MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

SA Rugby Apologises Over Haka Interference

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SA Rugby Apologises Over Haka Interference:

The South African Rugby Union has written to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union to formally apologise for a sequence of events that led to the conclusion of the Haka being obscured during Saturday’s Castle Lager Rugby Championship Test between the Springboks and the All Blacks at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg.

The closing moments of the Haka were overlaid by music and fireworks – as well as a flyover by an A380 airliner – as pre-planned scheduling failed to be observed.

“I apologised in person and have written to the NZRFU to formally express our regret and apologies for what occurred,” said Rian Oberholzer, CEO of SA Rugby.

“It was never the intention to schedule any activities that would coincide with such an iconic moment of any Test match against the All Blacks. That it occurred was a result of timekeeping challenges and simple human error.

“In the confusion, the crowd’s excited cheering was mistaken to have marked the conclusion of the Haka by an unsighted sound engineer who restarted the music programme. It was highly regrettable but in no way deliberate.”

Oberholzer said that SA Rugby was distressed by the breach of protocol and the apparent display of lack of respect it may have suggested.

“We hold dear the values and traditions of the game,” said Oberholzer. “The unfortunate events in no way represent any lack of respect that South African rugby holds for the significance and history of the Haka. We will ensure such errors cannot be repeated.”

The second Test between the teams in the Castle Lager Rugby Championship will be played at DHL Stadium in Cape Town on Saturday.

– MyZA

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The World’s Largest Man-Made Urban Forest

One of the most surprising facts about Johannesburg is its status as a “green” city. When the first settlers arrived, the Highveld was a barren, treeless grassland (savannah). To support the mining industry, millions of trees were imported and planted to provide timber for mine underground supports. Fast forward to the present day, and Johannesburg is widely considered the largest man-made urban forest in the world.

There are an estimated 10 million trees within the city limits. This includes 1.2 million trees on sidewalks and in parks, and over 4.8 million in private gardens. This forest is so dense that satellite images of the northern suburbs often resemble a tropical rainforest. The most iconic of these trees is the Jacaranda, which was imported from South America in the early 20th century. Every October and November, the city turns a vibrant shade of purple as thousands of Jacarandas bloom simultaneously. However, this “forest” also highlights the city’s historical inequality; during the Apartheid era, trees were predominantly planted in wealthy white suburbs, leaving townships like Soweto as dusty plains. In the last two decades, “Greening Soweto” initiatives have seen hundreds of thousands of trees planted to bridge this “green divide,” emphasizing the role of urban forestry in social justice and climate cooling.