I don’t really know if it’s the same today, but when I was a kid our play really was practice for our adult lives.  Because we moved in fluid packs of anything from 3 to 20 kids – depending on the season, activity and who was fighting with, or allied to, whom – we had […]

I live in a little town beside the sea; a grand old lady of a suburb who, having not heard of Botox or bodyguards, was running deeply to seed.  Until a group of 3rd generation residents started revitalising her – but not in the way of gentrification. There are still students, surfers, start-up families and […]

What happened today (Reposted from Letterdash March 15, 2011)  I know that there’s not much that can be done to technically manage a stalker. Which is why things like interdicts and restraining orders exist – because you have to treat some people as potential crime scenes. For 5 years, part of my daily routine was to […]

Not a confession They say that you are only as sick as your secrets. It is a hard thing, a weakening and strength-sapping thing, To have such an important part of my life buried under a sealed stone. Hi – I’m Maud, the total fraud – a fake on the take.                               (2005, Joanne Hart, published […]

I’m 15-going-on-16. In the morning room of my boarding school in the Cape Town city centre watching dust motes dance in the sun pouring through high sash-windows – I’m so sadly angry to be stuck there on a Saturday when our family home is only 10 minutes away in Rondebosch. They’ve allowed me and other […]

The more I think about it (especially since it’s once again become a big political talking-point in SA) the more I begin to see that Communism isn’t so much a political system as a really long and detailed bout of depression…… It’s like the practical manifestation of despair regarding the human race. That we can be […]

It’s Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday, and I thought I’d find something we could all use and give away – there’s bound to be something on this list for everyone: drink water, at least four glasses a day eat breakfast every morning choose steaming over frying or baking when you can eat fruit and vegetables, a […]

(Repost – first appeared on Health24 2010) “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey…” – anywhere else in the world you’d be correct in assuming that these are signs of autumn.  Not in South Africa in 2010 – those falling leaves and mounting clouds signal the beginning of a threatened railway strike.  […]

Marcus: Twirling autumn leaves gusting in the old walk way in old cape town pigeons seeking shelter shoulders hunched, eyes cast down soaring far above, a man on a ladder painting to a rhythm, obscured by wind   Joanne: Just stare long enough and details emerge the man is painting white icing onto a gingerbread […]

In response to a post I read (First posed April 13, 2011) Um, truth be told,  sure – as a white South African, I am certainly clear about my agenda: freedom of speech, freedom of association, the right to work, the right to create work, safety for the most vulnerable of SA’s citizens (children, their […]