Joburg City Festival 2013

(Click on photos to view gallery)

The JCTA is a voluntary organisation representing businesses and organisations who have a stake in tourism in downtown Joburg. The organisation aims to promote the many attractions of the Joburg inner-city to residents and visitors, who still don't quite get what newbies in town like me are already so excited about. To get the ball moving, in the last week of August the JCTA organised the first ever Joburg City Festival. It was a week full of special events and parties, walking tours, concerts and exhibits, street football and ballet, poetry, fashion, cookery lessons and much more.

The JCTA headquarters are in the random turret building on the right of this picture

I certainly didn't get to as many of the events as I wanted to, but what I did do was discover a lot more about the inner-city and its different areas. After all this exploration of the CBD's various 'hoods I am starting to feel like quite the confident downtown Joburger...even if I am really just an expat who lives in the Northern Suburbs.

The Fashion District

One of the coolest venues during the week was the Fashion Kapitol which is located deep in the 26 block expanse of the 'fashion district'. The Fashion Kapitol is an initiative by a local fashion institute to inject new life into this historic fabrics and clothing area. They have an open-air runway where they stage fashion shows, retail space for cool little boutiques and a nice cafe called The Fashion Shack located inside one of the oldest surviving buildings in the area.

There were lots of tuk tuks about to take festival goers to the different venues

I kept turning up here intent on catching one of the fashion shows which had names like Freaky Friday, Trendy Thursday and Magical Monday, but somehow I kept missing them. Even though I never saw one of the big fashion events, I did still get to pretend I was The Satorialist wandering around and assessing the local style. Personally I think it's not always what people here are wearing, more how they are wearing it - Joburgers have real poise and tons of attitude, they can make a lot of getups look very sharp and cool. I love the colours of the shops around this area too. 

Kerk Street Market

The Kerk Street Market is one of my favourite markets in the CBD. It has great fruit and veggies, as well as the usual football shirts, trainers, gadgets etc. There are many more hectic markets in the city, yet somehow Kerk Street manages to remain simultaneously calm but also full of life. Apparently the hair braiders at the Kerk Street Market are some of the best on the whole continent. They don't have fancy salons, just chairs on the street and they are never short of custom.

On the last day of the festival in Kerk Street there was an event called 'Claim Your City'. A sound system was set-up and local musicians played throughout the day. I dropped by and caught a male soul group giving it everything - they were brilliant.

Gandhi Square Street Football

On Gandhi Square, the transport hub for those using the Metro Bus, there was a 'street football' championship going on all week. Street Football here meant five-a-side and the teams were impressively well organised and played really high standard football. The eventual winners were the Penthouse Scorpions who quite simply outclassed everyone else. They won a new matching team kit and kit bags, as well as 5,000 Rand - not bad for a bit of street footie!

Braamfontein and Critical Mass

Braamfontein is one of the most fashionable parts of downtown Joburg. Full of students there's no shortage of creative ideas, pumping bars and cool coffee shops. I spent quite a lot of the week here, sipping my way through a list of the area's top cafes (more on that later), making my first trip out to the fascinating Constitution Hill and enjoying my first meet up with the fun crowd known as the Jozi Bloggers (also more on that later).

I sadly did not take part (this time) in the mass cycling event Critical Mass which left from Braamfontein on Friday night to zoom around the city centre. I did however hover around and do that blogger thing of taking pictures of the dudes while they were preparing to leave. There were all kinds of people at this event, hipsters, old folks, serious cyclists, young kids, yuppies, students, bloggers (probably)...it's pretty cool how the love of travelling on two wheels unites different folks and I think the whole Critical Mass ethos really matches well with the mission of the Joburg City Festival. Really looking forward to the next edition.

