What A Gem!

Precious Ntsalaze, head chef at Arbour Café & Courtyard in Johannesburg, grew up amidst the cadence of a majesty of mountains in the Drakensberg range, but is now known as Jozi’s Queen of Crêpes…

- Anna Trapido

TOWN AND COUNTRY

My daughters, Ongeziwe and Iviwe, are 11 and five years old, respectively. They are my pride and joy, but I’m always amazed by how their lives differ to mine at their age. My mother was a domestic worker in Johannesburg, so I grew up with my aunt and uncle at Fever settlement in the Matatiele district of the Eastern Cape. We lived in a traditional Xhosa-style, round, thatched hut under the shadow of a mountain we called Ulundi. Looking back now, it was beautiful – that little blue house directly below the mountain's foot; but at the time, what I mainly noticed was how cold it was! In winter, people in Johannesburg complain about the cold, but you won’t know anything about being really and truly chilled to your bones until you have lived right under a mountain in a draughty hut with no electricity. I know snow. Real snow. My kids have grown up in Tembisa and get excited if they see a few flakes of snow – but back then, I had to trudge through proper, deep snow to fetch icy water from the river.

THE REAL AMASI