Office building in Hillbrow - Johannesburg
Residential suburb Rosebank - Johannesburg
Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton - Johannesburg
Ellis Park Stadium - Johannesburg
Office building in Hillbrow - Johannesburg
Map South Africa
Carlton Center advertising leaflet - Johannesburg
Carlton Center advertising leaflet - Johannesburg
South Africa Journey 2006 Johannesburg
Today, on the opening day of the World Cup in Germany, I am flying to Johannesburg in South Africa, where I will hopefully hear little about flanking, making pressure, going down the wings, penalties, closing off space, offside and various other repeated terms during the commentating of each and every game. South Africa is the host for the World Cup in 4 years. Johannesburg is well known world-wide for its high crime rate, but for me personally it remains a booming and very interesting city. The boom and the stable exchange rate of the Rand are largely due to the rinsing cost of raw materials across the world. Gold and platinum prices have rocketed in recent years. Diamonds remain a long-running success in South Africa and Botswana, and connected with them the name De Beers. But there were also notable transactions in the area of finance in the last year - Old Mutual took over the notable Skandia Insurance from Sweden, and Barclays bought a majority stake in Absa. I particularly like the suburbs Sandton and Rosebank, but I would also not have wanted to miss my visit to the quarter Hillbrow. Though that can be qretty dangerous, if you don't watch out. After the end of Apartheid, well-off whites and blacks moved to other parts of town like Sandton and Rosebank. Hillbrow, which was relatively prosperous until then, became impoverished, and crime rose steeply. My last visit to the Carlton Center in Hillbrow was in 2003, though I slept in Sandton at the Michelangelo Hotel. A guide in the Carlton Center explained the history of the city, based on the gold mining all around the town; one can even see parts of the slag heaps from the Carlton Center. In a souvenir shop on the top floor an elderly lady who I had at first not seen addressed me in German, and told me about the Formula 1 race that was going on at the time: "They have just finished training, Ralf Schumacher has got the pole position". As a Formula 1 fan, I was very interested, as interested as in a small earthquake in Paraguay. The lady was in institution in the Carlton Center, actually the last white person (emigrated from Germany) with a shop there. The postcards that I bought there were so yellow that they had evidently been standing in the sun for a long time. Very odd situation. I have heard, though, that the Carlton Center has revived, because the crime in and around it has been massively fought by the new black middle class. An article on the subject from the ARD . It would be nice if the dream of all the different ethnic groups in South Africa living together were possible. Maybe the football which I love so much will help to pull down some of the barriers, in 4 years time.
This year I won't have time to do much in Johannesburg, but I will manage a small excursion to Sandton.
Otherwise, on I go to Thanda Lodge. At the beginning of the year, Thanda Lodge even had Miss Universe 2005 from Canada - Natalie Glebova - as a guest :-)