Bram Fischer and the Rand Club

Inspired by reading Bram Fischer's biography at the Liliesleaf Farm museum recently, when I saw that there would be a performance of the one man play The Bram Fischer Waltz in Johannesburg I just had to go. The play was originally written in Afrikaans by Joburg based writer/director Harry Kalmer. It went on to win a slew of Afrikaans theatre awards and was subsequently translated into English for the 2013 National Arts Festival. Here's the blurb which explains what it was all about:

The moving story of Bram Fischer, the Afrikaner communist and lawyer who saved Nelson Mandela from the gallows but died in prison himself. Based on research and conversations with people who knew Fischer well, this play explores the personal life, political outlook and choices of an extra-ordinary individual who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.

Unless you are really familiar with the ins and outs of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1950s and 1960s - and particularly the Rivonia Trial - you may not have heard of Bram Fischer. His name seems to have dropped quietly from the list of famous heroes and has only reappeared in recent years as historians reconsider his story. Recently the Bloemfontein airport was renamed in his honour and a number of biographies have come out putting this great man back in the spotlight.

Bram Fischer was a lawyer by profession. He was born into a very privileged Afrikaner family - his father was the Judge President of the Orange Free State and his grandfather Abraham was once the Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony. He studied at Oxford University and married a niece of prominent South African statesman Jan Smuts (she also was a staunch anti-apartheid activist and his closest ally). He was also a committed Marxist and a leading figure in the South African Communist Party. He gave up a life of immense privilege and went against the prevailing attitude of his community to dedicate his life to helping end apartheid. As he says in the play: 'at least we can say that there was at least one Afrikaner opposing this system they call apartheid' [sic].

The play sees Fischer looking back over his past from a prison cell in Pretoria where he has been sentenced to life imprisonment for his communist activities and conspiracy to overthrow the government. We hear about his admiration for his comrades Nelson and Walter and their inspirational speeches from the dock during the Rivonia Trial (where he was acting as their lawyer). He also tells of his heartbreak at the sudden death of his wife during a car crash (he was driving the car). And we also hear about his last days of freedom on the run from the South African authorities. The whole story was utterly engrossing and my compliments must go out to the amazing David Butler for his touching portrayal of this truly great South African.

Bram had been a secret member of the communist party since the 1940s. In 1964 he was charged for leading the South African Communist Party (it was illegal to be a communist in those days). He was released on bail and travelled to London where friends encouraged him to forgo his bond and go into exile. Bram Fischer however would not give up on his homeland: “I am an Afrikaner. My home is in South Africa. I will not leave my country because my political beliefs conflict with those of the Government.”

On his return to South Africa, Fischer then went on the run joining the underground liberation movement, determined to sacrifice all he could for his country's freedom. He left a message for the court explaining his motives: “My decision was made only because I believe that it is the duty of every true opponent of this Government to remain in this country and to oppose its monstrous policy of apartheid with every means in his power. That is what I shall do for as long as I can...What is needed is for White South Africans to shake themselves out of their complacency, a complacency intensified by the present economic boom built upon racial discrimination.”

After 290 days on the run he was captured and put on trial. Some friends encouraged him to publicly renounce communism to gain a lesser sentence. Fischer was however true to his beliefs and delivered a passionate defence of his actions and proudly proclaimed himself to be inspired by Marxist theories.

The last scenes of the play are very moving as the final months of Bram Fischer's life were unbearably tragic. Suffering alone in his cell from brain cancer, his health deteriorated drastically and following his partial paralysis and loss of speech the authorities were eventually persuaded to allow his brother's home in the Free State to be declared a prison. He died there in 1975 long before the end of apartheid. His ashes were confiscated after his funeral by the prisons authority and his final resting place is unknown.

The Rand Club

The Bram Fischer Waltz was performed in a most incongruous venue - the Rand Club. The Rand Club is a historic members club in the Joburg CBD which dates back to the days of Cecil Rhodes and the Randlords. Under apartheid it was a whites only, males only club which also discriminated against Jews. Thankfully nowadays anybody is allowed to spend some time relaxing here so long as they obey the 'dress code' (no jeans, no trainers, no sports clothes etc).

