MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Aspiring opera singer Yolanda Yalezo on the verge to international stardom

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. Aspiring opera singer Yolanda Yalezo on the verge to international stardom: Johannesburg – A young aspiring opera singer has been internationally recognised after auditioning for a talent show. Yolanda Yalezo (20) from Kokstad who … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. South Africa: No, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu Not Dead: Various posts, including a Facebook post with over 37,000 views in 24 hours, claimed that beloved South African Anglican archbishop and Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu had died. “The World Would … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. Hurry up and wait: SAA will not return with London flights anytime soon: South African Airways (SAA) will not resume flights to London despite the surge in demand for tickets between South Africa and the United Kingdom. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Amapiano star Young Stunna blows Mzansi away with debut [listen]: People just can’t get enough of Young Stunna’s debut album, ‘Notumato’, featuring the likes of Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa and Blxckie. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Spotted eagle owls rescued, rehabilitated and released in Johannesburg: The Owl Rescue Centre was alerted to a pair of sick spotted eagle owls at Steyn City in Johannesburg, and took them in for treatment. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

Click here to submit your Johannesburg, Gauteng News – free.

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

Did you know this about Johannesburg? While Johannesburg is also known as the City of Gold, or ‘eGoli’ because of its beginnings as a gold-mining town, it is known fondly to locals by the shortened ‘Joburg’, or now more popularly as ‘Jozi’.

Category: Tag: , , , , , , ,

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.