In-depth 2016: Joburg CBD

Founded in a gold rush during the 1800s, the early days set Johannesburg’s character as busy and constantly on the move. Many came from all over the country, continent and the world to seek their fortunes. Some prospered, others did not. By many accounts, men arrived first, followed later by women. There was no official racial segregation in the city during its infancy. Harsher and harsher racially oppressive laws took root in the city as governments and politics shifted over time. The city bears these scars today. Since the early 1990s, and informally before that that, official racial segregation lapsed. Some people and businesses moved out of the city centre, others moved in. The policies and plans for the inner city are born with great flourish. Some live, others flounder. But the residents of Joburg keep moving into every available space, physically, financially and emotionally. Some prosper, other don’t.

Group Assimilation

Join the writers as they interpret this theme to include everything from how to green the concrete jungle, finding reading spaces and safe spaces to worship. As they search for elusive English as a second language and adapt and reclaim traditional shweshwe fabric. In motion there is energy and assimilation is a constant motion.

Shannon Correia

Shannon Correia

Journalist

Shweshwe: The fabric of the inner city

Nasya Smith

Nasya Smith

Journalist

Giving birth on the streets of Joburg

Kyle Oberholzer

Kyle Oberholzer

Journalist

The drill hall defenders

Wendy Mothata

Wendy Mothata

Journalist

Entertaining angels

Tendani Mulaudzi

Tendani Mulaudzi

Journalist

A greenhouse in the urban jungle

Aarti Bhana

Aarti Bhana

Journalist

Democracy is a dialogue

Shweshwe: The fabric of the inner city

Shweshwe.

By: Shannon Correia

The word captures the rustle of the vibrantly colourful fabric as a woman models a blue maxi dress with signature white markings in Bongiwe Walaza’s design studio on Pritchard Street in Johannesburg.

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Giving birth on the streets of joburg

By: Nasya Smith

The sun is not even casting shadows yet and the streets are buzzing with taxis hooting for late passengers to hurry up, shopkeepers are sweeping the pavement in front of their shops and children are making their way to school.

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The drill hall defenders

Kyle Oberholzer

The frantic rush to relocate potted plants from the dimly-lit lobby to the courtyard defied the laid-back attitude which had been displayed just moments before. 

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Entertaining angels

By: Wendy Mothata

Faith and the law live side by side in the fast-beating heart of Johannesburg. On the one side is the South Gauteng High Court, with its olive-green dome and pillars made of stone.

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A greenhouse in the urban jungle

By: Tendani Mulaudzi

The streets of Johannesburg are bustling with activity, an intrinsic characteristic of the CBD. Women selling fresh produce sit in the sun all day, with green spinach, blood-red tomatoes and ripe cabbage enticing walkers-by.

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Democracy is a dialogue

By: Aarti Bhana

There’s a man seated on an empty ledge in the inner city of Johannesburg, he’s a black man, next to him, his friend or colleague, a white man, they having heated debate.

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Group Degradation

Arguably the word most associated with the Johannesburg inner city. Our writers find the flip side of degradation in the traditional sense of the word. Visit the Joburg Art Gallery and the chess players in Joubert Park. Meet the migrants trying to be legal and the peddlers selling beauty and happiness from a city pole. And meet the young skateboarders living inside one of the city’s most famously regimented space.

Laura Pisanello

Laura Pisanello

Journalist

Art fights for inner city relevance 

Zanta Nkumane

Zanta Nkumane

Journalist

Checkmates, Stalemates and Zugswangs

Hazel Kimani

Hazel Kimani

Journalist

The sole survivor speaks English

Nozipho Mpanza

Nozipho Mpanza

Journalist

The cosmetic industry of the inner city

Nokuthula Zwane

Nokuthula Zwane

Journalist

Migrants: No room at the inn

Checkmates, Stalemates and Zugswangs

By: Zanta Nkumane

The rain relentlessly pours out of the dark grey skies and people scurry away to find shelter away from the rain.  In this rush, the two players remain focused on their ongoing chess game.

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The sole survivor speaks English

By: Hazel Kimani

Stuck in peak hour afternoon traffic in Johannesburg’s Central Business District (CBD), the blaring sound of taxis hooting and the streets crowded by pedestrians are heightening my claustrophobia.

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The cosmetic medical industry of the inner city

By: Nozipho Mpanza

Take a walk downtown Joburg and you’re sure to find someone who will remind you that you need a bit of aesthetic assistance.