The building is super colonial in style. It has a grand staircase, massive bar where they serve beer in engraved tankards (keeps your brew super cold!), an olde worlde library, various posh function rooms, a gun room (yes really), some (probably) extremely valuable and very beautiful drawings of exotic animals and birds and portraits and busts of a grand array of leaders including the young Queen Elizabeth II, Cecil Rhodes and of course dear Madiba. The theatre is down in the basement where they also keep the Pièce de résistance - a crazy billiards hall filled with the taxidermied heads of various African animals - including a giraffe.

In all the building is well worth visiting so keep an eye out for upcoming events and open days on their facebook page and website.

11.07.2013 Walking the Joburg CBD - Marshalltown

I've started to develop a bit of an addiction - namely spending the day wondering aimlessly around the Johannesburg CBD (Central Business District). In a city which has some pretty soulless malls and anonymous suburbs and a shamefully large amount of informal housing and derelict buildings, the CBD shines out for me as a place filled with history, interesting architecture, people from all walks of life. It feels like somewhere which is certainly on the up and in a palpable state of revival. Downtown for me is real city life.

View of the CBD from a bridge crossing the railway tracks

In our first week here I ventured out on my lonesome to explore the CBD and I actually landed in Braamfontein, mistakenly thinking I was in the heart of downtown Joburg. I can't lie, I was feeling kinda nervous. Everything at that time made me nervous. For the first time in my life I truly stood out as a foreigner and quite frankly the whole new continent thing was giving me some serious culture shock. In reality Braamfontein, just over the railway tracks from the CBD, is a really fun student part of the city, which has all of the most happening bars, lots of street life and some seriously hipster cafes. Back then having landed from Europe in the sterile Sandton bubble, Braamfontein's graffiti, rubbish, chicken shops, busy pavements, high density housing and lack of white people were an amazement for me - it was literally another city.

While I love Braamfontein for its great bars, cafes and nightlife (which actually kicks off at the weekend before it has even passed 6pm!), the CBD is still the heart of this city for me. Rich in variety and architectural splendour it has so much to see.

One of the most tourist friendly and prosperous parts of the CBD to walk around is Marshalltown, an area where you can really glimpse the former and present wealth of the city.

Chancellor House

This is the building where Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo had their legal practice and I wrote about it in a previous post so I am not going to go into details again. It is just a few blocks away from Diagonal Street where they sell a lot of blankets, heaters (I presume there will be fans and hats here in summer?) and other household stuff and interestingly you can also find a couple of Muti shops selling freaky things for use in traditional medicine and other juju stuff.

A Muti shop

Main Street and the chamber of mines

A short walk from the courts is the pedestrianised Main Street which has the lavish headquarters of numerous major mining companies such as BHP Billiton and AngloAmerican Gold. Many of the grand buildings here have facades with beautiful carvings relating to the gold rush and statues inspired by South Africa's magnificent wildlife. There are also some particularly nice pieces of public art, such as this statue of leaping springboks.

Facade at BHP Billiton

Main street is also peppered with relics from the mining industry such as old trains, stamp mills and pumps. It was from literally right under these streets that the first gold was mined a mere 130 years ago, leading to the swift creation of one of Africa's biggest cities. Main Street has many nice cafes frequented by local office workers (hence they are often closed on weekends) and even has a Woolworths Food (the posh South African supermarket). In nearby Anderson Street you can also find some of the nicest hotels in the city centre such as the Reef Hotel and the Mapungbuwe.

Random mining stuff

Library Square Gardens

A few blocks north of Main Street this square is another example of the successful restoration of beautiful historic downtown buildings. This is an area which was one of the very first to be developed in the city during the early gold rush years. The beautiful library at the heart of the square has recently been restored and is well worth checking out. With a large high school nearby the square is often filled with kids hanging out on their lunch breaks or playing while waiting for the bus. Looking over it is the Guildhall Pub, the oldest in Johannesburg and a great (and yes, safe) boozer.

