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Stuff from Johannesburg

Tshwane Metro Police deployed to deal with bus strike

The Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) says it has deployed police officers throughout the city to assist in ensuring a smooth flow of traffic.

City of Tshwane bus drivers have blocked major routes entering the city with the buses.

The bus drivers, who are members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), are said to be protesting about wage increases.

Tshwane Metro Police spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, told SAnews that the officers are dealing with the situation.

“We want to remove all the buses that are blocking the routes to ensure smooth flow of traffic,” Mahamba said.

In the Pretoria CBD, major streets such as Madiba, E’skia Mphahlele, WF Nkomo, Thabo Sehume and Nelson Mandela Drive, were affected.

Traffic was a nightmare after the buses blocked off major intersections in the CBD this morning.

The blockade affected major feeder routes, including the N1, N4 and the Mabopane highways. – SAnews.gov.za

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The Geological Miracle of the Witwatersrand

The very existence of Johannesburg is a geological fluke. Unlike most major global cities, Johannesburg was not built near a river, a coast, or a natural harbor. It sits 1,753 meters above sea level on a rocky ridge called the Witwatersrand (Ridge of White Waters). This ridge is the edge of the world’s largest known gold deposit, formed over 2 billion years ago when an ancient inland sea began to evaporate, leaving behind layers of gold-bearing conglomerate.

When George Harrison, an Australian prospector, stumbled upon an outcrop of gold on the farm Langlaagte in 1886, he triggered a “gold rush” that changed the course of African history. Within a decade, a dusty collection of tents and wagons transformed into a permanent city of brick and mortar. The “Main Reef” proved so vast that it eventually produced nearly 40% of all the gold ever mined in human history. This geological wealth dictated the city’s layout: the mining belt runs east-to-west across the city’s center, creating a physical divide between the wealthy northern suburbs and the industrial, working-class south. Today, while most mines within the city limits have closed due to the extreme depth and cost of extraction (some mines reached over 3.9 kilometers underground), the physical legacy remains in the form of “mine dumps”—massive yellow-white hills of crushed rock and sand that define the Joburg skyline.