For over 32 years, the Friends of the Liesbeek (FoL) has existed as a community-led organization with the mandate to care for the Liesbeek River – a phenomenal asset to Cape Town, but one which continues to bear the brunt of the flaws of our society and the consequences of short-sighted urban planning. The organisation…
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Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer: Impact of carnage on trees being felt
Katherine Christie, councillor for Ward 58, says the decision to remove a much-loved tree, infested with PSHB, on her property was difficult but necessary. PHOTO: Supplied Nettalie Viljoen – 11 April 2023 From Tuesday 4 April the City of Cape Town has removed 40 trees infested with the invasive Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB) beetle…
Khoena Art sale
As we are ending off our journey in Observatory, we are giving 10% off all artworks on our social media pages. Head over to Koena Art’s instagram page and make your selection x We will be opening at the Castle of Goodhope ♥️ what we have planned will blow your mind.
What is going on with our swimming pool???
On 27 February 2023, OCA member Janet Cronje wrote the following to our ward councillor: Dear Cllr and Carolyn, We have heard nothing new about the Observatory pool in the last while. Can you share with me where the City is in terms of the procurement process for the fixing of the pool? Please would…
BLANK BOOKS – 30% OFF ALL Fiction Until 9th April 2023
We’ve been busy tidying up and reorganizing the bookshop after a great season – thank you so much for all your support. The stocktake has been intense with the amount of books we have available (over 18 000 books at last count), but quite necessary as we continue with our strategy of making all…
StoryWalk
Observatory Library planned a fun StoryWalk for the community during South African Library Week highlighting the theme, “Libraries telling powerful stories!” We approached certain businesses in Lower Main Road to participate and feature a storyboard of the children’s story, “Where’s Lulu?” published by BookDash. The shops on the library map were very eager to be…
T.R.A.S.H. APRIL CLEAN-UP DAY
Come and lend a hand on our little urban River for our monthly River Clean up in partnership with the Observatory community on Saturday 1 April 2023. We start, as always, from our banner opposite the Hartleyvale Hockey Stadium on Liesbeek Parkway from 09h00. Drop in any time for an hour or two to help…
Appeal to support our campaign to preserve the environment and heritage
Dear supporters Those of you in Cape Town might think the campaign and our court case is over because you see the Amazon Golgotha rising over the flood plain and because of the very bad press we received over the Cape High court findings released in November 2022. That is not the case at all….
Updates regarding the SAHRA grading
The SAHRA says that ‘hundreds of years of development has severely eroded any tangible elements remaining on the site’. We never disagreed with that. The point is that the heritage on the River Club site is intangible heritage associated with cultural memory and the Open Space of the site. SAHRA agrees that the site is…
Letter to the Tatler
Dear Editor, I am a Pinelands resident and I pass the Black River, often many times a day, especially on Raapenberg Road and on the Raapenberg offramp from the N2. The sewage stench from this river is unbearable and has been going on for many weeks. I pity the golfers who use the St. Davids…