![]() “It is also a place where we can make a difference in other peoples lives, a positive difference, and do that nearly every day.” I could not easily do the things I do in South Africa in Canada – where I run a wine bar, a design company, and own a building with an art gallery, all in my little town. “The country grants us anarchic freedoms and remarkable opportunity. That is what makes South Africa so compelling.”ĭouglas says you may ask why anyone would trade Canada – one of the most peaceful, prosperous and successful countries in the world – for “South Africa’s chaos”? But there is an easy answer: “We always find such remarkable creativity and talent in this country in unexpected places. What they do is very small scale now, they make the hats and then Thabang takes R140 (return) taxi ride from Orange Farm to Parkhurst to sell the hats, hawking up and down Parkhurst’s stylish 4th Avenue.”ĭiscovering this kind of “wonderful” talent is one of the reasons why Douglas has remained in South Africa. “Thabang’s mom worked for a hat maker and picked up the skill. “What Thabang and his mom do is wonderful, I am so happy to have discovered their talent and to be able to work with them,” says Douglas. Thabang and his mom make the “well crafted” hats at their home in Orange Farm (a township south of Joburg). Already I am exporting to people in Canada.” We just struck up a business partnership right away. They are such beautiful hats and it was so unusual to find someone making Canadian style Mounty hats. And this is where I am selling Thabang’s hats. “I also have a design business there, The Free State Design company. “I run a beautiful wine bar there – The Service Station – and have renovated some old homes in the downtown,” Douglas told SAPeople. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.Douglas was an editor at The Economist and worked all over Africa, before landing up in the Free State. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |