Tag: South Africa

Anti-Apartheid veteran Ahmed Kathrada visits the University of Johannesburg

Kathrada spent 18 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island and another eight at Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison in Cape Town for his anti-apartheid activism. He was a very close friend of former President Nelson Mandela and upon his release, was elected to parliament.


28 March 2014 0

Art Deco in Johannesburg

Rogers Cooke designed many theatres and cinemas in Gauteng and the creative crowd followed him to Auckland Park. Everyone who was anyone in the arts and entertainment industry seemed to have a connection with the spot.


3 March 2014 0

South African Reggae Ambassador Andy Kasrils

If the name Kasrils rings a bell it’s because Andy is the son of anti-apartheid struggle veterans Ronnie and Eleanor Kasrils. His family, ANC exiles, left South Africa for the United Kingdom in the 1960’s and didn’t return until 1994 when his father accepted the position of Deputy Minister of Defence in Nelson Mandela’s government.


21 February 2014 0

An Iron Age History of Melville, Johannesburg

The first people to settle in the Johannesburg area in large numbers seem to have been Iron Age Tswana-speakers. These early ‘Joburgers’ came from the Magaliesburg Valley north of Johannesburg about 800 years ago, though they probably came from northern Tanzania over 1 500 years ago.


21 February 2014 0

President Jacob Zuma says ‘Frack You’ to Karoo

The process that will be used to extract the gas – hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’ – is carried out by drilling deep into the earth and injecting hundreds of millions of litres of a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals into shale rock, which in turn releases shale gas. The flow-back liquid from this process is highly radioactive.


21 February 2014 0

Plant a vegetable garden today

Plant a vegetable garden today JOBURG – Bring out your inner green thumb and start your own home garden patch. January 21, 2014 Grow your own vegetables in your backyard.…
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21 January 2014 0

Desmond Tutu’s Sophiatown connection

Maybe this is why, when 14 year old Tutu was diagnosed with tuberculosis, the popular priest would visit his beside every weekend bringing books and great conversation. Tutu was hospitalised for two years and it was this grounding with Huddleston that strengthened his faith in Christianity, eventually leading him to a life of service through the church.


8 January 2014 0

Are Joburg’s densification plans environmentally sound?

The city’s Corridor of Freedom plans to go through this area in its bid to develop Johannesburg as an easily commutable city. It hopes to dismantle the spatial and social legacy of apartheid characterised by racial segregation by creating easily accessible, high-density developments to break down the barriers of isolation and exclusion.


25 November 2013 0

Environmental implication of Joburg’s mining history

The epicentre of the tremor was said to be beneath UJ’s Auckland Park campus by the Council for Geoscience but Dr van Niekerk suspects that a more accurate analysis would find the tremor started at a nearby mine shaft.

“It is very difficult to come up with an epicentre because it takes a lot of reading data, but there are no old mine shafts underneath the university itself so it is highly unlikely. UJ may just have been used as it is a recognisable landmark. Now, if you go just over Brixton hill to the southern side of Brixton Ridge, there are many abandoned open mines. If these mine shafts collapse, they will obviously cause the place to shake.”


18 November 2013 0

The European Bee-Eater stops in Joburg

The birds fly the treacherous journey from central and eastern Europe cross the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Desert to settle in Southern Africa. Bee-eaters from France, Spain and Italy fly across the Sahara to West Africa. Their ideal African grounds are sandy riversides or cliff sides – hence their attraction to Northcliff Ridge.


17 October 2013 0