the b in b&r

mr cindy was due to meet the roads department contractors at 7am in order to negotiate the use of their tlb again. news had it that sigfred, the manager of the kwathema depot had been reprimanded for helping us yesterday. it seemed that the plans for clearing the site completely today had fallen through.

gareth and i spent the morning driving around. we had fetched the plascon paint donation and the trailer was full. we traversed johannesburg to places i had never been. we discovered the fundamental differences between boksburg, benoni and brakpan.

we returned to kwathema after lunch with the trailer bulging. murray and roberts had donated us props, instant trees had given us planting material for our trees. we had bought grass at a discounted price form b&r lawns.

we arrived back traumatized by the pastoral visit to b&r engineering in fact, which happened to sell instant lawn on the side! the main office was adorned with a stuffed baboon wearing a blue bulls cap and a log bar with matching log barstools. klippies and bells were mounted above the counter ready for friday afterwork drinks. the man who helped us had mechanic-black nails and a huge beer belly. i asked hysterical gareth to leave the office so that i could compose myself while he wrote out my receipt. we waited for our lawn strips to be cut by the laborers, where a bakkie fitted with horns waited too, and left speedily.

on site we planted the first eight trees – we did not have enough shovels to go around, so it took most of the afternoon. others laid the freshly cut lawn. we bucketed water back and forth from mr cindy’s house.

a kwaito star and his crew arrived at the site in a white tazz. they had filmed a music video there in march and were back to do a photographic shoot. veli had started the uprising mural this morning and the group used the image many times as a backdrop. although incomplete, it was powerful and strong, a narration of the history there. catherine asked them for a short interview - chisa boy and his manager lebo, were positive about the ruins of the beerhall and were interested in performing at our launch. they seemed underwhelmed by the fact that we could not pay them.

we left the site as dusk dawned. the beerhall burnt orange in the low setting sun.