Having just come back from a few days in Johanesburg, only the second substantial visit since 1992, I was once again struck by the differences with Cape Town.<\/p>\n
I like Joburg. It’s got a big city buzz, things are happening, it’s got an African feel to it. It gives me a perspective on Cape Town – international tourist flavour of the day, but also provincial backwater as far as commerce goes. And it does sometimes feels as if it comes from a different continent (I won’t say European, because there’s nothing quite like it in Europe – the first world shopping centres notwithstanding, there’s also the massive wealth gap, the barely-existent public transport, the bergies).<\/p>\n
I’m reminded of an enjoyable series of books by Kim Stanley Robinson.They’re set in the same area of California, with overlapping characters. One was based upon a utopian green revolution (Pacific Edge<\/a>), one was the apocalypse (The Wild Shore<\/a>), while Joburg reminds me of the third (Gold Coast<\/a>). It’s a more of the same<\/em> scenario, massive development, highways, traffic accidents, malls. The roads in Joburg are a maze – last time I hired a car and got horribly lost. This time I was ferried around, with barely a clue of my bearings. The malls sicken me, pale teenagers frantically buying the latest and most expensive designer clothes. But also fun, with bookshops where the entire bestselling list is South African (that doesn’t happen in Cape Town), and great games arcades (it’s been a while). There are billboards everywhere, the highways infested with commercial pleas. The city is sprawling in all directions, linking up with Pretoria, Soweto, Midrand. Residents in the well-to-do suburbs have walled themselves in, every house sporting an electric fence and a siege mentality.<\/p>\n The inner city appeals to me the most though. Rundown, but regenerating. Art galleries hanging on for survival, but producing interesting work. Ugly office blocks from the sixties next to modern architectural creations, both malignant and benign.<\/p>\n But overall, a feeling of regeneration and vibrancy that appeals to me. Perhaps it comes from living in South Africa through the 80’s, seeing the negativity turn around, and I’ve become addicted on a mini scale. Muizenberg, or the city centre in Cape Town. Not sterile, a shiny new gated suburb such as Westlake, but rather covered in a coating of grime, unconventional vibrancy, not too respectable. Joburg fits the bill.<\/p>\n Of course it’s easy to say this from afar, and I won’t voluntarily be moving from my sterile suburb with a house bordering the nature reserve anytime soon. But it’s not the big bad bogie so many in Cape Town make it out to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having just come back from a few days in Johanesburg, only the second substantial visit since 1992, I was once again struck by the differences with Cape Town. I like Joburg. It’s got a big city buzz, things are happening, it’s got an African feel to it. It gives me a perspective on Cape Town… Continue reading A 5-day view of Johanesburg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-personal","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenman.co.za\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}