Bree Street is one of the main thoroughfares running through the city centre of Johannesburg, from east to west. It runs right through the CBD, and used to be one of the major economic centres, as well as being a residential area.
Today, as you can see, it is a slum, another shattered, filthy, ruined monument to the "New South Africa." Pictures courtesy of MZ, who made this hell run down Bree Street. Thanks MZ - send more (and that goes for any reader anywhere else as well).
66 comments:
Please send my regards to MZ, whoever he/she is. I think even those US Army Rangers in Mogadishu in 1993 might think twice before doing this hellrun. MZ is brave. There are parts of Cape Town that I am too scared to drive through.
That's sad.
Thank you for your fascinating views of South Africa today. It might be interesting to see some 'before' photos with which to compare the ruined 'after' shots. Just an idea. The previous commentator is right - Just like the good ol' USA!
Dear Real Realist
I'd just like to say a huge thank you for the fantastic work you are doing. In my opinion your blogs are very professionally written and the photographic content is great.
I personally can't understand why some people would rather that truths you reveal remain hidden and unreported. Why? What's the point of going around with blinkers on all the time? Will it improve the situation in the country? I somehow doubt it, because the ANC and their "sweet bird" sycophants have got SA where it is today all on their own. Or perhaps I'm wrong, maybe you can blame the situation on the negative vibes emanating from a couple of million disillusioned honkeys.
I used to go out with my friend in Yeoville which borders Hillbrow and cannot believe how bad it is there now! Everything is smokey/boarded up, with people cooking outside and little homeless boys running around everywhere... This used to be my home, my birthplace but I don't even recognise it anymore (nor would I dare go there at night)
I know I am in Sydney now, but we left because we couldn't see a solution to this devastation, povery and crime anymore
Roy said,
I agree with your previous correspondent. One needs the comparison, because Bree Street looks now like many African city streets. I used to live in South Africa, and have not returned in 16 years. My memories are therefore the comparison in my mind. I am more than shocked. Members of my family used to work daily hereabouts. They were powerful people who earned their livings in buildings on these streets. Central Johannesburg used to be teeming with business people all going about the work of making South Africa a prosperous self reliant country. With scenes like this, it will not be long before we see UN aid being delivered to Bree Street!
What of the mighty Carlton Centre with it's fine hotel, office towers and exceptional underground mall? Don't tell me that looks like Bree Street?
Is the Carlton Centre safe to go to? It's only the tallest skyscraper in all of Africa. I wonder if anyone has pictures of it at ground level on the streets.
Anonymous said...
Is the Carlton Centre safe to go to? It's only the tallest skyscraper in all of Africa. I wonder if anyone has pictures of it at ground level on the streets.
The Carlton Centre (pictures are on the way) consists of three main elements:
- the shopping mall;
- the Office Block (50 stories, the tallest in Africa); and
- the Carlton Hotel.
There are a few shops left in the shopping mall, catering to the Black trade, but a huge number of shops are just empty. Pics to follow.
The Office Block emptied itself, for the greatest part, of private enterprise, who all fled the CBD to move to Sandton, where they rebuilt another CBD. The offices stood empty for a long time, and then, the government took a large number of them over (at a bargain lease) and today Transnet (Dept of Transport) and other government agencies have their offices there.
-The Carlton Hotel is completely closed down and boarded up. Pics to follow.
Can you put some pictures up of the "safer" areas of Pretoria? (ie; the White areas Sandton, etc).
Dear Mr Realist,
I have just seen your blog for the first time, and I think it's brilliant! I spent a few years on the streets of Yeoville and Hillbrow as a kid, and remember going to Hillbrow by foot with my father to buy a record at Hillbrow Records, shopping at Checkers on the way back, and having an ice cream in a waffle made in front of us.
These people who compare Hillbrow to states in America don't understand what you are trying to portray because they never knew Hillbrow as it was.
I reckon you should try and speak to the older Jewish families (because Hillbrow and Yeoville were 100% Jewish at the time) and try and post pictures of what the area used to be like. Fortunately or unfortunately I left South Africa many years ago and any pictures I may have had are now gone.
Well done!!!
Question: why is there so much trash on the streets? Isn't there a functioning waste disposal service?
I lived in Southeast Asia for a while, and I noticed that the locals ignored the trash bins and lazily threw things on the pavement. Is this the same thing happening in J'Burg?
