2023 International Meeting Pretoria
 

Meeting Location and Campus Entrances

University of Pretoria, Hatfield Campus, Graduate Centre

Please use the following entrances to campus and remember to bring your name badge to show the security at these entrances.

  • Main Entrance – Lynnwood Road (south of the campus)
  • Lunnon Road (east of campus)
  • Prospect Street (north on the map – if you come from the Hatfield hotels)
  • University Road (west of the camp)

Map Link

Getting Around Pretoria

Once in Pretoria it’s a good idea to travel in groups, especially after dark.  Uber is a convenient and safe mode of transportation also.  

We will offer a shuttle service from the following hotels and guest houses. 

  • Courtyard Hotel Arcadia
  • Protea by Marriott Loftus Park
  • 37 on Anderson
  • Osborne House
  • Brooklyn Place
  • 137 Murray Street

Shuttle Schedule

               Monday:  2:00 PM – 7:00 PM

               Tuesday – Thursday: 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM and  5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

               Friday: 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM and 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Shuttles will make the loop every 20 - 30 minutes, depending on traffic.

Additionally, for properties closer to campus or for those wishing to walk we suggest meeting in the lobby and at the Graduate Centre at the following times to walk together.

               Tuesday – Thursday:  7:30 AM and 5:30 PM 

               Friday:  7:30 AM and 12:30 PM

Two additional travel tips.

  • Always carry your health insurance card.
  • We recommend that at all conferences you only wear your name badge on campus or at the meeting location.  Wearing it outside of those areas lets people know you are most likely a tourist. 

Tours

We will be offering a variety of tours at the meeting. Please click here for more information on the available tours, as well as a form for booking these excursions. Spaces are limited, so please make your booking as soon as possible. The deadline for tour selection is June 26.

There will also be multiple university campus tours available for booking onsite.

Pharmacies (Drug stores) close to campus:

  • Clicks Pharmacy (Hatfield Plaza Shopping Mall, c/o Park Street and Grosvenor Street, Hatfield) – 300m from campus
  • Dischem Pharmacy (Hillcrest Boulevard Shopping Centre, 219 Lunnon Road, Hillcrest) – 500m from campus
  • Dischem Pharmacy (Loftus Park, 416 Kirkness St, Hatfield) – 1,2km from campus
  • Dischem Pharmacy (Brooklyn Mall, 338 Bronkhorst St, Nieuw Muckleneuk) – 2,2km from campus

General Practitioner’s Rooms

Hatmed Medical Centre
454 Hilda St, Hatfield (300m from campus)
Monday – Friday: 8:00-18:30
Saturday: 8:00-13:00
Sunday: 8:00-12:00

Life Groenkloof Hospital 
50 George Storrar Dr, Groenkloof (3km from campus)
24 hour general practitioner’s rooms and emergency services

Load Shedding

South Africa is currently experiencing a shortage of electricity, and the supply of power is reduced from time to time to avoid excessive load on the system. It is done at scheduled times to prevent the failure of the system when the demand for electricity strains the capacity of the electricity provider (Eskom) to provide enough power. The power supply is monitored and the possibility of load shedding is communicated daily on a few apps (listed below). 

Hotels and guest houses, as well that the University of Pretoria, have backup power and communicate arrangements with guests. In the case of load shedding, the transition to generator power might take a short while, though this is typically less than a minute. Most of the time it is not inconvenient.

Here are some steps you can take to be well prepared:

  • Check the scheduled times of any anticipated load shedding on one of the following apps, available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store: Load Shedding Notifier (green icon) or ESP (red icon).
  • If load shedding is to begin or end during your presentation, projected presentations may face a momentary interruption. While laptops themselves should not be affected, it may take a few minutes for the data projector to reset. When the lamp turns on again, you should be able to resume your presentation. We ask the session presiders be lenient with times allotted to affected presentations.
  • If you are planning to be traveling by car or bus during a load-shedding period, anticipate that your travel time may be increased by a few minutes.
  • Be sure that devices with batteries (i.e., phones, laptops, etc.) are charged before the start of the load shedding period, especially if you are planning to be places that may not have backup power. It is also a good idea to travel with a portable battery to charge devices like mobile phones.

Weather

You can expect very pleasant temperatures during the day in July. The average maximum daytime temperature in Pretoria in July lies at ~20°C (~68°F). Usually it is the coldest month of the year. The average minimum temperature goes down to around 3°C (~38°F). Remember to dress in warm layers, as it can still get pretty chilly. There is generally little to no rain in Pretoria during July. Sunlight generally lasts about 10.5 hours per day (Sunrise: 6:53am and Sunset: 5:34pm)

A/V for Presentations

All session rooms will be equipped with projectors. If you are planning to make use of the projectors, please be sure to bring a laptop with the ability to connect to an HDMI cable (preferred) or VGA cable (secondary). A limited number of HDMI adapters for USB-C and mini-DP ports will be available for loan from the registration desk on a first-come, first-claimed basis. Mac users are especially encouraged to bring their own adapter, as recent Macs sometimes do not work with generic adapters. 

In addition to any needed display adapter, please be sure to bring your laptop’s power brick and adapters for South African outlets (see below). If you are not able to bring your own laptop, we recommend contacting the other participants in the session to see if one is available for you to borrow during your presentation.

Power Outlets

There are two main types of power outlets in South Africa, type N and type M. Type N is compatible with the Europlug/type C standard that is common in Europe. All outlet operate on 230V supply. Attendees traveling from North America should ensure that devices can accept 230V supply at 50Hz before plugging in through a simple adapter. If you are unsure, please bring the device to the registration desk.

Onsite Printing

We recommend that presenters bring any anticipated printouts with them. Should one need access to a printer onsite, a printing facility is available near the Graduate Centre of the University of Pretoria. Payment in the form of cash and credit card is accepted at this facility.

