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Stuff from Johannesburg

Health dept: Sisonke booster shot trial delayed due to a technical glitch

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. Health dept: Sisonke booster shot trial delayed due to a technical glitch: The department only sent out SMSs to eligible participants on Sunday night to notify them about how the trial study will work and where they will be able to get a booster Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Businesses count cost of Eskom implementing stage 4 load shedding: JOHANNESBURG – Businesses and those working from home are now counting the cost with stage 4 load shedding implemented until the end of the week. The utility has cited ongoing generating capacity … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. 2021 Municipal Elections | DA announces new uMngeni deputy mayor: Sandile Mnikathi, 26, will work hand in hand with mayor-elect, Christopher Pappas. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Four days stuck without power — load-shedding’s unspoken devastation: Attempts to restore power after load-shedding is overloading city electricity networks, causing damage to infrastructure and long periods of power outages. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. Exciting quartet of seamers makes life easy for Lions skipper: The Lions quartet of quick bowlers, Lutho Sipamla, Sisanda Magala, Malusi Siboto and Duanne Olivier were crucial in their win against the Warriors in Gqeberha over the weekend. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Visiting Port Elizabeth?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? It’s the home of Africa’s fastest and tallest rollercoaster: This title is held by Gold Reef City’s Tower of Terror. This vertical-drop coaster has a 47-metre drop and generates a G-force of over 6 Gs.

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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.