food posters online. We love them all but this one is exceptional. publik.co.za

CHRIS

MOORE,

TARTARE

2020 / 08 text

Sarah Buitendach

I N LIVI N G C O LO U R

NOKA

LODGE

A new lodge in the Waterberg offers a splash of vivid indulgence

E’VE COME to expect a certain style for bush lodges. Classic or modern, muted, neutral hues and natural tones always abound. The décor should “blend” into the landscape after all. You

expect the colours and textures of the earth, foliage, and animals to manifest into the luxe surrounds of your bush hideaway, right? The funny thing is that’s exactly what acclaimed local designer Sarah Ord did when she started to work on the new Noka Camp. She turned to its surrounds. And looking down across the Lephalala River ravine over which it hangs, and across the hills of the Lapalala Wilderness nature reserve in Limpopo, beige was nowhere to be seen. “I visited the site twice during the project — in different seasons — and what I found was unbelievably beautiful palette. Lush greens in summer and the leaves changing in autumn,” explains Ord. “There were

terracottas and peachy pinks, fiery oranges. And the greens!” she adds with awe. Sure, we know Ord has a proclivity towards a shot of bright (check out her past work on spaces like The Stack in Cape Town for evidence) — but really, all she did in this new luxe escape was engage with what nature gave her to play with. So what you’ll get as you settle into one of the five entirely off-the-grid villas — or the five-sleeper family villa that’s set to open shortly — is a contemporary cocoon of warm, engaging tones, natural textures, and loads of locally designed and sourced products. Décor details aside, you’ll get to lie in the sunken bath of your Yuji Yamazakidesigned tented den and

gaze over the land. Or break the lazing on your deck with a dip in your private pool. Feeling brave? Take to your outdoor bed for a night under a canopy of sky (and mozzie nets), perhaps with a glass of something exceptional from the wine cellar as a nightcap. No doubt, you’re there for the wildlife too, and there’s plenty to be seen with your private ranger — including lion, cheetah, elephant, and more than 300 bird species. With the river at your feet, there’s also fishing, frogging, and swimming. And there’s the in-house astronomer to take you on a journey through the heavens. Sounds like total, tranquil bliss, doesn’t it? Noka Camp: lepogolodges.com

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08 / 2020

Sarah Buitendach

LAYLA F SAAD Author, speaker, podcaster, and teacher, Saad is probably best known for her book Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. In fact, this bestseller started out as a 2018 Instagram challenge and workbook, which this East-African, Arab, British, Black, Muslim woman produced herself before it was scooped up by a publisher. Cue 2020 and the global Black Lives Matter movement, and her pragmatic, important, and engaging work has really come to the fore. Beyond books, Saad’s Good Ancestry Academy offers online courses that include a 90-minute masterclass on allyship in the workplace, which helps white people practise anti-racism and support their colleagues of colour. Saad’s Good Ancestor podcast deals with everything from fashion activism and the issue of “white saviours” to birth, breastfeeding, and motherhood. Among other things, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor engages with issues of white supremacy, racism, and the way white people view race. It’s a critical read to promote social change and awareness. As Saad says in it, “… if you are a person who believes in love, justice, integrity, and equity for all people, then you know that this work is non-negotiable.”

GREAT

MARY BEARD Perhaps you caught British classicist Mary Beard’s BBC2 series Lockdown Culture when it aired on South African TV recently. In it, she and a cracker list of guests consider the role that theatre, music, museums, literature and the likes have to play in our pandemic-panicked world. Recorded from her own study, the episodes feature links to dramatic puppetry by uber-author Margaret Atwood and her sister and performances by actress Emma Thompson and Bookerprize winner Bernadine Evaristo. There is even a specially produced film by Martin Scorsese about his lockdown in New York City. As she says so hopefully during an episode, “I predict that one day we’ll look back to these dark, cloudy times as the moment when we did really harness technology to open up what the best of arts and culture have to offer on an even wider and grander scale”.

MINDS

Scything through feeds of social-media opinionistas and general know-it-alls, Sarah Buitendach picked three live-wire humans whose thoughts will actually add value to your life

4. Beard’s warm, funny, and whip-smart manner makes whatever she turns her hand to effervesce with life and interest. If you haven’t grown to love her like I do, might I suggest you start with her books SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome and Women & Power: A Manifesto. You’ll be smitten with her smarts.

