Experience a diversity of things to do and activities in and around Johannesburg
Jozi is exploding with green leaves, blossoms and art exhibitions. Here is a list of some of the art events … with 2 further afield in Pretoria. Paul Emmanuel at UJ Art Gallery until 2nd October “Substance of Shadows’’ is a culmination of 6 years work. Using the material of carbon ‘paper’, Emmanuel’s time-consuming, detailed, […]
Read More »Jeppe Street Post Office 1935 While writing my last post on Art Deco in Johannebsurg, I came across photos in my archive of the Jeppe Street Post Office. Three years ago Laurice Taitz of Johannebsurg In Your Pocket together with JDA and Africa Housing Company [AFCHO] arranged a tour of this 1935 Public Works building. […]
Read More »Buildings competing for Numero Uno Like many born and bred Jozi-ites I have seen many iterations of this mad brash vibrant city, not least of all the Sandton sky-line. Glinting glass phalluses compete for attention a la Donkey-of-Shrek fame in a persistent “Choose Me! Choose Me!”. The bigger, the taller, the more expensive, the more […]
Read More »A prime birding location I wrote about Zaagkuilsdrift and KgomoKgomo in my last post but only posted one bird photograph! So more on the actual birding here. Just 50km north of Pretoria, this area is one of South Africa’s most prolific birding spots with grassland, woodland and water birds abounding. Illustrious company We knew we […]
Read More »Liz at Lancaster is a bird friendly establishment Liz at Lancaster is recognized by BirdLife South Africa as a birding friendly establishment and we have hosted several members of Birdlife SA and arranged tours for international birders. I’m a very amateurish birder, tending to glaze over when it comes to warblers, pippits, larks and cisticolas ((but […]
Read More »A perfect safe healthy social event Need to get out into sun and fresh air, connect with like-minded people, explore one of Jozi’s treasures in a safe and secure environment, and be inspired by a social activist’s passion and enthusiasm .. look no further than a weekly Seniors walk in the Wilds on a Tuesday […]
Read More »Lucille Davie’s Sophiatown tour I wrote briefly in my last blog about the history of SophiaTown, and its destruction in the late 1950s. This wholesale and devastating destruction of buildings left only four standing: Three that escaped were Christ the King Anglican Church, where Archbishop Trevor Huddleston preached, Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma’s house and St […]
Read More »Re- presentations of Sophiatown I am ashamed to say that the closest I had come to Sophiatown before February 2020, (more of the tour with Lucille Davie in my next blog) was attending the production of Malcolm Purkey’s play by that name at the Market Theatre in 1986. And of course I also knew Gerard […]
Read More »Gerald Garner of Joburg Places I first met Gerald Garner over 8 years ago when I joined him on one of his walking tours of Jozi inner city. Back then I wrote about his informed, fascinating and passionate account of Joburg – from the early mining days, to its Modernist heyday at the height of […]
Read More »Parks as sites of activism In addition to being places of leisure and recreation, parks and public spaces are containers of values, bounded spaces of inclusion and exclusion, sites of political, social and cultural activism whether overtly or by default. During the 1980s in the height of Apartheid repression people’s parks in South Africa were […]
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