MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Top Billing Returns With an Official Vehicle Partner

Johannesburg – Opel South Africa, part of Stellantis, announces its partnership as the Official Vehicle Partner for the return of the iconic lifestyle programme Top Billing on S3.

As Top Billing makes its long-awaited return this April, Opel will take centre stage, with a selection of its vehicles featured prominently throughout the new season. These include the bold Mokka, the flagship Grandland SUV, and the ever-popular Corsa – each reflecting Opel’s commitment to progressive design, German engineering, and everyday driving enjoyment.

Throughout the series, presenters will travel across South Africa in Opel vehicles as they explore inspiring destinations, celebrate local talent, and showcase aspirational lifestyles. The partnership will also extend internationally, with a special episode filmed at Opel’s headquarters in Germany, further reinforcing the brand’s global heritage and engineering expertise.

This collaboration highlights Opel’s focus on connecting with modern South African audiences through culturally relevant platforms that reflect innovation, design and ambition.

“This partnership represents a strong alignment between Opel and a programme that has long set the benchmark for lifestyle and aspirational storytelling in South Africa,” says Thuto Mohlala, Brand Manager, Opel South Africa. “Within Stellantis South Africa, Opel plays an important role in a multi-brand portfolio that leverages global scale and shared technologies, with a strong focus on regional growth opportunities. South Africa remains a key growth market for the Group, and Opel continues to focus on delivering accessible mobility and strong customer experience in this context, while building long-term brand equity in the market.

Partnering with Top Billing provides a powerful platform to showcase Opel vehicles not only as modes of transport, but as enablers of modern mobility and everyday success. It reinforces Opel’s positioning as a brand that delivers comfort and practicality for a new generation of drivers.”

“Having Opel as our Official Vehicle Partner for this new season is a natural fit,” says Patience Stevens, Managing Director at Cardova Productions and Executive Producer of Top Billing. “As we travel across South Africa to uncover stories of innovation, creativity and success, we need partners that reflect the same spirit. Opel brings a strong sense of design, reliability and purpose to the journey, while also enhancing the way we visually tell these stories on screen. We are delighted to have them on board for this new chapter.”

Catch new episodes of Top Billing every Thursday from 30 April 2026 at 19:00 on S3, with a repeat every Sunday at 13:00 on S3 and a rebroadcast every Tuesday at 21:00 on SABC 1.

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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.