Happy First Thursday, Melville. Issue 80 lands on the most electric day of the month, with the Melville Art Mile just minutes away, the neighbourhood has been ablaze with activity all year, and we're struggling to keep up! Pull on something warm, charge your phone, and let's go.

In this week’s newsletter:

— Aubrey Moloto

Caryn did not plan to speak. The gathering last week at Bambanani, the warm evening that Melissa and Herman quietly pulled together, was meant to be something small. A show of community. A reason to gather. And then the room filled, and Caryn stood up, and what she said was one of the most honest and heartfelt things said publicly about Melville in a long time.

"I'm definitely going to get emotional," she told the room. "Because this is an 18-year emotional thing."

Eighteen years. That number is easy to say and harder to feel. Bambanani has been part of this neighbourhood since 2008, through the shifts and shocks that have changed Melville's character more than once. It survived. It kept going. It became, for many regulars, one of those places you did not think to be grateful for until the possibility of losing it became real.

How We Got Here

In late April, Bambanani's Instagram announced a temporary closure from 27 April for a revamp, with doors set to reopen from 1 May. Around the same time, a SENS announcement from Africa Bitcoin Corporation, which holds an investment stake in Bambanani, flagged that the business was under financial pressure and undergoing restructuring at a corporate level. ACOF then followed up with a public Instagram post declaring their support for Bambanani: an unusual move for a listed entity, and a deliberate one. It signals that those with skin in the game consider the business worth backing publicly, not just quietly.

The closure extended beyond 1 May. And in the days that followed, a community gathering at the property became the moment Caryn chose to speak. Directly, honestly, and at length. What she said that evening is her statement, and it deserves to be told properly.

How it started

Caryn's original vision for the Bambanani property was never just a coffee shop. She bought the space, and later the building where the Scala Bio-Scope, Mixer and the Kaffie Huise used to be, with a specific and ambitious purpose: a children's theatre during school hours, and a boutique evening space for comedy, musicians, and dinner, the kind of intimate cultural venue Joburg's inner suburbs are badly missing.

"I saw the vision of this place long before it was meant to be," she said. "And I don't know if it's meant to be for me. Maybe it's meant to be for Melville."

The theatre, with a planned capacity of 250 and a renovation budget of between R700,000 and R1 million, exists in detailed drawings. The vision is real. What has not come is the zoning approval, and that delay is not incidental to Bambanani's current situation: according to Caryn, it's central to it.

The bureaucratic wall

Caryn has been waiting for zoning approval for eighteen months. When the city's traffic assessment finally came through, the instruction it delivered was staggering: she would need to register a servitude over 27 Boxes to acquire 70 parking bays, as a condition for the theatre to operate.

Across the road from the property: 250 empty parking bays.

"I can't understand the logic of it," she said. "The whole of Parkhurst doesn't have one parking lot, and there are restaurants with 150 seats and no parking lots."

The community petition of 1,800 signatures pushed the Johannesburg Property Company to engage. It was Julia Fish, who attended the community gathering and immediately recognised that this meeting needed to happen, who helped make it possible. The meeting was scheduled for this past Monday. The outcome, whether the city grants a temporary permit while the formal process continues, or simply acknowledges that a 250-bay public car park across the road makes the servitude requirement absurd, remains to be seen.

The losses and what they mean

Behind all of this is a simpler, more brutal fact: since Covid, Bambanani has been losing up to R200,000 a month.

The daytime trade that used to sustain the business never fully returned. Caryn is direct about why: too many bars, not enough daytime traders. "Melville hasn't gone down," she said. "The only problem with Melville is there's just too many bars and no daytime trade. There's no other problem, actually."

To keep the business running, she has been selling artworks from the property. 95 people bought one. To offset losses, she is developing a new concept: a French-inspired single-dish dinner, one starter, one main, one dessert, with cocktails, designed to bring evening trade through the door without the full costs of an à la carte kitchen operation. It's an idea that's really been considered by someone who has been watching this space and this neighbourhood for nearly two decades.

Caryn also proactively absorbed the neighbouring properties where Tipsy and Moonlight Vibes once operated, specifically to prevent them from becoming nightclub spaces. She fixed the facade of that entire building at her own expense because, in her words, it looked terrible. These are not the actions of a business operator indifferent to the neighbourhood it works in.

A Twist In The Story

After the community gathering, a fuller and more complicated picture began to emerge in community discussions, and it is important enough to share here in full.

A resident in the community chat group raised the point that Bambanani sits within an investment portfolio linked to Africa Bitcoin Corporation, a JSE-listed entity, and that decisions at that level are shaped by commercial performance expectations beyond any single location. He was careful to frame this as context rather than blame: "It's very possible, and probably more accurate, that this is a combination of factors."