Forget all the self-appointed “experts” and rather who’re worth hearing from

read about people

SAM HARRIS I was recommended the new meditation course Waking Up with Sam Harris on the premise that it offers spirituality without religion. Now, I’m not sure whether I think that’s a selling point or not, but I was taken with the idea of lessons in mindfulness that might help tackle anxiety and mind noise, so I am giving it a go. Sam Harris is the philosopher, neuroscientist and author whose Making Sense

podcast is top-rated on iTunes. This is his newest baby. Download the app and follow the prompts to do daily sessions. What’s the point? Harris uses the metaphor of not being able to see the beauty of an amazing night sky and the cosmos because of light pollution but still not doubting that it exists and that there’s much to discover in it. “With respect to your own mind,” he says, “you may have never had a moment

1. Good Ancestor Podcast 2. Me and White Supremacy 3. Women & Power 4. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome 5. Waking Up with Sam Harris

where the conditions were right to see anything of interest directly. Meditation is a method for creating those conditions. And, in fact, it’s analogous to building your own telescope — and once it’s built, you don’t lose it. You may have to tune it up from time to time but it really is difficult to exaggerate the difference between having recognised the sky of the mind with properly trained attention and never having looked up at all.”

PA R T N E R S H I P

IMPORTANT ADVICE FROM THE CEO OF THE TAX OMBUD text

Sarah Buitendach

Thabo Legwaila

The tax ombud ensures taxpayers’ rights are upheld and they are fairly treated by Sars

STABLISHED ABOUT SEVEN years ago, the Office of the Tax Ombud (OTO) is an important structure within the South African tax recourse sphere and helps resolve taxpayers’ complaints against the South African Revenue Service (Sars). Simply, it gives taxpayers access to justice to have their complaints speedily resolved without having to incur huge legal costs. We spoke to Professor Thabo Legwaila, the recently appointed CEO of the OTO, about the important

role the ombud plays for many who have found themselves cash-strapped, retrenched, or struggling to keep their businesses afloat. Why is the OTO particularly important in light of the Covid-19 pandemic? The pandemic has devastated the country’s economy and put extra pressure on Sars to collect as much as it possibly can to meet the needs of the country. Unfortunately, it’s expected that Sars might not meet its collection targets, and thus might be more assertive in its collections methods. The services of the OTO become pivotal in ensuring that collections are done fairly and taxpayers’ rights are protected. How is the tax ombud’s independence and impartiality ensured? The OTO is an impartial redress channel and is neither for Sars nor for taxpayers; it looks at facts and makes decisions based on facts. The OTO adheres to, and embraces, strong principles and values of independence and fairness. How is the ombud’s success measured? The OTO has made, and continues to make, a positive contribution to the country’s tax-administration system, and makes a difference in the lives of taxpayers. Since it was established, it has helped thousands of taxpayers and saved them millions of rands that could have been lost had the OTO not investigated their complaints. By way of simple factual illustration, in the 2018/2019 financial year, the value of the top 10 tax refunds paid to taxpayers through the intervention of the OTO exceeded R35-million. Most importantly, the OTO plays an important oversight role to Sars, and has been credited for some of the positive changes seen within the revenue collector and restoring public trust in Sars. Are the tax ombud’s findings enforceable or merely recommendations? Recommendations are not binding on a taxpayer or Sars, but if not accepted by a taxpayer or Sars, reasons for such decision must be provided to the ombud within 30 days of notification. Why is the newly released “Tax Ombud

