MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Two children die after allegedly ingesting rat poison at Westdene preschool

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Two children die after allegedly ingesting rat poison at Westdene preschool: The member of the mayoral committee (MMC) responsible for health and social development in the City of Johannesburg will be visiting a preschool in … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. Leslie Lokko, Global Architect and Novelist, Appointed Architecture Dean at City College of New York: She will leave the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, which she established in 2015 at the South African institution. – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Joburg minibus taxi truce paves way for Soweto routes to be reopened: … reopening of several taxi routes and ranks in Soweto and the Johannesburg CBD that were shut down earlier this year because of ongoing conflict. – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. ID4Africa: We're Bringing You Live Biometrics News Coverage Straight From Johannesburg: This year, it will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, and FindBiometrics will be reporting live from the event, delivering breaking news and live … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. Calm down, there's no swine flu outbreak – institute: JOHANNESBURG – The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has moved to allay fears and assure members of the public that there was no … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

Click here to submit your Johannesburg, Gauteng News – free.

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

Did you know this about Johannesburg? Johannesburg is more than 130 years old: The city was founded on the 4th of October 1886. It’s one of the youngest world cities though.

Category: Tag: , , , , , ,

From Sophiatown to Triomf

By 1963, Sophiatown had been physically razed to the ground. In a final act of psychological warfare, the government built a white working-class suburb over the rubble and named it Triumph (Triomf). They wanted to erase the very memory of Sophiatown from the landscape. For decades, the name Sophiatown disappeared from maps, replaced by the neat, sterile streets of the victors.

The “resurrection” of Sophiatown began officially in 2006, when the City of Johannesburg formally restored the original name to the suburb. Today, the neighborhood is a quiet, leafy residential area, but the ghosts of the “Paris of the Transvaal” are everywhere. The Sophiatown Heritage Centre, housed in the former home of Dr. A.B. Xuma (a former ANC president), is one of the few original buildings that escaped the bulldozers. Walking through the streets today, you can still find small markers of the past: a lone Victorian pillar, a specific tree mentioned in a poem, or the rebuilt St. Joseph’s Church.

The legacy of Sophiatown is not just one of tragedy, but of an indestructible cultural spirit. The music, the slang (Tsotsitaal), and the “Drum” era aesthetic continue to influence South African fashion and film today. It serves as a reminder that while you can bulldoze a house and rename a street, you cannot kill the soul of a place that once danced to the sound of a thousand saxophones.