MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

CSA staff call for Minister to reconsider invoking Sports Act

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. CSA staff call for Minister to reconsider invoking Sports Act: Cricket South Africa’s staff, including Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith have written to sports minister Nathi Mthethwa, asking him to reconsider invoking Section 13 of the National Sports and … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Charlotte Maxeke Hospital to reopen in May: Charlotte Maxeke Academic hospital will reopen on 03 May, according to the Gauteng provincial government. Patients will be transferred during the weekend of 01 and 02 May.  READ: Charlotte Maxeke … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. We have nowhere to go: Cape Town refugees: JOHANNESBURG – Refugees in Cape Town say they have nowhere to go. This comes after Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi gave them until next Friday to reintegrate into communities or be deported. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Some sections of Charlotte Maxeke Hospital to reopen in May: Gauteng gov: The facility was temporarily closed after some sections of the building were destroyed in a fire, which broke out over a week ago. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Toddler among 4 killed when Airforce Zim helicopter crashed into a house: An 18-month-old child, as well as the two pilots and a technician on board the Airforce of Zimbabwe helicopter were killed, while a mother and her daughter were in hospital following the accident. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Visiting Port Elizabeth?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? At 269m high, the Hillbrow Tower is the tallest structure in Johannesburg. It used to have a revolving restaurant at the top, before it was closed down in 1981 for safety reasons. It is a prominent feature in the city’s beautiful skyline.

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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.