Latest news with #Delft
The Herald
2 days ago
- The Herald
Father of six behind bars for life after brutal rape spree in Cape Town
Six women have been commended for their bravery testifying against a serial rapist who subjected them to harrowing ordeals at gunpoint, sometimes in a cemetery, in Delft, Cape Town. Father of six Lungile Buhlungu, 40, was sentenced by the high court in Cape Town on Wednesday to six life terms on six counts of rape and 50 years' imprisonment for his reign of terror between 2014 and 2019. The court also ordered correctional services to send Buhlungu for psychological evaluation to determine if he would benefit from psychological intervention available to the department for his sexual behaviour, and if so, to implement it. The six rape victims testified during an emotional trial in camera to protect their identity and avoid secondary victimisation, said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila. 'The first three women were raped in Delft on the evening of July 11 2014 after the accused and his accomplice, who were both armed, confronted them. They forced them at gunpoint into the bushes and took turns raping them.' The victims were released in the early hours of the next day. 'The accused raped the fourth victim on the evening of October 5 2017. She was attacked while walking home and woke up in hospital with a wound on the right side of her head and her right eye was red. She was found by a motorist lying naked at the local graveyard. She knows the accused as they lived in the same informal settlement in Delft. She had to leave the province to escape the traumatic environment,' said Ntabazalila. 'The o ther two women were raped on the evening of May 12 2018 when they were taken by a vehicle to the Delft graveyard and raped at gunpoint. The incident hurt them as their relationships have not been the same after their ordeal.'
Mail & Guardian
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Lumanyano Mzi: From Cape Town to the world
Talking in tongues: Cape Town musician Lumanyano Mzi will be touring in South Africa after a spell in the US. Photo: Henry Schulz Lumanyano Mzi's life in music started almost as soon as he could hold a drumstick. Born in Cape Town in 1995, he grew up in Nyanga East and later Delft, surrounded by rhythm and melody. His father, a spaza shop owner by day and a founding member of the reggae band Mighty Ethiopians by night, established a template for communal music-making that would shape Mzi's life and career. 'My father's band ended up being one of those things where all my aunts would take all the kids to the band,' Mzi recalls with a warm chuckle. 'So, at some point, it became a family band. 'It was a really fun and incredible experience for us to actually be able to be under the leadership of my dad and learn so many things about music and performance.' Mzi was only six years old when he started playing drums in the Mighty Ethiopians. His first performance came at the Paarl Annual Reggae Festival, where he took the stage at the tender age of seven. 'I just remember that night I was sleepy and I had this one song to play. I couldn't reach the drum pedals,' he says, laughing. 'I hid behind different drums. But, you know, I made it work. It was really beautiful. I still remember that.' Those early experiences planted a seed that grew into a lifelong love affair with music. 'It's definitely something that developed later in life. So, I loved music for what it was to me,' he says. 'Everything about it, you know, just brought me joy. I immersed myself fully in the art form of every music, despite what my parents were playing at home, which was either reggae or gospel.' Music was his ticket to the world. At 14, he joined the band Azania and had the opportunity to travel across Africa to perform in places such as Gambia, Senegal, Mauritius, Côte d'Ivoire and Réunion Island. 'Yeah, I just finished primary and I was getting into high school. And also, can you imagine what high schooler is getting paid four grand a gig?' he remembers. 'Even though that was the case, you know, in my head, I was like, 'Oh, wow. I can actually then get to, you know, give some of that money to my parents, and I can get myself my own drum set as well.' It wasn't just the money or the admiration of his peers that drove him, though he'll admit the feeling of coming back from an international tour as a high school pupil was unbeatable. It was the thrill of playing, of creating something new in the moment, of connecting with others through rhythm. 'I'm, like, I'm getting my first passport in high school, you know, can you imagine? Can you imagine that street cred when you come back from a whole international tour?' he says, grinning. After high school, Mzi took a gap year, founding the Unity Band with three of his friends: 'I was just, like, 'Oh, yeah, call it the Unity Band.' Unity is the translation of my name.' That year, he enrolled at the University of Cape Town's South African College of Music, where his education broadened his horizons and deepened his love for jazz. At UCT, Mzi balanced two worlds: student and professional. 