MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

South Africa, Thailand and Mexico among 47 countries being cut from red list

Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa in the news:

  1. South Africa, Thailand and Mexico among 47 countries being cut from red list: Travellers arriving from those destinations after 4am on Monday will no longer need to spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  2. British Airways to ramp up South Africa and Mexico flights: British Airways is to resume services and increase frequencies to destinations that will be removed from the government’s red list for international travel next week. The national flag carrier is to … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  3. A new dawn for South Africa as restrictions ease – plus five of the best holidays: The African nation has been taken off the red list, opening up its safaris, road trips and beach holidays once more for UK holidaymakers … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  4. Match Preview | Lions: A new opponent will take to the Scotstoun pitch this Saturday afternoon, as Glasgow Warriors welcome the Emirates Lions to town in round three of the United Rugby Championship. – “Johannesburg” – BingNews
  5. The Boer Ultimatum: On 11th October 1899, the Second Boer War broke out between the British Empire and the two Boer states, the Republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free … – “Johannesburg” – BingNews

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

Did you know this about Johannesburg? The Rissik Street Post Office was built in 1897, having been designed by the architect Sytze Wierda. The Post Office was at one time the tallest building in Johannesburg. The Post Office became a national monument in 1978, and it remained in operation until 1996 when the South African Post Office vacated the building. The monument was gutted by a fire in 2009. The old City Hall is opposite the Post Office in Rissik Street.

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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.