It doesn’t what age you are, this is something you have to experience! Parents, take your kids for an unforgettable experience – one you will enjoy with them. And you don’t need to have kids as an excuse to visit the centre. Spend a day with a friend and learn things that will inspire you! Everyone will be enthralled for hours, with the ‘hands-on’ displays at the most fascinating place in Africa – the MTN ScienCentre. Africa’s first world-class science centre is situated at Shop 407 at Canal Walk Shopping Centre in Cape Town.

You can experience a real moon walk by bouncing around with no gravity, or you can play a harp with no strings – only lasers. You can land a satellite in a space simulator, or listen and learn about things such as why wheels don’t have to be round.

Did you know that NASA invented a special pen so astronauts could write upside-down in zero-gravity? The Russians just used pencils!

There are more than 280 exhibits that will keep you engrossed for hours. There is a camera – the Canon Camera Obscura – which is a room sized pinhole camera which provides spectacular 360 degree views of Table Mountain, Robben Island and more.

This truly is a place where you can have fun, while learning about scientific discoveries and technological innovations. It is not just a playground, but a playground of learning!

Find the centre at 407 Canal Walk, Century City, Cape Town, where your easiest access is upper level entrance 5.

Ticket prices:
Adults R20
Youth (3-18) R25
Family Package R78

Enquire about group rates also and don’t miss the explosive Science Shows every Saturday at 13:00 and during school holidays. This should definitely be a priority on your to-do list!

Part of the race is on privately owned land, which is opened up once a year for the race, in support of the race by the landowners. However, trespassers will not be let off easily. If caught, expect a lifetime ban!

The ABSA Cape Epic started at Table Mountain this year, and finished at Lourensford Wine Estate. But the route differs every single year. The stage towns are always different, and the general route is revealed only 6 months prior to the race, on the official website of the race. The finer details however, are not revealed until the start of the actual race.

Cape Epic training consists of hundreds of kilometres of endurance training and there is a definite requirement for commitment and determination in the mindset of those who wish to finish the Cape Epic stage race.

With a combination of single track, rugged jeep tracks and fast flowing gravel roads with as little tar as possible, the daily stages are usually between 80 and 140km.

The 2009 race saw the following results:

Men’s Classification Overall Leaders
Karl Platt (Germany) and Stefan Sahm (Germany) of Team Bulls – 28:10.13,8

Masters Classification Overall Leaders
Doug Brown (RSA) and Bärti Bucher (Switzerland) of Team ABSA Masters – 31:20.39,5

Mixed Classification Overall Leaders
Nico Pfitzenmaier (RSA) and Alison Sydor (Canada) of Team Adidas Big Tree – 32:13.09,5

Ladies Classification Overall Leaders
Sharon Laws (England) and Hanlie Booyens (RSA) of Team ABSA Ladies – 37:18.19,8

This year’s race was one of the toughest and most competitive yet. It was a gripping finish that ended seven gruelling stages. The seventh stage was the final test, but for a second year running, the exhausted German team won the event in style.

An unforgettable evening of side splitting comedy. That is what you can expect from this evening, with MC Colin Moss. A professional MC and gentleman’s comedian, the crowd will adore him!

This festival will take place March 30, 31 and April 2-5. Old Mutual presents a music series, a comedy show and the famous world renowned Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon.

The concert and family picnic will take place at Spier Estate in Stellenbosch on the 8th of April. Artists that will be performing including Hothouse Flowers, Arno Carstens, Jimmy Dludlu, Karen Zoid and Neo Muyanga. Tickets will cost R150 per adults and R50 for the first child, while the rest under 12 will enter for free. The concert will start at noon and carry on until around 6pm.

The Encounters Comedy Festival will take place 30-31 March and 2-5 April. This is a celebration of South African stand-up talent with a top line-up, which includes Martin Evans, Mark Lottering, Martin Davis, Wayvinne Dawson, Martin Jonas and Chris Forest. These guys will have you in tears! The festival starts at 8pm at the Baxter Theatre and tickets cost R75.

Each comedian has his own uniqueness. Marc Lottering is truly the face of Cape Town and hilariously funny. Colin Moss returns to his roots here as he started out with comedy, before moving on to other ventures. He is still funny though!

Martin Evans recently returned to South Africa after 10 years in the UK. Martin Davis is also a comedian from London. Although Jonas has not been in the country for 10 years, this ducktail from Potchefstroom created his act on the old South Africa. He was discovered in Johannesburg and become a fresh face of the future of South African comedy. Twenty-two-year-old Dawson has been labelled as a ‘new breed’ of comedian and rather draws his inspirations from South Africa in its more contemporary context. He is honing his skills as MC. He received a standing ovation at the inaugural Smirnoff Mule Comedy Festival at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town in 1997.

