Logos Circle Cape Town #1

Circles
1

(Full report is also available as a Google Doc here)

Logos Circle: Cape Town

Post-Event Report — First Gathering (March 2026)

Cape Town, 25/03/2026
Cape Town, 25/03/20261776×350 57 KB

Date: Wednesday 25 March 2026, 7–9 pm
Location: The Commons, Surfers Corner, Muizenberg, Cape Town
Luma RSVPs: 44 going / 14 not going
Attendance: 25 total (21 Luma check-ins + 4 walk-ins)
Language: English
Circle Steward: Muriel

Participants

  • 25 people attended — mostly local Capetonians, with a handful of visitors from Edge City.

  • The room was weighted towards people who care deeply about grassroots issues and their communities.

  • About 6–7 attendees had technical backgrounds (some in web3 and crypto), and at least two identified as privacy advocates.

Backgrounds & Areas of interest (across the room):

grassroots activism, community building, web3/crypto, tech, education, journalism, marketing, philosophy, social justice, organisational culture.

How People Heard About the Event

Referral sources for checked-in attendees were varied: personal invitations from Muriel or friends were the most common route, followed by Edge City connections, the Luma platform, WhatsApp groups, word of mouth, and the internet.

Event Structure

The session ran from 19:00 to 21:00 and followed the agenda below:

  • Welcome & Arrival: 19:00 (20 min)

  • Personal Introductions (added): 19:20 (20 min)

  • Introduction to Logos, Circles & Winnable Issues: 19:40 (40 min)

  • Winnable Issue Brainstorm: 20:20 (40 min)

  • Closing & Next Steps: 21:00 (10 min)

What Matters to Cape Town?

On arrival, each attendee wrote something they care about on a sticky note and placed it on a wall poster. The issues raised were:

  • Physical safety

  • Corruption

  • Spatial inequality

  • Housing prices/number of Airbnbs in the city

  • Foreign buyers/home flippers are pricing locals out of the market

  • Traffic congestion

  • Space

  • Growth

  • Landfills filling up

  • Education equality

  • Access to safe and efficient public transport to all areas of the city

  • Service delivery to all areas, including informal housing areas

  • Deeper community

Topics Discussed

There was a palpable sense of community care in the room. The people who showed up genuinely want to do good in their local communities. The dominant themes from the discussion were:

Food Access & Waste

  • Making it easier to donate food (especially for those more inclined to donate food rather than cash)

  • Distribution of leftover food — connecting surplus with need

  • Waste management and better separation at source

Safety & Public Space

  • Safe streets initiatives

  • Suburb safety — neighbourhood watch, road safety, alarm networks

  • Noise pollution and train hooting

  • Creating a “showcase” clean area in Cape Town — leading by example

  • Open streets and bike safety for delivery riders

Housing & Spatial Development

  • Airbnbs reducing available housing for residents

  • Spatial development and urban planning

  • Designated spaces for delivery bike drivers — basic infrastructure like toilets, shade, and rest areas

Transport

  • NFC payment for all public transport

  • Enabling online purchase/ticketing for commuter rail

  • Online top-up for MyCiTi card

  • Community campaign to use trains (and make them safer)

Community & Belonging

  • Building community and creating events in communal spaces

  • Hungry people — feeding programmes and food security

  • Community art and vegetable gardens

  • Anonymous, free help for local giving — “hard to ask”

  • Community activation via digital communities and social media platforms

  • Spaces for independent thinking

  • Bridging the gap / reducing barriers to entry for people to gather in community

  • Training and opportunities for street buskers (jazz, drawing, busking skills)

Cape Town Narratives & Diversity

  • Cape Town’s narratives — how the city tells its own story

  • Diversity and representation within community spaces

Key Tensions & Open Questions

Several important tensions surfaced during the discussion:

  • A strong opinion (with resonance in the room) that Cape Town — and South Africa broadly — does not need tech solutions. It needs solutions to basic needs: crime, poverty, housing. The most important local solutions are not technical, and high rates of inequality mean basic needs are still unmet for many.

  • Some discomfort around the concept of network states, interpreted through the lens of local wariness of a new form of “colonialism” and elite privilege. One attendee directly asked: “How do we ensure that Logos doesn’t become another form of colonialism?”

  • Questions about Logos governance structures — both at the global/organisational level and for Circles in terms of decision-making mechanisms.

  • Discussion around sociocracy and grassroots movement structures — how to improve what already exists rather than building from scratch.

Winnable Issue Brainstorm

The room was divided into 5 stations. Groups rotated through three rounds: generating ideas (sticky notes), ranking for importance, and ranking for feasibility.

The top-voted issues that emerged and were brought to a central wall for presentation:

  • Make it easier to donate food (especially food vs. cash)

  • Distribution of leftover food

  • Safe streets initiatives

  • Airbnbs reducing available housing for residents

  • Designated spaces for delivery bike drivers (toilets, shade, rest areas)

  • Noise pollution/train hooting

  • Spaces for independent thinking

Note: Food-related issues and safe streets featured most prominently. There was broad convergence around the idea that the most impactful local actions address basic human needs — food, safety, housing — rather than technological solutions.