Credit cards (instead of cash)

  • Credit cards are accepted everywhere in South Africa
  • Don’t bring a lot of cash
  • If you need cash, you can withdraw money from a number of ATMs on campus, or in any of the shopping malls in and around Hatfield campus
  • Please contact your bank and inform them of traveling to SA. It may happen that credit cards get blocked as banks may assume fraud when a card is suddenly used in a foreign country

App for data packages (eSIM data packs)

Stay connected, wherever you travel, at affordable rates when you are traveling abroad.
https://www.airalo.com/
https://maya.net/esim/south-africa

  • Download the app
  • Choose your destination and package
  • Install your eSim
  • Activate your eSim

South African Police Services

Brooklyn Police Station
119 Duxbury Road, Hillcrest (300m from the Graduate Centre)

Shopping malls in the vicinity of the Hatfield campus (UP)

  • Hatfield Plaza Shopping Mall, c/o Park Street and Grosvenor Street, Hatfield (300m from campus)
  • Hillcrest Boulevard Shopping Centre, 219 Lunnon Road, Hillcrest (500m from campus)
  • Loftus Park, 416 Kirkness St, Hatfield (1,2km from campus)
  • Brooklyn Mall, 338 Bronkhorst St, Nieuw Muckleneuk (2,2km from campus)

Grocery stores / Supermarkets

  • Woolworths (Hillcrest Boulevard, Loftus Park, Brooklyn Mall)
  • Checkers (Loftus Park, Brooklyn Mall)
  • Pick a Pay (Hatfield, Hillcrest Boulevard)

University of Pretoria Shop (https://upshop.up.ac.za/)

Buy all your UP clothing and corporate gifts at the UP Shop.
You can even buy extra UP-branded winter jackets, sweaters and hoodies, which are suitable for the South African winter.

Food and Restaurants (On Campus)

There are the following restaurants/cafés on campus (recommended)

  • Pure Café (next to the Musaion and Aula)
  • Artisan Café (next to the Musaion and Aula)
  • Adlers Café (next to the Graduate Centre – main conference centre)
  • A number of fast food outlets in the student centre and/or nearby Hatfield.

Food and Restaurants (Off Campus)

We can recommend any of the following restaurants and/or dining venues (close to campus) to visit during daytime or during the evenings:

  • Filos Kitchen Coffee Bar Deli (Greek restaurant) (trading hours 8:00-21:00). Located opposite of the main entrance to the UP campus. Situated on the premises of the Greek Orthodox Church (corner of Lynnwood Road and Roper street).
  • Brooklyn Shopping Mall / Brooklyn Square (there are a number of restaurants situated in this square) – ca. 4 km from the Hatfield campus (use either Uber or Bolt services) (day-time and evenings)
  • Lynnwood Bridge Mall (there are a number of restaurants situated in this square) – ca. 5,3 km from the Hatfield campus (use either Uber or Bolt services) (day-time and evenings)
  • The Village Hazelwood has a number of street cafés, bars and restaurants – ca. 3,8 km from the Hatfield campus (use either Uber or Bolt services) (day-time and evenings)
  • Loftus Park (there are a number of restaurants situated in this square) – ca. 1,8 km from the Hatfield campus (use either Uber or Bolt services) (day-time and evenings)
  • Menlyn Maine (there are a number of restaurants situated in this square) – ca. 1,8 km from the Hatfield campus (use either Uber or Bolt services) (day-time and evenings) 
  • Hillcrest Boulevard Shopping Centre (day-time cafés) – ca 1,4km from the main campus entrance in Lynnwood Road

Tipping in Restaurants

It's standard to add a minimum of 10% gratuity to a restaurant bill.

Food Delivery Apps

If you are at your hotel or guest house, and don’t want to go out in the evening, you can order food from a number of restaurants for delivery to your place of accommodation:

  • Mr D (a South African developed app), with a network of delivery options
  • Uber Eats (making use of the Uber network for delivery)

Availability of Kosher foods in Pretoria

There are (unfortunately) no sit-down restaurants offering Kosher food in Pretoria. 
Non-perishable kosher products may be available in many of the supermarket chains.

Furthermore, scholars can make pre-arrangements for Kosher meals for the duration of their stay in Pretoria by contacting the following people:

  1. Mr Roy Lewinson from the kitchen at Jaffa Jewish Accommodation for Fellow Aged (https://jaffa.org.za/) at the following email address: kitchen@jaffa.org.za

Address: 42 Mackie Street, Bailys Muckleneuk, 0075 (ca. 2,5 km from University of Pretoria Lynnwood Road entrance)

  1. Rabbi Levi Medalie from the Pretoria Hebrew Congregation (https://www.phc.co.za/) at the following email address: phcyouth@gmail.com 

Address: 246 Schroder St, Groenkloof, Pretoria, 0181 (ca. 2,6 km from UP Lynnwood Road entrance)

Synagogue (for Shabbat services / kosher meals)

Contact Rabbi Levi Medalie from the Pretoria Hebrew Congregation (https://www.phc.co.za/) at the following email address: phcyouth@gmail.com
Address: 246 Schroder St, Groenkloof, Pretoria, 0181 (ca. 2,6 km from UP Lynnwood Road entrance)

Availability of Halal foods in Pretoria

Many sit-down restaurants in Pretoria offer Halal food.
Halal food is also available in the Food Court (situated within the student centre) at “Campus Halaal Foods”.
The following restaurant close to the UP campus can be recommended:
Geet Indian Restaurant (http://www.geetindianrestaurant.com/show#!home) at the Brooklyn Mall Shopping Centre (https://www.brooklynmall.co.za/)