The Big Issue

High quality, varied and entertaining content for readers across age, culture, religion, gender and other demographics. Stories include reporting on local and international happenings with a ‘bigger issue’ about an individual, and unusual news or events that impact us all. The Big Issue shares in-depth interviews with local and international celebrities, artists, change-makers and thought leaders. It also focuses on local people or organisations committed to making positive changes in society – intent on finding innovative ways to effect change.

The Big Issue SA

THE POWER IN YOU

LOVE YOUR LOCAL VENDOR • Our vendors operate as self-made entrepreneurs and their sole earnings are the profits made from each magazine they sell. We appeal to you to donate to their wish lists below, enabling them to further their opportunities. And, if you can make a dream come true, please get in touch.

FILM FUN FOR BIG ISSUE KIDS • For most of our vendors’ teenage children, a recent outing to watch a movie in a cinema was a first-time experience.

Cape Town township grannies get tech savvy • Tablet computers were recently given to Eerste River grandmothers as part of the goGOGOgo project.

SOCIAL JUSTICE CHAIR • The biography, No Longer Whispering to Power: The Story of Thuli Madonsela by Thandeka Gqubule, (Jonathan Ball Publishers) received mixed reviews, and, although it was published in 2017, remains a national staple that helps makes sense of a corrupt and complicated South African social justice system. In the author’s words, “If someone has the power to make a change that he or she can see will reduce injustice in the world, then there is a strong social argument for doing just that.”

The rise of township power • Author of Citizen and Pariah, Vanya Gastrow completed her PhD in 2017. She holds a BA LLB MPhil (private law) from UCT and is an admitted attorney. Her research interest in law and society has resulted in a compelling book about xenophobia, foreign traders and their existence in South African townships, a complex topic. A visceral reporting style reveals a parallel fantastical legal ‘reality’ that in no way reflects the constitutional laws of SA.

IN DISCUSSION WITH VANYA

Gugulethu’s sweetest business • Vuyo Myoli has set himself up as a beekeeper in the Cape Town township.

Little issue • young minds matter

TOWNSHIP ART GALLERIES • “We have so many artists in Khayelitsha,” says Ntinga Khozi Fine Art Centre Owner Nwabisa Nkonyana, who teaches the creative subject to children and hopes to expand further.

Worrier State • Worrier State: Risk, Anxiety and Moral Panic in South Africa, (Wits University Press), by Nicky Falkof delves into the culture of fear in South Africa. Anxieties about security and identity are examined with candid pragmatism that South Africans will relate to and understand.

5 MINUTES WITH NICKY FALKOF, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, WITS

Vigilante bank collections • Consumers, be alert and aware. Some banks will still try to collect prescribed debts from you even when it’s illegal. Bank fraud is a hassle you can do without. Here’s what you need to know.

Surviving interest rate hikes • There is a way homeowners can offset the recent homeloan repayment increase. Get your insurance, or other monthly costs, reduced.

MIND READER EXTRAORDINAIRE • Thousands of years ago, before the advent of religious ideologies, which served to govern people at the time, sorcerers, shamans and medicine people were, (some still are), an essential part of society. Evidence of ancient and inexplicable mysteries of the world also exist: the sacred spaces of Tulum, the pyramids, the undeniable power of ring forts, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, and Nazca. Enter modern day magician and mentalist Larry Soffer. His natural abilities will blow your...