Atlantis In Touch Community Festival

by Melvyn Miles, Festival Co-ordinator

The Atlantis In Touch Community Festival took place on Saturday 11 February 2006.

The activities started with an Arts & Craft exhibition at the Atlantis Arts & Craft Centre. A variety of crafts from sophisticated beaded jewelry to model aircrafts was showcased in the centre. Local artists Wilfred Williams Bronwyn Swartbooi and Bruce Henniker also had their work on display and the centre now boasts with an art gallery with work from Garth Erasmus and Sophie Peters. This was made possible by Rudolf Rieger from On Set Images.

The program started with a snake show by The Cape Town Snake Park. These reptiles had kids in awe and were pure edutainment. Other kids stuff included face painting as well as a jumping castle.

The Atlantis Community Entertainers then put up a colourful display of Cape Culture dancing and singing.

Hester Moses from The Atlantis Arts & Culture Forum then officially opened the event.

The crowd was then entertained with dance, live bands, poetry, social commentary gospel, kwaito hip-hop and a circus act.

The Line up included Mix Flavour School of Dance, Loxion Beat, Iggy, Alliz Wat Malliz, Black Pearl, Hope Atlantis Youth Choir. The Leevites, New Level, Son Of God , Brownside, Black Child, Mr. Bean, The Boyz , The Terrible Twins and Black Noise.

The crowd were then addressed by local Member of Parliament Mr. Danny Oliphant who informed the community of the forthcoming celebrations of the 30 years of Atlantis Festivals.

The festivities ended after dark with the stadium spotlights replacing the lava hot sun.

The West Coast Environmental Co-operative is a co-sponsor of this year’s event together with the City of Cape Town and the Department of Arts & Culture.

Next year’s will see events spread over Mamre Atlantis Pella and Witsand.

International Tourist Guides’ Day 2006
Department of Economic Development and Tourism

On Tuesday, 21 February 2006, South Africa joined the rest of the world to celebrate International Tourist Guides' Day. This day is set aside to celebrate the contributions that the tourist guide makes to promote South Africa to tourists and recognise the quality and value of professional tourist guides.

The Western Cape Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism in partnership with the National Department of Environmental affairs and Tourism (DEAT) are striving to highlight the plight of Illegal Guiding in the Province. The National and Provincial Tourist Guide Registrars and staff members of the two Departments visited Table Mountain and at the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the Waterfront during the course of the day.

The main purpose of these visits was to request tourist guides to produce their identity cards and badges as they arrive with tourists. The exercise will enable both departments to assess the extent of Illegal guides with the objective of designing a National strategy for dealing with this burning issue, which is facing the industry. At both these attractions the awareness pamphlets on Illegal Guiding were distributed to tourists. These visits proved to us that there are Illegal Guides who are guiding and are not complying with the Tourism Second Amendment Act of 2000, as we came across quite a few Illegal Guides in our short but constructive visits. It was concluded that many individuals are unaware of Illegal Guiding and further awareness campaigns will be implemented in future to ensure that the correct messages are communicated in the Industry.

The day's activities culminated into a dinner function held at Suikerbossie Restaurant in Hout Bay, with the MEC for Finance and Tourism, Ms. Lynne Brown gracing us with her presence and welcoming all the dignitaries and honored guests. The keynote address for the evening was done by Ms. Bulelwa Seti, Chief Director for Tourism Support of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) and the Vote of Thanks was rendered by Dr. Patrick Matlou (Deputy Director General: Tourism, DEAT).

The evening also highlighted 12 individuals from Redhill, Masiphumelele and Oceanview receiving their tourist guiding badges. They were all part of a pilot project to train previously disadvantaged individuals to become Nature Site tourist guides. The evening highlighted the great work that tourist guides are doing and celebrated them as being our unofficial ambassadors.

Welkome, MEC for Finance and Tourism Ms Lynne Brown
Keynote Address, Ms Bulelwa Seti (Chief Director: Tourism Support DEAT)
Vote of Thanks, Dr Patrick Matlou (Debuty Director General: Tourism, DEAT)

Evening at the Suikerbossie restaurant in Hout Bay

Issued by the Tourist Guide Registration Office, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, St George's Mall, Cape Town, 8001. Tel: 021 483 9130. Fax: 021 483 2957

Ms Farhaana Allie, Administration Officer, Tel: 021 483 9130, Cell: 073 129 9861
Ms Noxolo Ntenetya, Acting Provincial Registrar, Tel: 021 483 2960

Mingling with Meerkats

(Part IV)

by Mandy Young, Psychotherapist

After 12 years of observing animals with social behavior – African Wild Dogs, Elephants and Dolphins, I found a new gregarious species to observe – wild Meerkats in the Meerkat Magic Valley just outside of Oudtshoorn.

Since recognizing that animals with social behaviour teach Modern Man about more humane ways of relating, I started to take note of how our early ancestors lived in adaptation to nature by taking on the aborigine practice of naming myself each time a new life transition was taking place as opposed to having the same name for life. So I went from the name ‘wildtree’ inspired by studying the African Wild Dogs and learning more about being a wild, intuitive mother and wife, to ‘butterflybird’ . This name was adopted when I had experienced yet another life transformation. Feeling like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon with wings strengthened for flight because of the internal struggles of self-discovery I had embraced and endured. I called myself ‘Ele Aloe’ when I needed the wisdom of the ancient, grey, gentle giants, the elephants at Pongola Game Reserve. The descriptive term, ‘aloe’ was chosen because I passionately wanted to be inspirationally bright against the ‘barren rocky terrain’, the ‘soil’ in which many aloes, as well as many human lives, grow. With the wild Meerkats however, the only name that fitted was ‘Figela’, which in Zulu means ‘I’ve arrived’.

Meeting the wild Meerkats of the Ungulungu family was like a ‘beauty out of ashes’ culmination of many life journeys, my journey and that of the Meerkat Man, Grant McIlrath. Finally I was beginning to integrate and heal many aspects of my life the animals had ‘touched’. Grant was emerging out of a filming and research experience with the Kalahari Meerkats that had left him disillusioned and bereft. For many years he had ethically habituated these wild Meerkats so that research could be untainted and film crews could get up close and film Kalahari Meerkats natural behavior. As a little boy Grant worked at the Johannesburg zoo and was fascinated by the many calls these cute, gregarious animals could make. It was this knowledge, as well as many patient hours sitting in hot Kalahari sands, being bitten by tampans and scorpions, that Grant learnt what the communicative sounds the wild Meerkats made, meant. He used an adaptation of these natural Meerkat calls to ethically habituate, not tame, these endearing, but framily-protecting, ferocious little creatures.
If you spend time on a wild Meerkat tour it is like walking with a modern day Francis of Assissis into your own unedited wildlife documentary. The wild Meerkats of the Ungulungu family allow you within meters of where they forage, play, mate, sun, stretch and groom, because they trust Grant and you are with him.