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Stuff from Johannesburg

Cops foil Sebokeng CIT heist, 1 suspect killed in shoot-out, 5 arrested

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Cops foil Sebokeng CIT heist, 1 suspect killed in shoot-out, 5 arrested: JOHANNESBURG – The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) said five people were arrested following a foiled cash-in-transit (CIT) … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. Lam tries set up Hurricanes to sweep aside Lions: Johannesburg (AFP). Winger Ben Lam scored two early second-half tries to set up the Wellington Hurricanes for a 37-17 Super Rugby victory over the … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Lions rocked by Kwagga injury as Hurricanes secure playoff spot: JOHANNESBURG – The Hurricanes put a huge dent in the Lions' Super Rugby playoff hopes by registering a convincing bonus-point win at Ellis Park … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. Phalaborwa lions won't be darted, relocated: JOHANNESBURG – The Limpopo MEC for Economic Development, Environment, and Tourism, Thabo Mokone, says the lions in Phalaborwa are … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. #RIPNichume: ANC pays tribute to 'super vocalist': Johannesburg – The African National Congress has expressed shock and devastation at the untimely death of talented musician and house vocalist … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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Did you know this about Johannesburg? The Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital is the largest acute hospital in the world, with 2 964 beds, is the only public hospital serving the 3.5 million people in Soweto, Johannesburg.

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Top Star Drive-In: Destroyed by What Created it

However, the very thing that created the Top Star eventually destroyed it. Because the early miners had used crude methods, the Ferreira Dump—and dozens of others like it—still contained significant traces of gold. As the price of gold rose and new chemical extraction technologies (like the carbon-in-pulp process) made it profitable to “mine the waste,” the ground beneath the Top Star became more valuable than the cinema itself. In 2006, despite fierce opposition from heritage groups who argued that the dump and the drive-in were culturally significant landmarks, the projectors were turned off for the last time.

The reclamation of the dump was a staggering industrial feat. Starting in 2008, mining giant DRDGold used high-pressure water cannons to “monitor” the dump, turning 5 million tons of solid earth back into a liquid slurry. This slurry was then piped 40 kilometers across the province to a processing plant in Brakpan. By 2011, the “mountain” had completely vanished. The 50-meter-high plateau that had dominated the southern skyline for a century was reduced to a flat, dusty crater.

The disappearance of the Top Star is a poignant symbol of Johannesburg’s “extractive” nature. It is a city that consumes itself to stay alive; even its historical landmarks are subject to the fluctuating price of minerals on the London and New York stock exchanges. Today, if you drive along the M2, there is an empty space in the sky where the Top Star used to be. While the reclamation removed a source of toxic dust and “acid mine drainage,” it also erased a piece of the city’s collective memory. The land where the gold-flecked mountain once stood is now being rehabilitated for light industrial use, proving that in eGoli, even the horizon is for sale if there’s enough gold hidden inside it.