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Stuff from Johannesburg

S.Africa's Zuma to testify at graft scandal inquiry

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. S.Africa's Zuma to testify at graft scandal inquiry: Johannesburg, South Africa, Jul 13 – South African former president Jacob Zuma is due on Monday to make a much-anticipated appearance before … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. Mango spreads wings from Joburg to PE: JOHANNESBURG – The Eastern Cape can look forward to an increase in tourism and investments. Mango Airlines has started operating between … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Suspects nabbed for various offenses in Johannesburg: Johannesburg Flying Squad police have arrested 18 suspects for different crimes during their routine patrols over the last weekend, 5 and 8 July, … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. [GALLERY + VIDEO]: Alberton and Johannesburg South Business Forum Breakfast: ON July 10, the Alberton and Johannesburg South Business Forum presented Maximize Your Potential by Dr Kobus Neethling at the Sha-Mani Lodge … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. South Africa's Zuma to testify at graft scandal inquiry: JOHANNESBURG: South African former president Jacob Zuma is due on Monday to make a much-anticipated appearance before an inquiry into … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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

Did you know this about Johannesburg? OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg – named after the famous former leader of the African National Congress – is the biggest and busiest airport on the continent of Africa. It is estimated that 28 million passengers pass through its terminals every year.

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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.