Others were quick to add nuance. The precise ownership structure was contested: Africa Bitcoin Corporation holds 31% of shares, which, by JSE rules, falls short of the 35% threshold required to be classified as a holding company. The relationship is that of an investor, not an owner, making operational calls.

Jovana Korać, who has been closely involved with Bambanani's fight for survival, offered the most detailed response, and it named something the community has not fully reckoned with.

Several of Bambanani's core revenue streams were not cut by corporate pressure. They were cut by complaints lodged to the City by local residents. Children's entertainment, puppet shows, magicians, and birthday discos: activities that were meaningful income drivers, shut down on the basis that Bambanani lacked an entertainment licence. Objections were also raised against the use of the rear property for yoga classes, chess, and community workshops, activities Caryn had introduced specifically to generate income during the post-COVID recovery.

These were not fringe activities. They were, according to Jovana, material contributors to revenue during the most financially vulnerable stretch of the business's recent history. Their removal compounded losses at the worst possible time.

She also raised something broader: experienced restaurateurs from Parkhurst and Parkview, some of them Melville residents, have expressed reluctance to invest here because of a perceived anti-business sentiment around approvals and community objections. Whether that perception is entirely fair or not, it is a signal worth hearing rather than dismissing.

Paul Mills added another thread to this: the COJ's long-standing reluctance to explore turning 7th Street into a pedestrian zone. The idea has been discussed, proposed on film, and shelved. The argument is that a pedestrianised 7th Street changes the economics of the entire strip, for businesses and residents alike, in ways that might resolve some of the friction that currently plays out through noise complaints and objection processes. Nothing has happened. The JDA film is on YouTube if you want to see what was proposed and draw your own conclusions.

The hard question

This is not a story with clean villains. Residents who raised concerns about activities near their homes were exercising legitimate rights. A city that takes 18 months to process a zoning application and then demands a parking servitude next to a 250-bay open lot is doing something structurally wrong. A corporate investment structure that introduces financial performance pressure beyond any individual operator's control is a real variable. And a community that, in trying to protect one aspect of its quality of life, may have materially weakened one of the very businesses it most valued, is a possibility worth sitting with honestly.

What is not abstract is the consequence. If Bambanani sells and leaves, what moves into that heritage corner building next is not guaranteed to be what anyone would choose. The strip's recent history makes this specific anxiety reasonable rather than paranoid. One parent said it plainly: his concern is not just about Bambanani closing, it is about what fills the space instead, and what kind of neighbourhood his daughter grows up in.

"I believe the urban villages of Joburg are the place where small businesses can survive," Caryn said at the gathering. "And Melville is the amazing place to not die."

She is still fighting for it. She is meeting investors, she is in conversations with hospitality brands, and she is not walking away.

"If the universe wants this," she said, "it has to step up."

So does the community. And that step may need to begin with an honest look at how we engage with the businesses we claim to love, before they are gone, rather than after.

We will be watching the JPC meeting outcome closely. Updates in Issue 81.

This is a story Melville Untold will keep following. If you have a perspective we have missed, or you are directly involved: reply to this email. All views presented fairly.

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Another Melville Art Mile is upon us, get your tickets!

For more updates as the week goes on, visit our Instagram page @snapson7th or our Melville Pulse event calendar

The year started with difficult news. In 2025, De La Creme announced its departure after 37 years on the strip. That corner building, heritage-listed, beloved, sat empty for too long. Early rumours that a spaza shop might take over generated real community anxiety. It seems those concerns were heard, with stakeholders from the MBA and the wider Melville community making moves to secure a better candidate.

That candidate appears to be Altar Bar, currently on the Greenside strip, opening their second location in Melville. A different proposition to De La Creme, but a legitimate addition to the nightlife. A small victory for the street, worth naming.

Opening date to follow, intro article with the new team coming soon!

Rosemary turns 39 — And The Party Proves The Point

Thirty-nine years. Not Rosemary's age, as she would be the first to clarify, but the age of the shop. Rosemary Reminiscene has been around for thirty-nine years, and last weekend, she did what she always does: she opened the space, gathered the people, and made it feel like the most natural thing in the world.

About 30 friends and regulars filled the back of Rosemary Reminiscene for the occasion. Drinks, bites, and the particular warmth of a space that has earned its place in the neighbourhood's heart over nearly four decades.

That space, that welcome, that history: 39 years of it, and still going. The birthday energy carries straight into tonight. Rosemary Reminiscene opens stays open for the Melville Art Mile tonight if you want to pop in and wish them a Happy Birthday.

Don't you worry, Melville pet community, we haven't forgotten about you! Last winter, we kicked off the fun Pet Winter Swag contest, where our readers and community members' furry family flexed their coolest, most cosy winter warmers. We're bringing it back this year and are aiming to launch on 15 May, running through to 15 September. We are looking for a good pet store to partner with us. Get your best friends' best looks sorted: this year's prize is going to be bigger!