The Guildhall Pub

Corner Fox Street and Loveday Street

A large part of Fox Street (running parallel to Main) is also now pedestrianised and has some big offices on it. It also has some amazing old buildings kept in very nice condition such as the impressive Old Standard Bank of South Africa building. Nearby you can also find the Post Office building (victim of fire a few years ago, awaiting restoration) and some other elegant civic buildings.

This could easily be somewhere in Europe...

The old Post Office

There are two very nice cafes here worth looking out for. Ma Bertha's -a very friendly new cafe on Loveday where you can get a huge plate of steaming stew and pap for 40 Rand. They even have tables and chairs right on the pavement in true European cafe culture style (i.e not roped off, but literally right in the middle of the pavement). The other is the much older Pinos, an Italian cafe with genuine Italian coffee, a very faithful clientele and a toilet which you have to be escorted through the kitchens to reach. It gets really busy here and is a very authentic recreation of an atypical Italian coffee bar.

Pino's

Gandhi Square

My strolls downtown often tend to start or finish here as this is the terminus for the Metrobus. Minibus taxi are still much more popular than the Metrobus as they are more reliable and take more complex routes - with Metrobus you can be waiting a long time or getting dropped really far from your home. But, that said I still enjoy riding the Metrobus back up north as they are double decker so you get a great view as you ride home.

Gandhi Square is of course named after the great Indian leader who worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg for many years. He has a statue on the square, but it is pretty small, blink and you might miss it. It shows Gandhi in his youthful lawyer years in court robes with some important looking papers.

Gandhi's statue

Back in the early 1990s Gandhi Square was a bit of a no-go area, despite being the main bus terminus for the city. There was a lot of trouble with crime and drugs, the lighting and policing was poor and people were constantly getting robbed here. Not so today however. The square is a hub of activity surrounded by office, shops, cafes and bars. It is very safe and is well looked after. It is also sustainable offering affordable business, retail and rental opportunities to the people who visit downtown the most. Much of the credit has to go to local entrepreneur Gerald Olitzki who worked hard to redevelop the area when anyone else with money had given up and fled to Sandton. You can read about him in this great article from 2010 by the Globe and Mail.

Gandhi Square

I think this huge banner on Gandhi Square pretty much sums up my feelings about Joburg's revival.

25.06.2013 Nelson Mandela - the Shadow Boxer

With the father of the nation and one of the greatest leaders of the 20^th Century now critically ill in hospital, I thought this might the right time to write something about Nelson Mandela's time in Johannesburg.

Madiba moved to Johannesburg in 1941 where he first found work as a night watchman at a local mine. He then moved to the Alexandra township and got a job in downtown Johannesburg working as a clerk at a sympathetic Jewish lawyer's firm. The building (just off Library Gardens Square on Harrison Street) housing the firm is now called the Nelson Mandela Building and has a school and various offices in it.

After completing his BA degree and embarking on a law degree at Wits University (which he sadly was not allowed to complete), Mandela and his friend Oliver Tambo opened a legal practice for black South Africans in downtown Johannesburg opposite the Magistrates Courts.

Chancellor House where Mandela and Tambo had their legal practice

As the only black lawyers working in Johannesburg they dealt with a huge workload and the offices were constantly filled with people. As arguably one of the most important places in modern South Africa's history it is now finally being recognised as the historical landmark that it is and is going to be turned into a museum. For the moment there are exhibitions in the windows which explain what Tambo and Mandela were doing here and how. Amazingly as recently as four years ago the building was half-derelict and occupied by squatters.

The corner offices face the magistrates courts where a striking new monument to Mandela was recently erected. It is based on a photograph taken of the young Mandela shadow boxing on a nearby inner-city roof. Boxing was very important to Madiba, it kept him fit and focused, he admired the self-discipline and strength it involved and under it all of course boxing was egalitarian - the colour of the opponent is irrelevant in a fight. Underneath the monument is a quote from Long Walk to Freedom about boxing.

