Table of contents for Issue 5 in Destiny

“Thank you for featuring new, relatively unknown people. We need new stories.” EIKILE CAWE is one of our loyal readers and he sends me a letter after every issue. I replied to his latest letter and asked that he become my sounding board, but I think he should be called my co-editor. This was his response: “Well done to you and the team on another excellent DESTINY issue. I think this is the best one yet since your relaunch. It ticked all the boxes for me and was well-balanced. Two takeaways for me: the cover feature and the Jacobs’ feature. Nigel and Christynn Jacobs’ story is one of resilience and forward-thinking: ‘We didn’t have the opportunity to work in family businesses, but we would like to give our child that…

“Nothing is black and white. I’m gonna take the criteria as a guideline and tell you about myself, and why you should take me,” a younger Mosima Mabunda from Seshego township, Polokwane, thought as she filled out her application to attend Oxford University. Taught to focus on her vision from the start, Mosima began charting an unconventional path from an early age. Even as she spent her school holidays in her room solving puzzles and devouring boxes of books at a time, she knew she was meant for greater things, beyond her limitations. “My mother raised me to believe that anything I desire is possible,” she says. You have nerves of steel. You are empowered. Don’t focus on what we have, focus on the vision and what you’re prepared to…

As an emerging digital medium of financial exchange, cryptocurrency has a problem – there are too many men and not enough women. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey showed that approximately 19% of women aged between 18 and 29 invested in, used, or traded a cryptocurrency, compared with 43% of men in the same age group. One would hope that the picture looks more positive when it comes to women who work in the industry, but it is, in fact, worse. According to the State of Diversity and Inclusion in Blockchain report released at the end of 2019, the percentage of women working in cryptocurrency as investors, developers and other roles is between 4 and 6%. However, there are some African women who are changing the face of the industry.…

Thameenah Suleman and I are on the phone while in two different cities. She is at passport control, heading to Dubai then Istanbul, while I am home in Cape Town. So, I only have a short amount of time to interview her for this piece. By now you may have already seen images from this trip on Instagram, as is the immediacy of social media and the nature of being a digital fashion influencer. I really wanted to get to know more about Thameenah’s style and her journey to this point. “I would define my style as bold, effortless and modern. For me, one’s style is how you present yourself to the world, especially today when human contact is so quick – style is an instant language,” she says. Speaking…

Breitling’s inflight launch of the 2022 Navitimer somewhere between Zurich and Geneva in March this year invited guests on a journey to celebrate the 70th anniversary of one of the most significant lines in the brand’s history. Conceptualised as a tool for pilots, the Navitimer became one of the most recognisable watches ever made. The wrist-worn chronograph was designed by Willy Breitling in 1953 to enable pilots to perform all necessary flight calculations. With its winged logo emblazoned at 12 o’clock, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) – the largest aviators’ club in the world – announced it as its official timepiece a year later. The navigation timer, or Navitimer, was born. Today, Breitling remains faithful to the classic design codes: the circular slide rule, baton indexes, trio of…

When someone has watched another person brutally beaten to within an inch of their life, you have to wonder, how does that impact your psyche? How does that moment change you? For most of us, the post-traumatic stress of spending the last few near-conscious moments with this person, staring into their eyes as their face drips with blood from wounds you saw inflicted, would be too much. Surely, that moment would require a lifetime of healing. For Roegchanda Pascoe, a Manenberg resident and award-winning activist, it is exactly that. A lifetime of healing. Roegchanda risked her own safety to testify in the Cape Flats murder trial of Angelo Davids. He was brutally assaulted by members of a rival gang just a few metres from her house in July 2016. Her…

Cromwell Ngobeni from Giyani in Limpopo is known for his pursuit of monochromatic charcoal and pastel drawings. He began drawing at the young age of eight, inspired by his older brother’s sketches. In 2010, he moved to Johannesburg from Giyani to pursue his love of art. Since then he trained and qualified for three years at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg as a print maker and subsequently interned as a gallery assistant for a year. Cromwell belongs in the category of self-taught artists who honed their talent. Working as a print maker afforded him the right foundation as he was exposed to different artists such as Philemon Hlungwani and William Kentridge, while searching for his own artistic voice. After many years of work, Cromwell decided to create his own…

Mitigating the effects of climate change has created many environmentally friendly industries that are benefitting the African continent. The latest buzzwords driving the ever-relevant topic of climate change are “sustainability” and “green economy”. From companies’ annual reports, presidents’ speeches, to dreaded Zoom calls and webinars, these concepts are now part of what is termed the new normal. Sustainability consists of fulfilling the holistic needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future generations, while ensuring a balance between economic growth, environmental care, and social wellbeing. In terms of a green economy, it is the practice of sustainable development through the support of public and private investment to create infrastructure that ensures social and environmental sustainability. These two pillars are not only the building blocks in ensuring that Africa’s natural…

A few years ago, at a self-development workshop, I met a 24-year-old recent graduate. As often happens when people meet me, we started talking about money. She told me she was the first in her family (mom and dad’s side) to graduate from university and that she was overwhelmed by the responsibilities that came with her degree. She opened up about how she’s expected to attend every family meeting and how all the elders (uncles and aunts) in the family turn to her for advice. She is now the one who makes decisions around funerals and weddings, and her mom leans on her and expects her to take over running the household. She felt as if her mom was treating her like a husband and the other family members were…

“Please make my Virgin Proud Mary spicy,” I asked, and like everything at Proud Mary, and indeed voco The Bank, you get what you ask for. While hiccoughing and wiping away the single tear running down my cheek, like a sad Tretchikoff picture, caused by the hot sauce and celery leaves tickling my nose, I looked around this popular and sophisticated new spot. The first voco-brand hotel in Africa, the 131-roomed voco The Bank, is pressed into the epicentre of Rosebank with direct pedestrian access to the malls and Gautrain station. Based on the crowds, when we visited on a Sunday afternoon in May, the hotel is already a success. Opened in February 2022 in a former 1970s-built First National Bank, voco is abuzz with people using the large ground…

Tolerance. Such a loaded word. It’s right up there with the likes of diligence and impartiality. We know we need to live by these unspoken values in order to be better humans for society’s sake, but this is easier said than done. When asked what my character flaw is, I always cite patience, without hesitation. I get easily annoyed with people, especially people who by my definition appear to be doing something wrong. A personality test that I took years ago revealed that the worst profession for me would be teaching, because I don’t get why people don’t get it – new concepts, new systems, new ideas. On the contrary, people who have worked with me say I’m one of the best people to learn from. It’s a nasty glitch…