Pet stores interested in partnering: [email protected].

Tonight. 18 venues. Our neighbourhood. No excuse not to come.

The Melville Art Mile returns for its May edition this evening, and the programme is one of the strongest the 2026 season has produced. Eighteen confirmed venues spanning from Bamboo to Kruisgemeente, four anchor points hold the geography together, two dedicated shuttle buses run the route all night, and a lineup that covers everything from fine jewellery to graffiti murals to live painting sessions to a specialised restaurant menu.

CityLife Arts wrote earlier this year that the Melville Art Mile found resonance with the community. That resonance has only deepened. We have since had over 1500 attendees and a 4.4/5 quicket rating. We still get kind words from non-participating venues about the spill-over businesses that are benefiting from. Tonight builds on all of it.

Getting Around

Your wristband is your entry. Marshals in Jozi My Jozi branded bibs, will issue them when you arrive at your first venue. Scan your Quicket ticket and you are in.

No ticket yet? Every Marshal's lanyard has a QR code. Scan and buy on the spot.

Two shuttle buses cycle the route all evening. Use them. Dedicated parking is at 27 Boxes as always, but an Uber in and home makes for a far better evening than hunting for your car at 20:00.

Anchors and orientation

Highlights tonight

From Crow's Nest, Leigh Le Roux has done a new mural by Xai Xai. Stop, look, take the photo. We'll light a fire outside.

At Dala Dank, there's a live mural being painted in front of you. At SIX Cocktail Bar, a live interactive paint session is running all evening.

At Bamboo Lifestyle Centre, the Melville Artisanal Market is at the gallery upstairs next to Tinsel, just above Love Books, which is also staying open late. The Trov is our other participating venue across the road, which will have live music playing from Bamboo's rooftop. Service Station has a specialised menu for tonight: try to book ahead.

Melville Security Initiative's crew is back, led by Danny, securing the full route from end to end. Their presence is part of what makes the evening feel safe and unhurried, and we are grateful to them every time.

The VIP Tour in full — 17:00 to 20:45

This is the definitive way to experience it. Three hours and 45 minutes, the full breadth of the route, and a group of people worth being in the same room as. We give you the best of the Mile and try to change it up each month, so you keep coming back. You get complimentary drinks, prioritised access, and a souvenir at the end made by a local artisan.

We actually have a guest who hasn't missed a tour since the first one! Shout out to Maisha!

Tickets at https://www.quicket.co.za/events/356417-melville-art-mile/.

The morning of 3 May started cold and grey at the Kafue Road entrance to Melville Koppies. By the time the session got underway at The Lecture Hut, the sun had come out, and what was unveiled was worth every degree of chill to witness: an augmented reality experience built around the Koppies' 500-year-old iron smelter, developed by UJ's Metaverse Research Unit in collaboration with the Melville Koppies Management Committee.

The session itself was as impressive for what happened in the room as for what the technology can do. UJ and the Koppies Committee presented a genuinely unified front, two institutions with different mandates, one table, one remarkable result.

For a nature reserve that already carries heritage, hiking, fauna, and flora, this tech layer adds something new without displacing what is already there. It gives one of Melville's most important historical chapters a future.

It's a cool time to be in Melville.

Check it out every Sunday at the Melville Koppies Central Nature Reserve. Gates open from 8am to 11.30

Iron Memory does not stop at the AR experience. On Saturday morning, storyteller Merle brings the iron-making chapter of the Koppies' history to life through oral tradition, retelling the story of more than 500 years of iron-making by the ancestors of the seSotho and seTswana people. It falls on Mother's Day weekend, one week after the AR launch: two ways of keeping history alive, one ancient, one cutting-edge, arriving in the same breath. More details on the Melville Koppies social media pages.

The monthly Koppies dog walk is on 16 May. Meet at the cul-de-sac on 3rd Avenue Westdene (off Arundel Road) at 7h50 for an 8h00 sharp start. R40 exact cash per person if possible. No Dogs? You’re still welcome.

Thank you for tuning in to a slightly half-baked issue of Melville Untold, please bare with us as we catch our breathe, we had no idea the resurgence would be so demanding of us! If you love our work give us a tip, consider buying us a coffee.

A note worth saying directly: we are currently turning down outside work to focus fully on the Art Mile, on community tours, and on this newsletter. That focus only works if the community it is built for supports it. The simplest way to help costs nothing, forward this email to one person who loves the Ville. Our list grows because you share it.

Read something interesting? Forward this mail to a friend who loves Melville.

Stay wandering, stay wild, stay warm.

Bi xatirê te. ✌️