Best,
MK
Regarding white ultruism. I have a colleague here in the UK who supported the various anti-apartheid campaigns during the struggle years. He was delighted when apartheid finally ended and was most impressed by the Truth and Reconcilliation commission as a vehicle for peaceful transition and change. Like most Brits he has no understanding of African Blacks as his only contact with Black people has been with fully westernised Afro-Carribeans in the UK. As the reality of post Mandela SA has unfolded he has tried valently to cling to his left wing liberal (by SA standards) view that the ruling majority in SA will make a success of what they have been gifted. I now notice that he becomes more and more uncomfortable as I direct him to the growing number of websites which are revealing the new SA to the world. He gasped when I told him of the 20,000 murders pa. Sadly, his views are representative of middle England who felt they were doing a very good thing for human rights by opposing apartheid. They now find it impossible to face up to the reality of what they have been party to - the slow destruction of the only first world country on the African continent. I do not think South Africans should expect any support from them in any campaigns to turn this mess around. They are too embarrassed and ashamed to raise their heads above the parapet
I would like too see some before pictures.
I am white and I grew up in the 80's and had a relatively good life at the expense of the black people. Having said that, all our maids were always treated with respect and courtesy that a human being deserved. They were fed, clothed, and paid market rate. I even remember coming home from the Carousel after a good night of gambling and gave our Emily a load of cash to treat herself.
Surely the degeneration of the land cannot be blamed on the fact that the blacks were suppressed all of those years. Surely if they were suppressed and treated as badly as they were, and all of a sudden they were given the power that they had cried for, and maybe even deserved, they should have risen to the occassion and shown the white man how it is supposed to be done.
Although I live in the UK and am tolerant of all races here, I can't stop thinking that maybe apartheid was wrong, but maybe it wasn't so wrong. After all, crime was down, streets were safe, AIDS wasn't such an epidemic, and there wasn't such high unemployment.
Perhaps what the people need is a leader who will take the bull by the horns and lead these people in the right way. Although I have utmost respect for Mandela, he did not lead his people to the holy land. As for his successor, need I say more? When they were dicated to what to do and when to do it, their lives were better.
Amazing pics! Would have been great if there were some "before" pics to compare with. I lived in Hillbrow as a kid when we first immigrated to SA in the 70s and although things have clearly gone to the dogs, I have to say that part of town never really conjured up the imagery of the hanging gardens of Babelon. Viva Finas!
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
Pretty safe in Iraq if you compare the death toll by crime in SA
"Surely the degeneration of the land cannot be blamed on the fact that the blacks were suppressed all of those years."
Surpressed? We gave them 2,000 years of technology in a matter of a couple years. If it wasn't for us they would still be hunting with spears!!!
I read you were in the UK, do you think it will get better over there? The majority of crime in the UK is done by a dark-skinned minority population. Europe needs to wake up soon!
I cry as I see these pictures. I lived there once. It was my home.
For those that turn this into a race thing, I spit on you. How ignorant, narrow-minded and short-sighted you are!
"Regarding white ultruism".
Might your friend's name in Britain be "PETER HAIN"? now a well respected member of parliament in your government.
Well, the blood of these people depicted in this blog is not only on the hands of the liberal filth like Peter Hain but on every gullible idiot that refused, either through stupidity or lack of interest, to listen to the voice of reason.
The legacy left by you and your arrogance is very plain throughout the world. You are no better than the Hitler's and the Stalin's of this world.
How sweet the revenge of terrorists killing innocent British and American women and children like they killed and interned the Boer's. How satisfying to see the Americans, British, Swedish, Australian's etc. desperately fending for themselves when the tables are turned. I remember how our women and children were blown up at a Christmas tree by terrorists like Mandela. Of course hundrets of those incidents weren't even published since the Americans British etc. decided they were "freedom fighters" and not terrorists in order to further their own political agenda.
What goes around comes around.
Thank god you're suffering will come to an end and you might still have the soverenity of your country. We have lost our's and a whole nation is now in exile.
But nature has a way to deal with lies and injustice. Thank god I'm not in your position.
Yster
I said colleague - not friend - and was using him as an example of the type of person who opposed apartheid and are now faced with the uncomfortable truth of what they have done.
Hindsight is a wondeful thing. If Britain had not created the Union of SA after Die Tweede Vryheids Oorlog SA would have been very different today. If we look at Lesotho and Swaziland we can get a clue. Had Britain created independent territories for the Zulus, Xhosa's etc. - as the Homelands policy tried to achieve - and whites settled in the land they had won in battle, we would have a situation today not a whole lot different to the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. We can only dream.