Chris Forest is the face of the Sasol Athens 2004 Olympic adverts. He is a favourite with the audience and everyone loves his deadpan routine and one-liners.

Davis is known for being quick on his feet and for his “marmoset antics” which always tend to prove interesting.

Put all these guys together and you are guaranteed to have an evening that will leave you in hysterics!

KZN experienced extreme damage recently due to waves taking over! The surf really battered the coastline and caused havoc. The beaches were closed for a number of days. Although no figures have been published, the damage has been costly. “A high figure” is all that was offered. The beach needs rehabilitation, roads need to be examined and so do electrical cables and water pipes. Debris had to be cleared from the beach and the parking lot. The damage was estimated at around half a billion rand.

The swells which caused all the havoc recorded at between 6m and 8m. These massive waves then pounded down on the beach in the morning, but by evening had dissipated as the gale-force winds dropped. The following day the swell had dropped to between 2m and 3m.

One life had been claimed the first day of this anarchy, at Shelley Beach on the KZN South Coast. This man, age 30, was one of the helpers who actually helped launch the ski-boats at the Shelley Beach Ski-Boat Club. He is believed to have been a homeless man who lived in the bushes along the coast and so was caught by the unusually high tide. He has believed to have drowned, and his body then found by a woman taking a walk along the beach.

The harbour has remained open to small vessels but closed to larger incoming traffic. Although numerous small vessels were seen leaving the port in calm, sunny weather, there were 31 vessels waiting to come into port.

Rescue workers, emergency personnel, SAPS, local people of KZN were all thanked for their assistance. Because of the team-effort the loss of life was minimised.

Insurance claims have been extreme. Insurance companies are saying they have received over R2, 5 billion in claims thus far. Not only homes along the coast were affected, but also buildings inland were damaged by the heavy storm weather.

Thousands of people flocked to the beaches to see the phenomenon of the huge swells, but many areas were cordoned off by authorities to avoid tragedy.

Everything is being done to restore the beaches and any damage caused as quickly as possible.

Bob Woolmer, coach of the Pakistan cricket team, was killed. Found in his hotel room, his post-mortem showed that he had been strangled to death. This happened just after the team’s World Cup shock defeat to Ireland.

The 58 year old man was killed in his hotel room in Kingston town. The death of former England batsman and South African coach was a shock to many.

It is thought that Mr Woolmer new the killers and many speculations have been tossed around. There was no sign of forced entry into his hotel room and none of his possessions had been taken, ruling out a robbery. Because Mr Woolmer was a rather large man, it is said that there must have been more than one perpetrator as it would have taken significant force to subdue him. It appears very much that Mr Woolmer let this person or persons into his room and therefore must be linked to him in some way.

Not only did the death of Bob Woolmer such so many, it was a huge disruption for the world cup. There is so much confusion around this death, some even speculated that is may have been connected to gambling cartels.

The Pakistani team were questioned about the death. Just after being interviews they were fingerprinted and then left for the resort of Montego Bay. Their spokesperson said that the players were in a state of shock at the death of their coach.

As much disruption as this may have caused the world cup, it will not put a stop to play. The ICC said that the competition would continue as planned. He said this was to “demonstrate that cricket cannot be put off by a cowardly criminal act.” Of course the entire cricket community was shocked at the death of the coach.

Cape Town PRIDE is a volunteer-run, non-profit Section 21 (a) Company that organises the 11-day annual Cape Town Pride Festival. Capitalising on the PRIDE brand already known world-wide, the Cape Town PRIDE Festival was launch in 2001. The festival was recognised in February 2004 as part of the implementation of long term strategy. This was in an effort to attract the local LGBTI community as well as tourists to the festival and the mother city, known as the gay capital. Traditionally February and March is the period during which Cape Town sees the greatest income from tourism. This was proved successful with particularly well-supported Festivals and Parades in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The 2007 event got off to an awesome start with the theme ‘Carnival of Love’. 250 energized and exhilarating revellers packed the elegantly decorated pink Woodstock Town Hall to watch 4 male and 10 drag contestants compete for the crown of King and Queen. All contestants appeared in Swimwear and Evening Wear. The finalists for the Miss Cape Town Pride also appeared in a Fantasy Outfit division that had the crowd gasping in awe. Entertainment was provided by the fantastic, larger than life Victoria Caballair, who joined forces with Russell Chowles to host the evening. The entire lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gendered and intersexed (LGBTI) community descended upon the city for 11 days of entertainment, education and enjoyment.

The Pride Pageant is the ultimate flamboyant event on the Festival calendar as the contestants get the chance to wear one of 3 exquisitely designed crowns for winning either Miss Cape Town Pride (gay men), Mr Cape Town Pride (gay men) and new to be crowned this year, Miss Butch/Miss Femme Cape Town Pride (lesbians). Once crowned the 3 ‘pink royalties’ will be highlights at the rest of the events throughout the 11 Day Festival and get to reign throughout the rest of the year.