'Two things are happening during this time. I'm at university now. And at the same time I'm, I'm kind of a working professional,' he explains. 'I've got all these projects and things happening outside … Getting into UCT expanded my network of people I was playing with.' He found himself surrounded by musicians who were deeply interested in traditional jazz and he soaked up everything like a sponge. 'I love learning; I just love absorbing things,' he says. 'As much as I did not know the techniques or this or that, you know, to me, yes, imposter syndrome. But, at the same time, I'm just, like, 'I don't have an expectation of what it's like in a music school. So I'm just gonna take whatever they give me.'' He grew Unity Band from a trio into an eight-piece ensemble. Their debut album Fabric won Best Newcomer in Jazz at the Mzantsi Jazz Awards in 2019. Their second album Breaking Bread was written and recorded in just seven days during the pandemic in 2020 and released in 2022. The album's title spoke to Mzi's philosophy — music as a shared meal, a communion of souls. In 2017, Mzi landed a gig in the revival of the legendary King Kong musical in Cape Town. It was during this period that he was introduced to his future wife Namisa Mdlalose — a playwright and singer who was also working on the play. 'I met Namisa when I was working for her sister, Spha Mdlalose, on her tour in Cape Town,' he says. 'She booked me for a gig and I kind of booked her sister for life.' By 2018, Mzi had set his sights on Berklee College of Music in Boston in the US. Several of his UCT lecturers, including his drum teacher Frank Miller, had encouraged him to apply. 'They were all saying this phrase to me for some reason. You know, it's like, 'Man, I think you'd be great at Berklee, you know. Do you know Berklee?'' he says. At first, he didn't. But he quickly learned. Although he was accepted in 2018, he couldn't secure enough funding — $7 000 a year wasn't enough to cover the $24 000 he needed for tuition and living expenses. So, he put it aside. It wasn't until 2021, with support from private companies, friends, family and Berklee itself, that he finally made the move to Boston. 'It happened so quick,' he says. 'Friends, family, Berklee — people showed up and supported, you know, it's definitely straight out of a dream. It's just a miracle, you know. And, yeah, definitely God was with us in this journey.' He and Namisa moved to Boston together, and Mzi blazed through the four-year programme in record time. Last year, they relocated to New York, where he's been working as a session musician, while refining the music for his debut solo album. In early November, Mzi recorded that debut album over two days in New York — a culmination of years of work and exploration. Now 30, he's finally bringing it home. Next month, Mzi will return to South Africa to tour the album, performing in Makhanda for the National Youth Jazz Festival, then in Cape Town at the Young Blood Africa Gallery and at Untitled Basement in Johannesburg. 'I have Ciara Moser on bass from Vienna, Austria, and I have Isaac Romagosa on guitar from Spain. 'And I have my brothers from home, Simon Manana from Johannesburg on alto saxophone and Jean Strauss from Cape Town on tenor saxophone and Kevin Harris from the United States on piano. 'I also have some incredible guests who are going to be sharing the stage with us,' he says, his voice alive with excitement. 'Some members from the Unity Band. My lovely wife will be joining me in Johannesburg.' Music, for Mzi, has always been a family affair, whether by blood or by spirit. 'The greatest joy is to actually play music with family,' he says. 'Because also what ends up happening, all the musicians we play with become family, you know?' From the boy who couldn't reach the pedals at the age of seven to the man about to launch his first solo album at 30, Lumanyano Mzi's journey has been one of joyful dedication. He returns home not just as a celebrated drummer, but as a keeper of the rhythms that have carried him from Cape Town to the world stage — and back again.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Dutch beach beasts find a final resting place in a new exhibition
