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Johannesburg City Position on DRDGOLD Eviction Matter

The City of Johannesburg has noted reports regarding an alleged contempt of court application by DRDGOLD relating to the eviction of unlawful occupiers from Portion 1 of the Farm Vlakfontein. The City wishes to clarify that neither the City nor its attorneys of record have been served with the purported contempt application and, accordingly, the City is not in a position to comment on the contents of an application it has not received.

The City is, however, fully aware of its obligations arising from the High Court order granted on 29 October 2025. The order provides for the eviction to take place on 29 April 2027, subject to the provision of Temporary Emergency Accommodation (TEA) to those occupiers who would be rendered homeless as a consequence of the eviction. The order requires the City to take all necessary and reasonable measures towards fulfilling this obligation.

The order further provides for the City to undertake the necessary assessment of affected households and to provide three-monthly progress reports setting out the steps taken, and intended to be taken, towards securing temporary emergency accommodation.

The City acknowledges that there have been delays in finalising and submitting certain progress reports. These delays are being addressed. The City is currently finalising an affidavit setting out the steps taken to date, the measures being undertaken to comply with the order, and the City’s position regarding the provision of temporary emergency accommodation.

It is important to distinguish between delays in the reporting process and wilful defiance of a court order. The City rejects any suggestion that it is wilfully disregarding or refusing to comply with the Court’s order. The City is taking active and reasonable measures to fulfil its obligations and remains committed to doing so.

The City is also mindful that this matter concerns the potential displacement of residents who may be rendered homeless by the execution of the eviction order. The provision of temporary emergency accommodation is therefore a substantive component of the Court’s order and is being addressed within the City’s relevant administrative and legal processes.

The City further notes that the Court order itself provides for the parties to approach the Court for further or alternative relief should there be a failure to comply with specified obligations. The appropriate forum for determining any dispute concerning the City’s compliance with the order is therefore the Court, rather than the media.

The City will continue to take the necessary steps towards compliance and will place its full position before the Court through the appropriate legal process

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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.