This is an event for all drag artists and ‘Queens’ to show what they can do and how they can transform themselves to personify their opposite sex. The event in its 4th year attracts a large section of the gay community from all sectors and most definitely across the racial and cultural divide.

Yvonne van Diamond was crowned Mrs Cape Town Pride at the Cape Town Pride Pageant held in the Woodstock Civic Hall on Saturday 10th February 2007.

Karel Petzer was crowned Mr Cape Town Pride.

Black and white bling was the theme for the 2007 J&B Met. The weird and wonderful people who make up the beautiful Cape Town were all there, strutting their stuff while maybe daring to place a bet. 5FM and Flat Stanley kept all entertained for the day.

This is a R2-million, Grade 1 horse race over 2000m that is the highlight of the annual summer fun and fashion festival that draws racing enthusiasts from all parts of Southern Africa and from overseas. Here, at the Kenilworth Race Course, they will experience the thrilling atmosphere of thundering hooves and head-turning outfits of the beautiful people who bask in the splendid sunshine under the grandiose Table Mountain.

Surely the biggest racing and fashion “parade” in the Western Cape, this programme of superior thoroughbred racing filled with glitz and glamour caters for around 50 000 people.

The J&B Met finds its roots in the later 1700’s, when Lord Charles Somerset governed the Cape and those in his battalion raced each other as a popular pastime in the area now known as Green Point common. A more suitable venue was designed to stage these races in the late 1800’s. 1883 marked the first official horse racing event at Kenilworth and the forerunner to the J&B Met. The star social attraction of the years to come arose: the Metropolitan Handicap. In 1978 J&B’s sponsorship commenced. The race-winner’s prize of R40 000 was a record for horse racing at the time. Enter onto the race scene a four-year-old colt, Politician. With Bertie Hayden in the saddle, Politician went on to become the only two-time winner of the event – winning by over three lengths in his first victory repeating the feat a year later in a spectacular comeback from behind. For 25 years since, horses and jockeys, trainers, haute couture and of course the race-attending public have contributed to the enjoyment of the J&B Met – enriching its history with every event.

For the Western Cape it is the social occasion of the year and, as the thoroughbreds battle it out on the turf, the thousands will line the track and scream their fancies home, then celebrate their success or failure in great party style right through into the night.

The favourite for 2007 was PocketPower, and after other delays and a rather serious injury, PocketPower did steal the day! The 2007 J&B Met was another huge success!

South Africa may restart culling elephants, setting the scene for an international battle over the future of the animals. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the minister of environmental affairs in South Africa, suggested that the 11-year suspension on culling could come to an end. He said: “We have about 20,000 elephants in South Africa, more or less 14,000 in the Kruger National Park. In 1995, when we stopped culling, we had about 8,000 elephants.”
“South Africa is faced with a particular challenge as most of our protected areas are fenced and surrounded by land that has been transformed, to a greater or lesser extent, by human development,” Mr van Schalkwyk went on to say.

The government was considering several management strategies in addition to culling, including contraception and the transfer of elephants to other areas.

“South Africa is faced with a particular challenge as most of our protected areas are fenced and surrounded by land that has been transformed, to a greater or lesser extent, by human development,” he said.

The South Africa government has opened a public discussion on proposals to resume an elephant cull; opponents refer to the “murder” of elephants, while supporters warn of a “holocaust” among other species if elephants go unrestrained.

However the real troubles could come when TV channels broadcast rangers in helicopters herding elephants into groups, tranquilizing them and then killing them off with a shot to the head.
The reason for the increase of African elephants in South Africa is because of conservation projects, anti poaching campaigns and stricter measures on ivory-smuggling.

The number of elephants in the Kruger National Park is nearly double the 7,000 that was considered the best number during the apartheid years, when regular culls of the species took place.

Culling of elephants stopped in 1994 but numbers have since sky rocketed and the elephants are starting to threaten the survival of other animals, plant species – due to their huge appetites as well as the well being of the species itself.

Elephants are capable of flattening areas of woodland into grassland in an amazingly short time, amongst these trees are baobab’s which may have survived for thousands of years, destroying nesting areas of rare birds such as the ground hornbill.

South Africa National Parks, who run most of the large parks in South Africa, has recommended a return to culling to save the country’s flora and fauna before it is too late. The government insists it has not yet made its mind up, and is considering all options.

Many other debates are going on, to put across the points of contraception and transportation of elephants to different areas, rather than culling. However the contraception theory would not show an immediate effect as elephants can live for over 40 years.

This problem is not solely in South Africa; Botswana and Zimbabwe are also having to consider the cull of their elephants.

