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Stuff from Johannesburg

Mind your language, David Mabuza asks the House in a week of many questions and some looming key changes

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. Mind your language, David Mabuza asks the House in a week of many questions and some looming key changes: She’s in Johannesburg as part of a panel interviewing candidates for the post of Secretary to Parliament alongside other senior MPs over two days from 17 March. It’s just short of four years that … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. Dewatering solutions more than just the product: Many challenges in dewatering require more than just standalone products, and the integrated solutions offered by original-equipment manufacturer Weir Minerals Africa have proven to be vastly … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. CK Akonnor names nine home- based players in Black squad for AFCON qualifiers: Ghana coach Charles Kwabla Akonnor named nine home-based players in his squad for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against South Africa and São Tomé next week. Akonnor had trained with a squad … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. S.Africa’s finance minister warns a third wave of COVID-19 could hurt country’s ratings: South Africa’s finance minister said on Thursday that a third wave of the coronavirus could destabilise the government’s efforts to control its finances and avoid a further downgrade of the country’s … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. What are the Investment opportunities post-pandemic? [Interview]: The pandemic created an unusual year for the business community. Job losses, pay cuts, and a near halt in investment. These are just some of the shocks to businesses. We hear from Managing Director at … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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Have you tried: Whale and Dolphin Watching in Algoa Bay?

Did you know this about Johannesburg? Johannesburg is the world’s biggest man-made forest, with over 10 million trees. This number is set to grow, as City Parks launched the Greening Soweto project in 2006, with the goal of planting an extra 200 000 trees in the famous township. Not only do Joburg’s trees combat the greenhouse effect, they help reduce noise in this ‘urban jungle’.

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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.