2020 / 08

Systemic Investigation Report” so important? It gives the OTO insight into numerous underlying issues on complaints lodged by taxpayers and tax practitioners. Working together with Sars to resolve the systemic issues identified in the report will help eliminate many of the problems or issues that lead to conflicts between the revenue collector and taxpayers. What is your biggest challenge as the ombud? The office is not structurally independent from Sars, and this has reputational risks, as some might incorrectly perceive it as an extension of Sars. It is not viable to have the organisation you have oversight over — in this case Sars — having an influence on your operations such as procurement services, IT services, or recruitment, for example. But the OTO has engaged and received support from stakeholders in its call to be structurally independent. The government, through the national Treasury, has been engaged on the matter and the OTO is optimistic that it is just a matter time before structural independence is achieved. What is the one piece of advice you would give to taxpayers reading this? As the economic strain on individuals, businesses, the government, and the world caused by Covid-19 continues with no end in sight, taxpayers should vigilantly and accurately determine their tax liabilities in terms of the various laws applicable to them to ensure that they do not pay more or less tax than they should. Taxpayers should also ensure they pay their tax liabilities on time to avoid penalties and limit potential conflict with Sars. Should conflict relating to service, procedural, or administrative matters emerge regardless, and taxpayers are unable to resolve those with Sars, taxpayers should avail themselves of the services of the OTO. Taxpayers should visit taxombud.gov.za and learn about the types of complaints the OTO deals with and the processes involved in lodging a complaint. They should not be afraid to approach the OTO for free help and can e-mail complaints@ taxombud.gov.za or call 0800 662 837.

08 / 2020

SARAH SAYS:

Wanted’s editor on what’s worth checking out this month

HE WANTED TEAM has been devastated by the impact of Covid-19 on South Africa’s restaurant industry. Like you, we’ve spent a lot of time in our favourite patisseries, steak joints, brunch spots, and the likes. They are our homes away from home, where the food, the staff, and the ambience make us happy. So we want them to survive this nightmare and we’re prepared to support them any which way. When we saw the artworks being produced for the brilliant Eat Your Walls campaign (a collab between Studio H and Between 10 and 5) we realised this had just got a lot easier. And cooler. The initiative brings together top chefs and artists — the latter having created posters inspired by one of said chef’s recipes. You can buy the posters online or download the file to print them yourself, for a small fee. The money goes to supporting both the chefs and artists.

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

SUPPORT:

So far, posters have been created by Fanie Buys and Karen Dudley, Max Bagels and Hoick, Nobhongo Gxolo and Phila Hillie, Dylan Jones and Jade Klara, as well as Sepial’s Kitchen and Anja Venter. A special emergency poster was also designed by Kim van Vuuren to support iconic Cape Town eatery Clarke’s. It’s a stunner. 10and5.com/eat-your-walls-collab

Clockwise from top left: Sepial’s Kitchen x Anja Venter; Dylan Jones x Jade Klara; Clarke’s x Kim Van Vuuren; Hoick x Max Bagels; Karen Dudley x Fanie Buys WORK:

VULA AFRIKA’S VIRTUAL EVENTS SERVICE

h i s i s w h a t I c a ll t hi n k i n g q ui c k . The a l wa ys- sa v v y event a n d b e sp oke - g a t h e r i n gs c om p a ny Vu l a Af r i ka has j u st l a unc h e d a v i r t ua leve n t s se r v i c e to ta c k le ou r n ew wor l d of on l i n e c onfe re n c e s, p re se nta tions,

enter tainment, and family get-together s. Basically, i t a i m s t o m a k e y o u r nex t Zoom or Microsoft Teams meeting about a million times nicer. For business (I think this is especially clever for when you’re wooing both

current clients and potential ones) there are virtual day-conference packages available that include a smorgasbord of brain food, technical support, branded packaging, headphones, and eco-stationery as part of an extensive menu. And then

there are personalised virtual birthday parties and special occasions on offer too. The service is currently available in Joburg and Cape Town and 7% of each order is donated to the Black Cellar Club’s education fund. For more info visit vulaafrika.com

2020 / 08

PEOPLE

NORMAL

WATCH:

irst Sally Rooney’s book, on which this series is based, caused waves. It was nominated for every conceivable award, and the Irish writer was plastered with big labels like “the voice of a generation”. Turns out the TV adaptation is proving to be no different. Overseas reviewers are falling over themselves to praise this comingof-age romance about teenagers Connell and Marianne. They love that it’s such a thoughtful portrayal of an incredibly universal story. I had a real ugly cry watching it and, I think, that’s half its appeal to an older audience (not teenagers) — it reminded me of my own lost youth. It’s nostalgia working like a charm, really. Oh, and then there’s the other element about it that has everyone talking: all the sex. And, I mean, there is a lot. But hey, it’s fitting. They’re youngsters, in their prime, having a lot of fun — and honestly, we should all be so lucky.