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki promised to increase the size of the police force to tackle the country’s high crime rate in todays State of the Nation Speech in Cape Town.
He told parliament there would be 180,000 police officers within three years, a rise of 28,000 from the current level.

He said that South Africans “…cannot claim the happiness that comes with freedom if communities live in fear, closeted behind walls and barbed wire”.

Mr Mbeki has been accused of not doing enough to cut crime.

“We must continue and further intensify the struggle against crime,” Mr Mbeki said in his state of the nation to parliament..

His other pledges included in the speech were more anti-Aids programs, more work to tackle poverty, to bring fresh drinking water to all communities and to speed up land reform.

The murder rate, according to official figures, in South Africa is falling, but with more than 18,000 murders each year the country has on one of the highest rates in the world, only beaten by Iraq and Columbia.

Last month’s murder of historian David Rattray drew international attention to South Africa’s crime problem.

Some members of the South Africa’s business community have become increasingly anxious regarding the effects of business coming into SA, saying that investors are increasingly concerned with the situation in the country.

Opposition parties accuse president Mbeki of being in denial about the problem as he recently stated that he did not think crime was out of control.

Officials from Mr Mbeki’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) feel that the white community is more worried about crime, while poverty is the main concern for the black majority.

South Africa is enjoying record rates of economic growth but many ordinary South Africans say they are yet to feel the benefits.

Political forecaster, Moeletsi Mbeki, who is also President Mbekis brother says the issues of poverty and crime are connected stating “The level of crime is totally unacceptable.” “Unemployment has risen over the past 15 – 20 years, so South Africans are getting poorer and the other reason is we’re getting more inequality in South Africa.”

Last month, billionaire talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, opened a school for girls in South Africa. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls was founded by the lady herself, who invested $40 million in the project. She broke ground in the facility in December 2002, and January 2nd of this year she opened the school. The school is situated in HeyleyonKlip, just south of Johannesburg.

The school has 152 girls in attendance and is said to have 450 pupils by 2011.

The mission: “The school will teach girls to be the best human beings they can ever be; it will train them to become decision-makers and leaders; it will be a model school for the rest of the world.” – Oprah
Oprah comes from a background that is less memorable. She is thankful that she had a good education, but talks of how she was abused and molested. However, through determination she worked her way up, and became what she is today. She was the first black woman ever to host her own talk show, and that show is still the most popular in all 21 years that is has been running.

Oprah promised former South African president, Nelson Mandela, six years ago that she would open a school in South Africa, for underprivileged children, and he was there last month to watch her open her school.

“Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world. Education is the path to the future. I believe that education is indeed freedom. With God’s help, these girls will be the future leaders on the path to peace in South Africa and the world” – Oprah

The 152 girls who are now attending the school were handpicked from 3500 applications. These girls come from extremely poor backgrounds. The school is completely free for the girls, and includes only the best facilities. This first intake of girls will reap the undoubted benefits of fully equipped computer and science laboratories, indoor and outdoor theatres, library, gymnasium, health centre and sports fields. There is also a yoga centre and beauty salon at the school. The décor is of the best.

Oprah sees the school as an opportunity to “give back” for the wealth she has attained in her lifetime. She designed the palatial academy in her hopes to inspire the girls with beauty and send the message that poor African women are important.

There is some debate over this school. Though most agree that is was a noble thing of her to do, some will say that is was over-extravagant and that she should have better dispersed her money to improve the education system which already exists in South Africa. Americans say she should have taken her money and used it back home, to help African-Americans and the poor schools.

Mandela said of Oprah: “This is a lady that has, despite her own disadvantaged background, become one of the benefactors of the disadvantages throughout the world.” –Nelson Mandela

Oprah mentioned her disadvantaged background numerous times and said she was only too happy to help avoid these girls having to go through the same time. She described her education as “the most vital aspect of my life”.

“I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light” –Oprah

Now the wealthiest American woman celebrity, with earnings in excess of $1.5 billion, Oprah talks openly about her childhood.

“I was a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, like so many of these girls, with no water and electricity” –Oprah

To qualify for admission, the girls had to show academic and leadership potential and have a household income of less than $800 a month. One of the girls said “I would have had a completely different life if this hadn’t happened to me. Now I get a life where I get to be treated like a movie star.”

Sadly, for the vast majority of the millions of South African children returning to school this year, there is a different reality. They will have to get by in dilapidated and overcrowded facilities, with too few teachers, not enough books and a general lack of basic infrastructure. This is a huge crisis in South Africa, and if more celebrities would do things like this, perhaps there is hope. But maybe they could find better ways of doing it, rather than just throwing money at one specific project. So many in the education field believe her $40 million could have been better spent, and could have improved the lot of literally thousands of pupils, as opposed to a tiny cadre of lucky ones. One wonders if she realises it and if asked what her response would be.