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Stuff from Johannesburg

Correctional Services says no injuries from Leeuwkop prison fire

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Correctional Services says no injuries from Leeuwkop prison fire: JOHANNESBURG – The department of correctional services (DCS) on Tuesday confirmed a fire at its Leeuwkop Correctional Centre, in Johannesburg … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. South Africa may pick Swiss, Croatian defenders for CAN: Johannesburg (AFP) – South Africa have included defenders who have played for Croatia and Switzerland at age-limit levels in a provisional 30-man … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. City of Joburg seeks alternatives as province takes over ambulance services: City of Johannesburg Joburg MMC for public safety Michael Sun says the city is still in the dark as the Gauteng provincial government prepares to take … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. No one hurt in Leeuwkop Correctional Centre blaze: … Correctional Services (DCS) is investigating the cause of a blaze which erupted at the Leeuwkop Correctional Centre in Johannesburg on Tuesday. – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. Joburg metro police continue raking in successes: JOHANNESBURG – The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department's (JMPD) April performance statistics released on Tuesday showed a … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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Have you tried: Travelling to South Africa?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? Johannesburg is the world’s largest city not built on a coastline, or on a lake or river. That’s why Joburg is also called the world’s biggest ‘dry port’. More than half of the cargo that arrives through the ports of Durban and Cape Town arrives at the container terminal at City Deep.

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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.