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A few million of us have a sordid love affair with Johannesburg. The relationship is bruising, volatile and — literally — toxic. Still, we remain loyal to our affections and our city.
This week we decided to ask a difficult question — have people fallen out of love with Joburg? We want to know whether the “for sale” signs that have sprouted out of pristine Parktown lawns mean anything. And do they represent the sentiment of the segments of the population whose cappuccino budget is less than four figures?
The problem is that it’s tricky to articulate the allure of Joburg, let alone interrogate it. Most of us struggle to put into words what this city is or what it represents.
Or why we love it.
Just what is Joburg? We know it is a megalopolis that emerged out of the mines; the smoking Balrog that grew from greedily digging too deep. But gold no longer glitters as it once did — or at least few of us here today deal explicitly in its economy.
Our history is shallow as far as global metropolitans go. At no point did Napoleon wilt in our heat, as he did in Cairo. Scholars did not stop here during their pilgrimage to Timbuktu. Joburg has existed for a little more than a 100 years. The first tent poles went up in about 1886 and it became a municipality in 1898.
Like the rest of the country, we struggle to… Read more
