Dinner Party Intel

Cape Town’s MyCiTi surges, a man and his dog reunite, and Spider-Man breaks records

The MyCiTi bus system is rapidly expanding with a new bridge, a Malawian man and his dog are reunited after fleeing xenophobia, and ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ achieves massive box office success worldwide.

13 AUG 2026, 04:00

1 min read

Despair and delight

While relics of Joburg’s rapid transit bus system stand in Louis Botha Avenue like Ozymandias’s legs, Cape Town’s bus routes are racing ahead. A key piece of a new phase of the MyCiTi expansion was completed last week with the installation of huge beams that will form part of the Duinefontein bridge in the southeast of the city. It will eventually link Cape Flats commuters from Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain and nearby areas to Claremont and Wynberg in the southern suburbs.

Hatred vs love

Stephen Singini, a Malawian who fled South Africa ahead of a xenophobic mob in St Francis Bay, was reunited last week with the faithful dog, Fireman, that he had to leave behind. The man and his dog were well known in the Eastern Cape town, and Fireman was left in the care of a local pet charity, which organised crowdfunding to transport the dog to Gqeberha, then to Joburg and finally to Lilongwe by air. Singini and Fireman left Lilongwe together, hitchhiking to Singini’s home in Karonga, about 550km to the north.

Web of wealth

Spider-Man swung to the second-biggest opening weekend in box-office history, with Brand New Day spinning $927m worldwide — easily clearing its $225m budget. Only Avengers: Endgame, released in 2019, tops it. Real-life couple Tom Holland and Zendaya star in the Spider-Man sequel, set after No Way Home. They’re also in The Odyssey, which made a mythical R7.7m in South Africa, the biggest Imax opening weekend locally since Covid.