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Migrants: No room at the inn

By: Nokuthula Zwane

For years migrants have been experiencing difficulties in becoming legal especially in a country that they find refuge. Countries themselves face difficulties in regulation and accreditation of those migrants.

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Art fights for inner city relevance

By: Laura Pisanello

It’s eerily quiet at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) on a Tuesday morning. The only people around are the few staff that the gallery can afford to employ and two men sitting on a bench in the main entrance, getting some peace and quiet from the busy city surrounding them.

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Group Resilience

Resilience is a rubber band that keeps bouncing back until it breaks. Or it’s a ball bouncing higher or lower or dribbling. it’s flexible and it keeps coming back. These are the resilient traders of the Joburg inner city as they find ways to sell their wares. These are waste pickers making a living from discards. They are hairdressers and traditional healers and some are gamblers looking for a lucky break.

Lwandile Fikeni

Lwandile Fikeni

Journalist

The hairdressers of kerk street

Nobathembu Zantsi

Nobathembu Zantsi

Journalist

Vumani bo! Seers and sangomas in the city of gold

Sisa Canca

Sisa Canca

Journalist

Luck and loss in the CBD

Ayanda Mgede

Ayanda Mgede

Journalist

Sex work as survival

Leanne Cumming

Leanne Cumming

Journalist

The waste pickers of the urban landscape

The hairdressers of kerk street

By: Lwandile Fikeni

“You should see bab’uSithole’s hands; they are like this,” Mam’Sipho says and pauses from plaiting her customer who is sitting on a red plastic chair in the middle of Kerk street, to emphaise the point by curling her fingers.

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Vumani bo! Seers and sangomas in the city of gold

By: Nobathembu Zantsi

The Johannesburg Central Business District (CBD) caters for a variety of needs to different members of society; there are retail shops, medical practitioners, clubs, churches, traditional healers and so on. 

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Luck and loss in the CBD

By: Sisa Canca 

The hiss of slot machines, private conversations, numerous television commentaries and crackling sounds of tables and chairs filled U Bet – one of Johannesburg’s popular gambling clubs.

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Sex work as survival

By: Ayanda Mgede

Welcome to the Johannesburg CBD where money is what sustains many livelihoods and the nature of sex work is both implied and explicit. 

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The waste pickers of the urban landscape

By: Leanne Cumming

It is a hot Tuesday afternoon and informal waste pickers, those who retrieve recyclable items thrown away by others, approach the recycling yard situated on the premises of the Green House Project on Wolmerans Street, Johannesburg.

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Group Rejuvenation

Rejuvenation speaks of life, water and energy. The energy of birth, the energy of taking on a role defying social stereotypes. The life-giving photography in Joubert Park, rejuvenating photographer and subject. And rejuvenating yourself by faking it until you make it. These are stories of birth and rebirth.

Olwethu Boso

Olwethu Boso

Journalist

Driving in a man’s world 

Nadia Omar

Nadia Omar

Journalist

The reality of fake goods 

Candice Wagener

Candice Wagener

Journalist

Shutterbugs in the park

Tebogo Tshwane

Tebogo Tshwane

Journalist

Trading against all odds

Mokgethwa Masemola

Mokgethwa Masemola

Journalist

The green lungs of the inner city

Driving in a man's world

By: Olwethu Boso

Just outside the imposing Carlton Centre, at the corner of Commissioner and Von Wielligh streets, loud maskandi music can be heard blaring from the parked minibus taxis.

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The reality of fake goods

By: Nadia Omar

Destiny sits snuggled between two makeshift gazebos. The plastic legs of his stool bend as he rocks back and forth.  To his left hang bundles of hair and to his right, packed neatly, is an array of the sneakers he sells.

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Shutterbugs in the park

By: Candice Wagener

A middle-aged man wearing an old suit looks relaxed while he is sitting in the shade in Joubert Park with a camera around his neck and a photo display nearby so that people walking through can see samples of his work. 

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Trading against all odds

By: Tebogo Tshwane

There are common sounds that tell you that you are in Johannesburg’s Central Business District. The sound of the city is characterised by an unrelenting orchestra of hooting Siyaya and Quantum taxis, and the blaring mixture of kwaito, gospel and North African music from small foreign-owned shops and charismatic churches.

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The green lungs of the inner city

By: Mokgethwa Masemola

On the eve of the Greenhouse Food Festival, a wet and grey Friday morning, Mamonosi Mahlophe and her colleague and friend Mamosweu Tsoabi, are picking weeds from their garden.

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Click here to view the 2017 In-depth reporting project: Soweto Central