MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

After positive test, Saginaw Nouvel forfeits football playoff game to Frankfort | MyJHB.co.za

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. After positive test, Saginaw Nouvel forfeits football playoff game to Frankfort: But we just couldn’t make it happen.” Frankfort, 4-3, advances to play the winner of Friday’s playoff game between Alcona and Johannesburg-Lewiston. Nouvel finishes with a 4-3 record, with a 47-27 … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Ugandan Cheptegei 5000m world record ratified: JOHANNESBURG – Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei’s 5000m world record was ratified by World Athletics on Wednesday. Cheptegei set the new mark of 12:35.36 at the Wanda Diamond League in Monaco on August 14. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. ‘We are tired of sell-outs’: Gayton McKenzie fires Joburg mayoral committee member: “At 12pm on Monday, after your swearing in, we are writing to mayor Geoff Makhubo to say the PA is appointing ‘Oom Biza’ as the new MMC of economic development in Johannesburg. “Oom Biza, I always … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. WBTV Casting Department Selects 10 Drama Students For Inaugural COVID-Era Training Program: (Reps: Bloomfields Welch Management); Anele Phindile Mahamba is an actress born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. When she was 16, she moved to London by herself to pursue acting. When she … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Denel cut ties with Gupta-linked firm once Zondo commission started: Johannesburg – Denel Land Systems (DLS) chief production planner Hendrik van den Heever revealed on Thursday that the state-owned aerospace and military technology company terminated contracts scored … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Travelling to South Africa?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? Where Johannesburg got it’s name from: The fledgling town of Johannesburg was laid out on a triangular wedge of “uitvalgrond” (area excluded when the farms were surveyed) named Randjeslaagte, situated between the farms Doornfontein to the east, Braamfontein to the west and Turffontein to the south. The property belonged to the government. The Surveyor-General of the ZAR issued an instruction that the farm be surveyed as a township, consisting of 600 stands measuring fifty feet by fifty feet. The first auction of stands took place on 8 December 1886. The settlement was named after two officials of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), Christiaan Johannes Joubert and Johannes Rissik, who both worked in land surveying and mapping. The two men combined the name they shared, adding ‘burg’, the archaic Afrikaans word for ‘fortified city’.

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From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.