DELFT, Netherlands (AP) — The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto 'The Simpsons.' Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery. The 'bones' of Theo Jansen's 'strandbeesten' — beach animals in Dutch — have taken over a former cable factory in Delft, the small city in the western Netherlands that Jansen has called home for decades. 'During the years, there has been a sort of evolutionary history, you could say. And you could see these animals as sort of natural historical objects,' the 77-year old artist told The Associated Press before the installation's opening. The Strandbeesten Mortuary, as the exhibition is called, follows the various versions of the mobile sculptures since 1990 when Jansen created the first one from plastic pipes and tape. As the animals evolved, Jansen incorporated plastic bottles, wooden planks, cloth and cardboard. The life and death cycle of these famous animals — formed mostly out of PVC pipes — has left behind an impressive fossil record, which is on display at the exhibition. Marloes Koster, who organized the exhibition for Delft's Prinsenhof Museum, said that Jansen's ultimate goal is to create a beast that will live forever. 'He's not there yet, so these are the ones that didn't make it,' she added. The museum is undergoing major renovations, so Koster and her colleagues have been putting together arts and culture events at alternative venues around the city while the building is shut. Born near the North Sea, Jansen grew up captivated by the wind that often hits the Dutch coastline. He harnessed it to allow his animals to 'walk' along the beach. Every year, he creates a new strandbeest and, at the end of the summer, declares the animal dead. 'All summer I do experiments, and in the fall I'm a little bit wiser (about) how these animals should survive in the future,' Jansen said. Many of the visitors to the opening of the exhibition had followed Jansen's work for years and were keen to understand how the strandbeesten had changed over time. 'You see a kind of development in the way he does things. So they start out very simple, and then it gets increasingly complicated. So they evolve,' said Cor Nonhof, a Delft local who had come to see the exhibition with his wife. Even at the opening, Jansen was already keen to return to the beach to work on the latest evolution of his strandbeesten. 'I cannot do anything else,' Jansen said. 'And I am very happy with that.'
Washington Post
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Dutch beach beasts find a final resting place in a new exhibition
DELFT, Netherlands — The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto 'The Simpsons.' Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery.
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Dutch beach beasts find a final resting place in a new exhibition
The famous wind-powered beach beasts have scuttled along the Dutch North Sea coast, into a swanky Miami art show and even onto 'The Simpsons.' Now. they have a final resting place in a Dutch city most famous for 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' painter Johannes Vermeer and blue-painted pottery. The 'bones' of Theo Jansen's 'strandbeesten' — beach animals in Dutch — have taken over a former cable factory in Delft, the small city in the western Netherlands that Jansen has called home for decades. 'During the years, there has been a sort of evolutionary history, you could say. And you could see these animals as sort of natural historical objects,' the 77-year old artist told The Associated Press before the installation's opening. The Strandbeesten Mortuary, as the exhibition is called, follows the various versions of the mobile sculptures since 1990 when Jansen created the first one from plastic pipes and tape. As the animals evolved, Jansen incorporated plastic bottles, wooden planks, cloth and cardboard. The life and death cycle of these famous animals — formed mostly out of PVC pipes — has left behind an impressive fossil record, which is on display at the exhibition. Marloes Koster, who organized the exhibition for Delft's Prinsenhof Museum, said that Jansen's ultimate goal is to create a beast that will live forever. 'He's not there yet, so these are the ones that didn't make it,' she added. The museum is undergoing major renovations, so Koster and her colleagues have been putting together arts and culture events at alternative venues around the city while the building is shut. Born near the North Sea, Jansen grew up captivated by the wind that often hits the Dutch coastline. He harnessed it to allow his animals to 'walk' along the beach. Every year, he creates a new strandbeest and, at the end of the summer, declares the animal dead. 'All summer I do experiments, and in the fall I'm a little bit wiser (about) how these animals should survive in the future,' Jansen said. Many of the visitors to the opening of the exhibition had followed Jansen's work for years and were keen to understand how the strandbeesten had changed over time. 'You see a kind of development in the way he does things. So they start out very simple, and then it gets increasingly complicated. So they evolve,' said Cor Nonhof, a Delft local who had come to see the exhibition with his wife. Even at the opening, Jansen was already keen to return to the beach to work on the latest evolution of his strandbeesten. 'I cannot do anything else,' Jansen said. 'And I am very happy with that.'
