MyJHB

Stuff from Johannesburg

Undercarriage stowaway Pardeep Saini who made it here, and was told to leave

Johannesburg in the news:

  1. Undercarriage stowaway Pardeep Saini who made it here, and was told to leave: Yesterday, however, Kenyan police said they were considering whether the stowaway could have boarded the aircraft in Johannesburg, South Africa, … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  2. Red Ants granted conditional permission to trade while suspended: … regarding the alleged misconduct of the Red Ants during recent evictions in Alexandra and the Ramaphosa informal settlement in Johannesburg. – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  3. Two suspects found in possession of illegal animal skins: Two people were arrested in Faraday near the Johannesburg CBD on Friday after they were found in possession of various illegal animal skins, … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  4. SERI: Residents in informal settlements often fend for themselves: JOHANNESBURG – New research by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) has shown that residents in informal settlements often … – Google Alert – Johannesburg
  5. Study finds 65% of abandoned infants are newborns: Johannesburg – While statistics reveal the rate of baby abandonment in South Africa is harrowing, what is more alarming is that the full extent of the … – Google Alert – Johannesburg

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Did you know this about Johannesburg? The Johannesburg Zoo is more than 100 years old: The zoo was founded in 1904 and covers 55 hectares of land. The zoo used to house the only two polar bears in Africa.

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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.