MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Jolidee Matongo — A mayor for all the citizens of Johannesburg across the political spectrum

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. Jolidee Matongo — A mayor for all the citizens of Johannesburg across the political spectrum: A worthy contender for the job, Jolidee Matongo, even in the few weeks he was mayor, did not display any arrogance. If anything, he had already set a tone of collaborative governance that places the … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Banyana Banyana crowned Aisha Buhari Cup champions after humiliating Nigeria: Johannesburg – Banyana Banyana easily claimed Aisha Buhari Cup honours after thrashing Nigeria 4-2 in the finals on Tuesday, 21 September 2021. The top … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. Wheelchair tennis player Montjane sets eyes on SA Spring Open: Johannesburg – As the SA Spring Open gets underway at the Ellis Park Tennis Stadium, South Africa’s wheelchair tennis player Khothatso Montjane will defy … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. What Covid-19 Revealed About Hunger: BRITTANY KESSELMANIN SOUTH AFRICA, many people struggle to access sufficient quantities of healthy food. Because their diets are high in processed foods, refined starch, sugar, and fat, they … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. VUSI MAVIMBELA | You wouldn’t be happy with crops on your doorstep, so why the outrage?: Why would the black elite and the educated be so vociferous in their support of Joe Nkuna? – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Visiting Port Elizabeth?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? Johannesburg is more than 130 years old: The city was founded on the 4th of October 1886. It’s one of the youngest world cities though.

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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.