As dit jou 'n bietjie beter laat voel Yster, het my familie ook onder die Britte gely - plaashuis en mielies in die velde afgebrand, vee verwyder en vroue en kinders in Aliwal Noord kamp toegesluit. Ek probber om die punt te maak hoe verkeerd die liberaale was. Soos Ian Smith in sy boek se': "I told you so"
Man i am saddened by these pictures. Hillbrow used to be my playground in the early 80's as well as rockey street with the speak easy etc... i used to live on the corner of edith cavell and pretoria streets (above Als burgers) as a student..
and to a previous anonymous poster, it is a race issue , nowhere in the world do you see caucasians living like this with such destruction
Europe and North America is going to go the same way as SA, give it a couple of years. SA is just a miniaturized version of what is happening in the world today.
There are a few shops left in the shopping mall, catering to the Black trade, but a huge number of shops are just empty. Pics to follow.?
Looking forward to these pics of the Carlton. The Carlton mall is currently (and in fact has been so since 2004)fully let with a number of A-grade tenants & a waiting list of others. The Hotel is still boarded up but I understand there are numerous interested bidders at present.
I have not seen one vacant shop in the whole "Fashion district row" that heads up some 3 blocks from the Carlton.
There are parts of the CBD that are vibrant and great to be in.
Visit Neil Fraser's CitiChat for an interesting positive perspective.
Brilliant site !
The photo's of Bree Street brought tears to my eyes..
What was was.
If the Bree Street photographer does a return run, please post photo's of 312, 308 and 267 Bree Street, my places of employment during the 70's and 80's.
Would also love to see photo's of Rissik and Commissioner Sts.
You know when I look at the website citichat by Neil Fraser and I look at these pics and the whole SA situation ( crime, politics, etc...) my advise to any foreign investor with money, be very careful. I mean if the owner of this website has to get security to take photos for this website then I am sorry to say that this whole 2010 world cup soccer is a total farce and you are just interested in some rich investors money. Untill things ( SA government attitude) seriously changes now and we see results now and not wait for 2010 soccer.Do not wait for 2010, start doing it now.
Oh my God how can this be. I left one of the most beautiful countries in the world in 1967 when I got married. I came back for my mother's funeral in 1989 and had dinner at the Carlton. I wanted to go there because when I left it was a hole in the ground before it was built. What in God's name has happened to the country I grew up in. My brother wouldn't take me to Hillbrow back then he said it was too dangerous. I will cry tonight. Jasmine Ogden Richards
joy in watching American and Brits on the receiving end of terrorism now. For just as we foolishly called Mandela and the ANC and Mugabe and the ZANU-PF freedom fighters we are now calling the very terrorists who attack US "freedom fighters". Look at the media in the USA. Constant referral to terrorists as "insurgents" "freedom fighters". Complete garbage. The New York Times loves Hezbollah, Hamas and even that devil Bin Laden. They practically eulogized Al Zarkawi!
Wish it was enough to say sorry, but perhaps we will suffer the same fate as you in Africa have. Then who will have the last laugh, I wonder?
It's nice to see someone speaking candidly and perspicaciously about the country they live in, for a change...I also live in The Third World (England), but at least it's a hell of a lot safer here.
Next step: We MUST evacuate my Renbrother, and soon.
We are crying.
Johannesburg and Hillbrow were our places. One could walk everywhere even at night.
We lived, loved and worked in and around JHB from 1963 to 1986.
I am looking for a list of names of places before and after the rising of the Rainbow.
Can you help??
Keep up the good work.
Send your blog to the FIFA.
This Rainbow nation is BULS*IT !!!!
You have interesting material on your site but unfortunately it has been embraced by a bunch of racist expatriates who are upset that the blacks have wrecked "their" (the whites') infrastructure. And that is what it was. A white infrastructure. Blacks had no eletricity, running water, telephones, health care, roads. The trains bringing blacks in to build and sustain the white infrastructure were overloaded and dangereous. The "black" buses served the "white" economy. The murder rate was high in dark "townships" where the unemployed lurked. Have you all forgotten this already? You have such short-term stilted memories. The crime rate now is of course a disgrace, but we did not exactly live idyllic lives under apartheid. Remember conscription and the soldiers dying for apartheid? Rememeber the police force then? There were lots of criminals amongst them as well who considered it part of their daily chore to beat up a few black people.
