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Stuff from Johannesburg

Three-goal Wits bury jinx as South African Premiership kicks off

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Three-goal Wits bury jinx as South African Premiership kicks off: Johannesburg (AFP) – Trophy-holders Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Bidvest Wits — the top three finishers in the last South African … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. Again, Gunmen Kill Nigerian In South Africa: Benjamin Simeon, 43-year-old Nigerian living in South Africa, has been killed by unknown gunmen in Johannesburg. According to a statement … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Banyana captain Janine van Wyk ruled out of Cosafu Cup after injury: JOHANNESBURG – Banyana Banyana will be without skipper Janine van Wyk for the remainder of the Cosafa Cup. South Africa play Madagascar in … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. Female rangers on the rise: JOHANNESBURG – While it's still a male-dominated industry, female rangers are among the leaders in the Kruger National Park. They work long … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. Popcru: Attacks on police in JHB CBD were planned: JOHANNESBURG – Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union says the attacks on police by foreign nationals in the Joburg city centre this week were … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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

Did you know this about Johannesburg? It’s earned the title ‘city of gold’: The city of Johannesburg was formed by a gold rush in the 19th century – 4 October 1886 to be exact.

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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.