Waterkloof

In this episode of Suitcase and Chardonnay, I am chatting to Janae Pretorius, the woman behind the newly transformed Milner Market, formerly known as Waterkloof Mini Market.

We talk about the realities of building a business while navigating motherhood, the evolution of this much loved Pretoria destination, and what visitors can expect from the Milner Market today.

From entrepreneurship and family life to food, community, and creating a space where people genuinely feel welcome and catered to, this is a conversation about turning a dream into something elevated and fresh while continuing the legacy of a space that Pretoria people have loved for many years.

Now, if you're ready, let's go.

It's a cloudy day in Pretoria today, and, um, but yeah, you'll be put out of your gloom very soon because we are at the Milner Market, brand new and completely transformed.

It was the Waterkloof Mini Market.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Now it said that his parole conditions are strict.

He moved in with his uncle in the Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof.

There's like a random K in this word.

Waterkloof? Waterkloof.

Anyways, he moved there.

And this, I guess, is like the same place that he was staying during his trial.

You have to- Go and do it.

And, um, uh, the first one I did was, uh, in actually Monument Park in Pretoria, uh, which we then called, uh, Waterkloof Ridge at the time.

Um, I wanted to play on the, on the-

Mm-hmm

My own home is still in Polokwane, in the very same area that I grew up in, and part of my political responsibilities are in some of the most remote areas in Limpopo.

I don't live there permanently now because of the work, but every encounter back home is a reminder of the disparity in terms of experience that exists between me, my peers, my relatives, my homeboys and homegirls, and it's what fuels me in, in, in doing this job because there shouldn't be a distinction in this day and age between the quality of connectivity that one experiences when you're in Waterkloof in Pretoria, which is where I'm temporarily based, and in Mohlalare where I come from, you know.

Because as I often tell a lot of people, access to broadband connectivity in this day and age is the oxygen that we need to get on with the most basic essentials of, of, of our lives.

But for so many, I think, you know, the stats tell us that there are approximately 20 million South Africans who on a day-to-day basis do not have access to broadband connectivity, and that for me is a matter of, you know, huge human injustice in this day and age.