READ:

2020

2018

2017

If only all public-service announcements were this delicious and good-looking. Cape Town-based online bake shop Sweet LionHeart serves up all kinds of delicious cakes (including totally wild bespoke ones) — but we’re loving their “cakes in the time of Corona”. These delicious beauties come piped with messages like, “be wise, sanitise” and “be smart, keep 1 metre apart”. The ideal passive-aggressive gift for that friend who just doesn’t get it, don’t you think? sweetlionheart.com And then, if you’ve ever been to a function at one of The Forum Company’s venues (The Campus in Bryanston in all likelihood), you’ll know that the food is always a highlight. Now, Joburgers, you can just get the treats that its ace chefs serve up, delivered straight to your own home — just heat and eat. Firstly, pick from fresh meals that change weekly on the Forum Kitchen online store. We’ve annihilated a perfect chicken ballotine with rustic tomatoes and greens but I’ve currently got my eye on some brisket and harissa cauliflower steaks too. The deli section offers fresh breads, pasta, and dairy, sauces, quiches, tarts and the likes. A warning: if you’re ordering some of the famous blondies, get a triple portion — they will vanish in seconds. theforumkitchen.co.za

EAT:

ORDER IN

ohn Boyne is a prolific writer. Finish one of his books and, inevitably, there’ll be another new one for you to pick up. The Irishman’s mind must be a constant swirl of stories, imagined lives, and literary magic. This new offering is a definite manifestation of this. While a saga that stretches over centuries and cultures might sound daunting and dry — and this is exactly that — Boyne manages to make it one that is totally human and relatable. And fun too. He must have done a mountain of historical and anthropological research into this expansive subject matter. Of course, I’m no expert of the ages so there might be some heavy artistic licence in parts, but that’s the magic of fiction, after all. I’d wager that this is going to be a cracker of a success in book clubs and if you loved his works like A Ladder to the Sky and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, then acquire a copy stat. It’s a reminder how, ultimately, we are pretty much the same, no matter where we come from and what our beliefs are.

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08 / 2020

Wade Bales

AFRICAN-BORN

DRINKS CABINET REIMAGINED

GIN

Hendrick’s has created an experimental gin called Orbium. Infused with extracts of quinine (usually found in tonic), wormwood (most often synonymous with vermouth) and the mysterious blue-lotus blossom, Orbium’s oddly exquisite flavour is at once familiar and yet totally foreign. True to the name, expect a rounded drink that engages all the senses.

HILE this wine estate may be one of the oldest, its newer shiraz blocks are turning heads and corkscrews. Gently pressed in a stateof-the-art Willmes bag press from Germany, the wine is then left to develop in second- and third-fill French oak. Intensely red, the end result offers a rich floral and berry aroma with hints of green peppercorns and gamey nuances, supported by a sweet spiciness on the palate and notes of vanilla. It’s a soft, elegant, and voluptuous wine.

strength of 52.9%, this well-balanced whisky reveals a dominant sweetness with heightened flavours of orange, sweet ginger, and vanilla all taking their turn to rise to the fore. This limited-edition whisky will be exclusively available at Makro.

Introducing Tapanga, a range of home-grown rums made from fresh sugar cane and hand distilled. It’s being celebrated both locally and internationally and awarded for its truly unique taste. Tapanga Gold is barrel aged with a wellbalanced, dry taste and prominent vanilla nose. Tapanga White offers a clean, more tropical flavour that is soft on the palate and is perfect as a mix or in a cocktail. Tapanga is a national treasure!

CUT

MU RAT I E RO NNI E MEL C K S H I RA Z 2016

THE FINEST

elected by The Macallan’s own whisky maker, The Macallan Classic Cut — 2019 showcases exceptional high-strength liquid that needs to be savoured and enjoyed over time. With an alcohol-by-volume

RUM

The Singleton of Glendullan is a

15-year-old

scotch whisky primarily matured in American oak, with a small portion in

European oak.The result is

KEEP

an easily enjoyed single malt with delicious citrus aromas, a smooth, fruity palate, and a well-balanced, slightly spicy, warm finish. Perfect for cold weather.

