MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Road closures for Soweto Derby

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Road closures for Soweto Derby: JOHANNESBURG – The Carling Black Label Cup will bring roads leading to Soweto to a standstill on Saturday. Roads around FNB stadium will be … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. SA labs facing backlog of over 80000 samples: JOHANNESBURG – Baby Bohlale died under mysterious circumstances in 2017, at just six-weeks-old and almost two years later, her parents have no … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Fedusa gives Gauteng Transport MEC Friday deadline to meet demands: JOHANNESBURG – Metrorail workers affiliated to union Fedusa gave Gauteng Transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo until next Friday to respond to their … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. ORGANO Completes Phase One of Continental Africa Growth Plan: JOHANNESBURG and HONG KONG and NEW YORK, July 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — ORGANO today announced it has completed phase one of its … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. Soweto residents 'petrol bomb' City of Joburg customer service centre: JOHANNESBURG – The City of Joburg customer service centre in Jabavu, Soweto, has been petrol bombed allegedly by aggrieved residents. – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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Did you know this about Johannesburg? It boasts the tallest building in Africa: Coming in at a whopping 270 metres tall, the Hillbrow Tower overlooks everything in the city of Johannesburg.

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From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.