Fast-paced, frenetic
JOHANNESBURG
has had a reputation for immorality,
greed and violence ever since its
first plot auction in December 1886.
Despite its status as the largest
and richest city in the country, it
has never been the seat of
government or national political
power, allowing it to concentrate
fully on what it has always done
best: make money and get ahead.
Those priorities have, over the
years, cut across political and
racial lines: only in Jo'burg would
ambitious black Africans like Nelson
Mandela have been able to train in a
white law firm; only in Jo'burg
would creative hotspots like
Sophiatown and Alexandra exist at
all; and only in Jo'burg would white
liberalism have been given any
intellectual recognition in the dark
days of apartheid.
Even so, the divisions of the old
South Africa are as apparent here as
anywhere else. Ridiculously opulent
white mansions in leafy suburbs
are protected by high walls and
razor wire, only a mile or two from
sprawling shanty towns
housing millions of intensely poor
blacks. As the new political
dispensation sees formerly white
areas administratively yoked with
the black townships, so the city
struggles to cope with massive
pressures on housing, services and
law and order. Nowhere is the new
tension more in evidence than in the
previously all-white central
business district, where an influx
of poor blacks, and a soaring crime
rate, has caused a mass exodus of
shops and restaurants to the
northern suburbs.
As the centre readjusts, so the
fringes expand: there will be a
continuous ribbon of development
between Johannesburg and Pretoria,
originally 50km apart, within a
decade. Meanwhile, the black middle
class, much more evident in
Johannesburg than anywhere else in
South Africa, is moving from
township to suburb, while tens of
thousands of immigrants from
elsewhere in Africa flood into
inner-city suburbs like Hillbrow and
townships like Alexandra.
There are very few conventional
tourist sights in Johannesburg, and
some visitors fall into the trap of
retreating to their hotel room, too
intimidated by the city's reputation
to explore, venturing out only to
the bland, safe, covered shopping
malls of the northern suburbs while
making hasty plans to move on.
However, once you've found a
convenient way of getting around,
either by car or in the company of a
tour guide, the history, diversity
and stimulating energy of the city
can quickly become compelling.
Johannesburg offers fascinating museums
, most notably the Museum Africa in
Newtown, as well as excellent art
galleries. A number of suburbs have
a thriving café culture ,
which by the evening transforms to a
lively restaurant scene. There are
shops with excellent contemporary
African art and design, striking
buildings, and of course the townships
, most easily explored on a tour
but, in some places, somewhere you
can get to under your own steam.
Johannesburg is also a great place
to watch sport : Ellis Park
was the scene of South Africa's
emotional victory in the 1995 Rugby
World Cup, the IAAF World Cup was
held at the neighbouring athletics
stadium in 1999, and the massive FNB
soccer stadium on the edge of Soweto,
which fills to capacity for local
derbies or international fixtures,
remains the principal venue for the
country's most popular sport.
