MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

34 South African cities join global move towards setting renewables targets

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. 34 South African cities join global move towards setting renewables targets: A new international report shows that 34 South African cities, in which some 15.3-million people live and work, had adopted renewable-energy targets and/or policies by the end of 2020, with Cape Town, … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Penn State Falls to Wisconsin in Road Match: At the No. 1 spot, Tim Ruetzel (Munich, Germany) and Charl Morgan (Johannesburg, South Africa) fought back from a 5-1 deficit, but ultimately fell to Tim Dzhurinskiy and Gabriel Huber in a 7-6 … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. Inside the life of South African’s who cannot afford a nutritious meal for children: Child Gauge is calling for a clear commitment from the government to end the “slow violence of malnutrition” faced by children … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Students to continue with protest until demands are met: Vice-chancellors tell parliament that there needs to be a lasting national solution to the funding issues as they cannot deal with them on their own. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Were Bosso robbed in ‘76 title race?: Some voices have started to claim those Glamour Boys’ triumph, in the league championship, was something that was handed to them, by the game’s leadership, back then, at the expense of what should … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Whale and Dolphin Watching in Algoa Bay?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? The city was rebuilt four times in the span of one century: First, Johannesburg was a tented camp. Then it was a town of tin shanties. Next it was a town filled with four-storey Edwardian brick buildings and finally, it became a city of modern skyscrapers.

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The Randlord Mansions: History

The history of these mansions is also a story of urban warfare and preservation. In the 1960s and 70s, as Johannesburg expanded, many of the original Parktown estates were ruthlessly demolished to make way for the M1 Highway and the massive concrete campus of the Wits University Medical School. The “Parktown War” saw heritage activists fighting the bulldozers to save what remained of the city’s architectural soul. Today, several of the surviving mansions serve as corporate headquarters, schools, or museums, stripped of their private domesticity but preserved as monuments to a gilded age.

Interestingly, these mansions also played a secret role in the city’s political evolution. It was in the drawing rooms of Parktown that the “progressive” mining elite would meet to discuss the future of the country, often finding themselves at odds with the more conservative Boer government. Lady Florence Phillips, in particular, used her influence to found the Johannesburg Art Gallery, insisting that a world-class city needed world-class culture, not just gold bars. Today, walking the “Heritage Trail” through Parktown offers a haunting contrast; you stand in the quiet, manicured gardens of the victors, looking down at the pulsing, crowded city that their gold mines created. It is the ultimate “view from the top,” a reminder that the extreme wealth of Sandton today has its DNA rooted in the stone-and-timber palaces of the 1900s.