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Stuff from Johannesburg

Celebrating a turnaround year

It is with great pleasure that the GBCSA announces the release of its Integrated Annual Report 2018. In the opening foreword, Chair Nkosinathi Manzana states that the GBCSA is now positioned more strongly than ever to lead the green building movement in South Africa and beyond. “Indeed, we are now recognised as the fastest-growing member of the World Green Building Council, and last year we passed another important milestone with our 400th certification – a big win.”

Manzana adds that it’s important to acknowledge that this position of strength has been arrived at after a comprehensive turnaround programme that was started in 2017. Thanking CEO Dorah Modise for the exemplary leadership and dedication that she displayed during a challenging time, he notes: “Bringing a loss-making non-profit organisation back into the black in such a short time is an outstanding achievement that deserves recognition.”

Doubled attendance at Green Building Convention

Modise is quick to attribute credit to the hard-working men and women within GBCSA and all the stakeholders who lead and support them. The report details the highlights for the year, with Modise and Manzana both expressing the success of the 11th Green Building Convention in Cape Town in October 2018. “Backed by a tireless and passionate organising committee, we produced a rich programme that distinguished GBCSA from other players in the South African property sector, by inspiring delegates with innovative insights and practical guidance on turning the principles of green building into green buildings,” says Modise. The event attracted 740 delegates – more than double the 2017 total.

Another positive achievement noted in the report is the growing strength of relationship with the government at national, provincial and local level. “Winning the hearts, minds – and buy-in – of policy makers at all levels has been top of GBCSA’s priority list for many years, and it is immensely encouraging that our message is now gaining traction among legislators in a big way,” says Modise. In 2018 the Department of Public Works (DPW) launched its Green Building Policy; a strong indication that SA’s public sector – the country’s largest property owner – is now fully committed to transforming its buildings. Linked to this, the GBCSA trained over 200 officials from different DPW offices across the country.

Transformative tools and ideas

In 2018, the GBCSA launched their official publication, +Impact (Positive Impact), a print and digital magazine celebrating the work of members, with an emphasis on the tools and ideas that they are using to transform South Africa’s built environment.

In addition to detailing further achievements and milestones, the report provides an overview of the residential, commercial and public sector, case studies on some of the organisation’s highest rated green-star buildings of 2018 and summarised annual financials.

To access the GBCSA Integrated Annual Report 2018:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEROBcnRDHY&feature=youtu.be
  • https://gbcsa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/GB0001-GBCSA-Report-2018-FA-LR.pdf
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Top Star Drive-In: The Cinema on the Mountain of Gold

The Ferreira Dump began growing in the late 1800s, composed of the crushed rock and chemical residue left over after early, inefficient mining processes had extracted as much gold as the technology of the time allowed. By the 1960s, it was a flat-topped, man-made mesa overlooking the city. In a stroke of entrepreneurial genius, the surface was tarred and the Top Star Drive-In was opened. It quickly became a South African institution. Its appeal was not just the movies, but the unparalleled view: as the sun set, the massive white screen would flicker to life against a backdrop of the glowing skyscrapers of the Central Business District, separated from the viewer only by the elevated M2 highway.

In the decades before television arrived in South Africa (1976), the Top Star was a primary social hub. It was a democratic space in an undemocratic time; while the city below was strictly segregated, the “car” served as a private bubble that allowed a degree of social freedom not found in traditional theaters. For many Johannesburgers, the Top Star was a site of nostalgic rites of passage—first dates, family outings where children were piled into the back of station wagons with blankets and flasks of tea, and the Saturday “car market” where the parking lot transformed into a sprawling hub for buying and selling second-hand vehicles.