COSY

A BIG EASY PICK

warded an enviable 4.5 stars from John Platter, the Ernie Els Major Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is a cab sauv that’s as notable as its namesake. Expect classic cigar notes, black cherry, and ripe plums on the nose and palate. As fresh as it is grounded and earthy, the tannins still exact a pleasing tension.

With over two decades of experience in the luxury-drinks market, Wade Bales’ passion is sourcing really great drinks and sharing them with really great people

PA R T N E R S H I P

TESTALONGA

KEEPING IT NATURAL

These winemakers are going back to their roots text

Richard Holmes

AMERON DIAZ may be flaunting her new “clean” wine brand Avaline, but South African winemakers have long been a step ahead when it comes to crafting organic, biodynamic and vegan-friendly wines. These pioneers are the proof.

IMAGES SUPPLIED

AVONDALE WINE

— and disappearing — each vintage, according to which vineyards capture the pair’s imagination. They’re not afraid to dabble in uncommon cultivars either, with everything from Hárslevelü to Tinta Amarela in the 2019 releases. The Baby Bandito range offers the same natural approach at half the price. The couple calls Bandits Kloof, the northern Swartland farm, home. With four hectares under vine, and more planned, the Bandits Kloof range will become the flagship, following the El Bandito to appreciative palates in 35 countries worldwide. Sip this: El Bandito Cortez 2019, 100% chenin blanc from 48-year-old Swartland vines.

------------------------------------------------The ethos behind Testalonga wines is simple: “made from grapes”. Those words graced the label of Craig and Carla Hawkins’ first wine — a skinmacerated chenin blanc — back in 2008, and have become their mantra for crafting world-class natural wines. Grapes come from selected organic vineyards across the Swartland — and singlevineyard sites specifically. “That, for me, is terroir: single soil, single cultivar. I couldn’t be bothered to make any other sort of wine,” says Craig. And once the grapes are in the cellar there’s a hands-off approach, with no added yeasts or acid. Testalonga’s El Bandito portfolio is the star of the show, with new wines appearing

Buy it here: winecellar.co.za or exanimo.co.za

REYNEKE ORGANIC

SPRINGFONTEIN +-/127KM

REYNEKE ORGANIC

to be vinified, fermented, and matured in traditional Georgian qvevri (large clay pots that are buried in the soil). Swirl that: Samsara Syrah 2010; this “Decade Edition” disproving the notion that natural wines won’t age well. Buy

------------------------------------------------With a Twitter handle like @ZAVineHugger, Stellenbosch winemaker Johan Reyneke certainly wears his organic and biodynamic heart on his sleeve. He’s also long been one of the loudest voices about the quality that’s achievable through organic winemaking. On the Polkadraai hills outside Stellenbosch, Reyneke’s vineyards are what he calls “organic by design”: a place where cover crops and natural predators take the place of herbicides and pesticides. In the cellar, the maxim of “less is more” applies. No commercial yeasts are added to spark fermentation; Reyneke prefers to let the fruit speak for the terroir of the farm, au naturel. Caring for those who work the land is just as important to Reyneke, with his Cornerstone series contributing towards ongoing education, housing, and retirement planning for farm workers. Cellar for later: Reyneke Cornerstone 2017. A classic three-way Bordeaux blend from a superb vintage for red wines in the Cape. Buy it here:

it here: avondalewine.co.za

reynekewines.co.za

AVONDALE WINE

------------------------------------------------------Johnathan Grieve is in no hurry. As proprietor of Avondale Estate in the Paarl winelands he’s spent years coaxing soils back to life, and thinks nothing of waiting months for spontaneous fermentation to take place in the tanks and barrels within the farm’s gravityflow cellar. Then there are years of maturation for the wine too. While ensuring the farm’s vineyards are organic, Grieve has also become a flag-bearer for South Africa’s growing biodynamic movement. With his trademark hat firmly in place he proudly explains his “BioLogic” philosophy that blends the practices of certified organic farming, biodynamic principles and modern science. “It’s about creating living systems naturally,” says Grieve, who sums it all up in the farm’s motto of terra est vita. Soil is life. Today there’s constant innovation on the farm, from using natural predators in the vineyards through to releasing the first South African wines

