| There
is also Ponti i.e. what used to be the highest sky-scraper in Africa. It
is still considered to be one of the best spots for comercials. When we
came in February 2000 Coca Cola had large neon-signs on the roof, they were
changed in May I beleive for VodaCom's (; South Africa's biggest telephone-operator).
It used to be very luxurious to live in Ponti during the 80's, with nice
flats on balconies around a court-yard (; a large hole in the middle thru'
the entire building). Nowadays the court-yard is the most known for being
the number one place in Africa to comit suicide in... The rich and influential
people moved away from Johannesburg city in the early 90's to the surrounding
villa-suburbs , so at the moment Ponti is inhabited by drug-kings, pimps
and prostitutes I was told. They do pay rent, however, so it is not as a
lot of abandonned buildings occupied by the home-less. In Johannesburg people
drive around with their car-doors locked, since they want to prevent being
high-jacked at gun-point by the red-lights. I would also like to mention
an area that in my guide-book from '96 presents as being "so cosmopolitan
that shops and bars are open around the clock". These days a lot of people
do not go into Hillbrow, as it is called , even at day-time and during the
nights the taxi-cabs don't go there. Hillbrow is supposed to be one of the
most dangerous areas in Johannesburgs, and even little old ladies who sell
corn at the side-walk get mugged. Southafrica is very much a car-society,
and few (st least white people) walk. Since I lived so close to campus I
used to walk there, which almost became a political statement since everyone
else went by car. There is left-hand-trafic and there is probably some truth
to the joke that most Southafricans found their driver's license in a cereal-box;
loads of accidents happen every day. It does not even feel safe to cross
by the robot-crossings, since the cars increase their speed when they see
you cross to brake abruptly right by the robot. As a pedestrian you'll need
to walk deffensively in Southafrica. The minibuses are what people refer
to as taxis, this used to be the only way for the black community to go
anywhere and even today very few whites go by them. I have ridden, but I
can not recommend them since the drivers seldom have a driver's license.
I suggest using what is here called the 'regular' taxi, of which Rose's
Taxi are the safest (or was 2000). Southafricans think of it as expensive,
but comming from Sweden I consider it cheap. To most large shopping-centers,
you'll need to go by car. Although in Rosebank, as well as in Melville there
are acutally streets in between the stores and shopping-centers. Rosebank
Rooftop Market, on top of Rosebank Mall is a market open on hollidays, which
I recommend. Muti-shops are "folk-medicine-pharmacies" , where
you can buy e.g. parts of animals for traditional African healing. |