Highlights

Food & Logistics

Catering was served in the adjacent room: potato wedges, samoosas, chickpea bhajias, and arancini, totalling ~110 USD (anticipated attendance was higher; next time the food budget will be much reduced).

Materials Distributed

  • Two Logos zines: “Nation States Are Obsolete” and “Open Source Everything”

  • Logos stickers

  • “Farewell to Westphalia” (book) on display

Participant Feedback

7 responses were received via the post-event feedback form within 24 hours of the form being sent. Key themes:

What People Valued Most

  • Meeting people who are motivated to make some positive differences

  • The variety of perspectives on Cape Town’s challenges, and the lively debate

  • The Circuit exercise — the rotating group format was praised for preventing people from getting stuck on their own ideas

  • Connecting with like-minded people interested in using web3 philosophies for local impact

  • Muriel’s passion and the inspiration from Edge City Patagonia was noted as palpable

Who Was Missing?

  • More people of colour — with the suggestion that this will grow as meetings move around the city

  • People from NGOs and community/social workers already tackling local issues on the ground

Constructive Criticism

  • The final discussion felt “all over the place” — sticky-note ideas were sometimes interpreted differently from the author’s intent, so voting didn’t always reflect actual meaning. Suggestions: an unconference-style format, more detail on ideas before voting, or leaving one person behind at each station to explain the context.

  • A late arrival spoke at length without context, which derailed the conversation a bit. Clearer facilitation agreements could give the facilitator a mandate to navigate moments like that.

  • One respondent noted they’re not sure they need another group (Telegram) but are happy to decide at the next meetup. More broadly, there was some resistance to Telegram as the default communications channel — not everyone uses it, and for some, it represents yet another platform to manage. The choice of channel may need to be revisited.

  • There were some assumptions behind some people’s ideas that would have been good to talk through, but it didn’t feel like the right space, e.g., “European assumptions about poor people’s ability to think independently”. It would be good to find a way to address this constructively.

Outcomes

Emerging Winnable Issue Themes

Food access/distribution and safe streets emerged as the strongest themes from the winnable issues brainstorm. These scored well on importance and feasibility, and generated the most energy in the room. However, the Circle’s winnable issue will be determined at the next gathering, once we know who is in the room and ready to commit their time.

Interest in Roles

Circle roles were introduced (Community Lead, Tech Lead, Communications Lead, Impact Lead). No formal commitments were made on the night, but attendees were invited to express interest after the session.

Next Steps

  • Confirm date, venue, and format for the second gathering

  • At the next gathering, determine the Circle’s winnable issue based on who is in the room and willing to commit time

  • Follow up with attendees — Telegram is the current default channel, but there was some resistance to it; consider whether WhatsApp or another platform would better serve the local group

What We Learned / To Improve / New Ideas

What Worked Well

  • Direct, personal outreach (DMs, voice notes, calls) was far more effective than simply sharing the event link

  • The spontaneous personal introductions set a warm, trusting tone

  • “The Circuit” format for winnable issues brainstorming generated genuine engagement and surfaced a wide range of issues — the rotating structure was specifically praised in feedback

  • The sticky-note arrival activity (“What matters to Cape Town?”) primed the room’s energy for later discussion

  • Deep community care was palpable — people showed up because they want to make a difference

  • The venue (The Commons, Muizenberg) worked well for the size of group

Areas for Improvement

  • Accessibility: check wheelchair access at the venue (one RSVPed attendee asked about lift access)

  • Inclusivity: consider timing carefully for people travelling from informal settlements and those concerned about safe travel after dark

  • RSVPs are a show of interest, not a commitment — expect roughly half to attend (44 RSVPs → 25 attended)

  • Reflect on who was not in the room, and therefore what issues were not represented: artists, LGBTQ+ community members, low-income residents, women of colour, NGO workers, community/social workers

  • The concept of network states needs careful framing in the South African context — be prepared for questions about colonialism, elite privilege, and who benefits from decentralised governance

  • Tech framing should be secondary; lead with community need and local agency

  • The Circuit needs refinement: consider having one person stay behind at each station to explain the ideas, or allow more detail before voting to avoid misinterpretation

  • Clearer facilitation agreements are needed to manage moments when individuals dominate the conversation without context

New Ideas for Next Time

  • Proactively reach out to NGOs, community workers, and people with lived experience of the issues raised

  • Explore sociocracy and existing grassroots decision-making frameworks as a way to ground the Circle’s governance

  • Prepare clearer answers on Logos governance — both globally and at Circle level

  • Consider a shorter Logos intro and longer time for The Circuit and community discussion

  • Have a clearer “hard ask” ready for the close — specific roles or tasks people can sign up for on the night

  • Rotate venue locations across Cape Town to broaden access and attract different communities

  • Prioritise collaboration with existing local organisations and initiatives over building new structures — the Circle’s value is in connecting and amplifying what already exists, not duplicating it

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