TESTALONGA

SPRINGFONTEIN WINE ESTATE

------------------------------------------------After years of careful conversion the wines from this boutique Stanford cellar, from the 2019 vintage, are all certified organic. It’s a testament to the hard graft of husband-and-wife team Tariro Masayiti and Hildegard Witbooi, who look after the estate’s cellar and vineyards respectively. The vines of Springfontein occupy a unique corner of Western Cape terroir near the Stanford lagoon; a coastal region defined by its cooler climate and the limestone soils that bring excellent natural acidity to the wines. Springfontein’s vinous charms are also thanks to Masayiti’s adventurous streak in the cellar, particularly when it comes to finding the versatility in proudly South African pinotage. Try this: Dark Side of the Moon, a Cape white blend — meaning it’s led by chenin blanc — but here with an unusual pinotage component. Buy it here: springfontein.co.za/shop

GIFTED

08 / 2020

adget you couldn’t live without? A Blackwing pencil, 2B, semi-blunted and sharpened about 46%. I read once that John Steinbeck used to edit his novels with them, and I also learned that Toni Morrison used to edit The New York Times with a soft pencil on her way to work. I maintain that the cheap pencil is the most revolutionary tool of the 20th century after the toothbrush. Coffee or tea? Always tea — the British empire was on to something there. What do you love most about London? Everybody reads. In London we have this idea of a second education — we spend so much time sitting on buses, tubes, trains, and planes that you normally fill that time with reading. For about six years I spent around three hours a day commuting, mostly

reading. If you tally that time it could equate to a free degree if you use your time right. You can’t do that in Southern Africa because of car culture. What do you miss most about home? Incredible food and small-town friendliness. The British empire really did badly in this department. Listening to? Recently a lot of early Bob Dylan; Japanese city-pop disco breaks from the ’80s; some Sigur Rós and I just got into Australian drill. Listen to that all and be amazed. Artist you’ve got your eye on? Arthur Jafa is God — I’ve been following his work for the past four years. I’d recommend watching his interview for ShowStudio gallery. I’ve probably watched it about 40 times over this year alone, and I still learn something new every time I watch it. Book, album, and luxury item you’d take

to a desert island? My $1 beat-up copy of The Catcher In The Rye that I bought at Strand Books in New York. A vinyl of Hugh Masekela’s album Home. My 6.2 Teardrop surfboard from Vudu Surf in Cape Town, because you never know when the waves will be firing. Series you’re bingeing? We just finished an incredible Korean drama called Extracurricular. I can’t describe it — just go watch it on Netflix. Astounding. Are you a collector of anything? I collect culture on my tongue, mostly. In physical forms it is old cameras, books, and art. What makes you happiest? Asking questions that no one else thinks are important. Dream dinner-party guests? Arthur Jafa, Zadie Smith, Christopher Hitchens, Bertrand Russell, David Goldblatt, Ernest Cole, Cosmas Desmond, Bob Dylan, Jennifer

IMAGES BERNADETTE DEVLIN PHOTO BY LEONARD BURT/GETTY IMAGES, DAIGOJI TEMPLE PHOTO BY 123RF AND SUPPLIED

Kent, Bernadette Devlin, Bertolt Brecht, Sophie Scholl, Slavoj Žižek, Warwick Thornton, Helga Fietz, and the whole of Pussy Riot. Next on your list of must-have items? A pair of Weejuns loafers because I don’t have a smart casual shoe and a pair of Red Wing boots because I’m tired of my feet getting wet in the snow. Something that recently caught your attention? The video clip of a seven-year-old girl crying at a BLM rally in Seattle after she’d been exposed to tear gas. That really was the truest indication of how much work we have yet to do as humans, and disabuses many conservative apologists and liberal over-optimists. Your favourite city in the world? Kyoto in Japan. One of the oldest cities, and quietest and most beautiful environments that I’ve ever spent time in.

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KUNYALALA NDLOVU This Zim-raised, London-living polymath is just plain cool. And we really like what he has to say about pencils 1. Extracurricular 2. Daigoji temple, Kyoto, Japan 3. The Catcher In The Rye 4. Bob Dylan 5. ( ) by Sigur Rós 6. Pacific Breeze 2: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1972-1986 by various artists 7. Weejuns loafers 8. Bernadette Devlin in 1969

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