The original photo on which the monument is based

"In the ring, rank, age, colour, and wealth are irrelevant."

As a seriously ill and frail 94 year old man, it is sometimes difficult to look back and imagine how Mandela was in his youth - especially given that most of the world only caught sight of him once he was released from prison and had already dramatically aged. Therefore this monument was a very smart commission. It shows Mandela as a fighter, as strong, focused, hands on and of course most of all young. It's striking and inspiring and I hope will become a place where people can remember the great things which he achieved and how hard the struggle was, long after Madiba is gone from our lives.

01.06.2013 Bar hopping in Johannesburg CBD

Gerald is a bubbly Johannesburg tour guide, who has also written a popular book detailing all the best that the city has to offer called JoburgPlaces. Gerald had the genius idea of combining drinking with touring the city centre and after a tough few days of moving chaos we certainly needed those beers.

Unfortunately due to a long and tortuous morning of getting involved in something we hadn't really thought we had signed up for (we were just trying to make the TV work, we ended up with a satellite...) we missed the start of the tour.

Here's where we went (excluding a bar in a gold vault in the Mapungubwe Hotel and Darkie Cafe which is opposite it). Note we travelled around in a mini-bus. According to Gerald it is now safe to walk in the CBD after dark, but it is not safe to cross the bridges:

Guildhall Pub

Corner Market and Harrison Street

Downstairs at the Guildhall

Reputedly the oldest pub in the city, the Guildhall first opened in 1888. The bar itself and the panelling surrounding it is all around 100 years old, while the building's facade, including a wrought iron balcony, is also an important historic relic of old Joburg.

We sat up on the balcony overlooking the library square and the Nelson Mandela Building (the place were Madiba first got a job as a legal clerk at a Jewish firm). Most of the locals tend to sit downstairs at the bar. I've actually popped by here before whilst strolling the inner-city and can confirm that it's got a proper bar buzz in the post-work hours, is safe and the owner is lovely. There's also karaoke on Thursdays (I haven't been...yet).

I read that back in the 1970s the Guildhall was the bar of choice for foreign correspondents working in the city. It was reputedly a bit rough at the edges, but an essential venue for journalists getting their teeth into reporting the madness of apartheid and swapping war stories. How things change.

Reef Hotel 
(not to be confused with Gold Reef City), 58 Anderson Street

The funny tower on the right is all that remains of a grand old Joburg building. It was demolished to make way for a new bank HQ, but the project fell apart after demolition and now it's just a car park.

This is a lovely business hotel, with outstanding staff, very close to the main mining headquarters (hence the name). The restaurant on ground level does an excellent lunch buffet deal on weekdays for local office workers. Meanwhile upstairs there's a very respected gourmet restaurant where they train youngsters from poor backgrounds to become top chefs.

We headed all the way up to the roof (currently only open for private parties) for our drinks. The views from up there are incredible. Hopefully they will open it up soon as a proper bar. It is seriously one of the best 'sundowner' locations in Johannesburg.

Great Dane

6 De Beer Street

After picking up my poor husband (who had only just escaped the TV fiasco) we went to Great Dane, a very popular student joint in Braamfontein. It is next to Kitcheners which is probably my favourite bar in Joburg right now and has a similar crowd. The Dane was absolutely packed and everyone was dancing to Cee Cee Peniston's 90s house hit Finally, even though it was only 7pm. A proper party place filled with outrageously hip looking African students.

Parktonian Hotel

120 De Korte Street

For our final drinks gazing out over the lights of Saturday night Hillbrow, we went to the roof of the Protea Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein. Again I think this place is only open for guests and private parties and again they are really missing a trick.

As this was our final destination we all had a Springbok shot (mint liqueur and kahlua) and listened with amazement as Gerald explained to us the ins and outs of how downtown Johannesburg fell into decline and why business and upmarket living is now spread across the 'northern suburbs' instead. I'm not going to go into the whole incredible story here, but in a nutshell - this city is changing all the time, and in the CBD things right now are only changing for the better.