Stop looking back through rose coloured glasses! We whites did not create the perfect society some of you like to think we did. What can you do to fix things as opposed to siitng back and griping in your self created nostalgia?
I was brought to tears and gooseflesh by the images. ( Could you ever treat a desired treasure so badly. It escapes me. I grew upduring the height of apartheid ( 9 th generation). Our forefather came to Africa in 1976. I am a 50 year old white african woman who is now facing the prospect of immigrating if I want to enjoy any quality of life. I do not feel safe or secure in my country and I know there will be no help when I call out.!!!!
Seen pictures of Beirut after the Israelis had bombed the place.
We can trash an entire city without firing a shot !!!!!!!!!
Thinking of it we can trash an entire continent without a shot !!!!!!!
We are so in-continent ! Eish!
Thank God i got out of the Hell hole in time. I feel very sorry for those who chose to stay or could not leave.
The new south Africa could have been a great economic success if intelligent politicians had done some forward planning, but obviously the economic baby has been thrown out with the old dirty bath water and the economic base of South Africa is withering and dyig. Who wants to tour such a dirty dangerous and filthy city? Crtainly I will give it a miss.
very very sad, what has taken 300 years to build is wrecked in 10. I am glad I no longer live in South Africa, quite frankly, I am embarrased to be from there.
It;s very sad, to see what a great city has become.
Althought I wasn't born in Sa, both my kids were, and when they see this pics, they don't quite understand what we use to see in going to Hillbrow for coffe, and music shops, and why i enjoyed working in Marshall street. To them it's just another "crap african city".
Fom the pics, it seems to be i worse condition than Maputo was 5 years ago.
All I can say is that I feel sorry for those who have satyed behind to switch off hte lights.
I thank my luck that I was able to leave and give my kids a decent future in a first worls country.
Thank you.
I remember Hillbrow in the late 60's and early 70's. we used to go up from Kensington on New Years Eve and the Police used to chase everyone and the Fire brigade would let their hoses loose on everyone, all people cheering in the streets. I thank God I took my family back to the UK, even more so after seeing these pics. Keep up the good work and get the message across.I feel sorry for the whites left behind.
It is a shame to see all this gone to hell. I used to live in Yeoville so remember what it used to be like.
The jury is out on whether South Africa will prosper under the incompotent ANC rule. I am old enough to recall trips to Mozambique and Rhodesia - in the 1960s those were prosperous places with booming economies. Beira (in northern Mozambique) was a bustling port with street cafes and restaurants. Ships laden with tourists visited the place for its beaches. Salisbury in Rhodesia was a prosperous city. In those days an American visitor to Johannesburg commented that "Johannesburg is an American city transplanted - it is Al Paso, but in Africa".
This is not true anymore. Beira is gone, Salisbury is a hellhole, and Johannesburg? Well, let us be euphimistic and say that it is not Al Paso anymore. The economic and social destruction brought on by African "liberation movements" are on a scale unparalleled in modern history.
Never before has so much been given so freely - entire cities, entire countries - and never before has those assets been so completely destroyed in such a short timescale and in peacetime.
The ANC, Frelimo, ZANU-PF and the other movements have a lot to answer for. But these people were enabled by the West, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, by Klaas de Jonge and Peter Hain, by the entire anti-apartheid industry, by the governments of Sweden, Holland, France, the US, Canada and Australia and New Zealand.
But history is taking an interesting turn here. These new guys in the Western block are in no mood for dancing - they mean business. And I may even see how they make Western nations question their entire philosophical outlook, and perhaps even apologise for stripping South Africa and handing her over to the ANC.
I grew up in Bloemfontein, Jo'burg and Cape Town, before moving to Namibia (to avoid quality time with Magnus Malan), then on to New Zealand and Australia seeking a new challenge, rather than escaping crime or seeking opportunity, as Namibia did not have major crime, and economic opportunities were relatively abundant at that stage (early 1990's). It absolutely blows me away what has happened to Jo'burg (I spent many a late night in Hillbrow at Bimbo's, Late Night Al's etc), and slowly to SA's other major cities. It is not unique, as most major African cities are not well maintained, and crime is pretty high. Those with money have to live with high security and be very vigilant, and that is the issue: If you are making losts of money, you should be fine, if not, then the real risk rears its ugly head. It doesn't really matter what colour you are, but a white person without much money is an easier target as whites are assumed to at least have something worth stealing, whereas many blacks are below the poverty line, and not obvious targets to the many thugs out there. If anything educate your kids and help them to emigrate to a country where they can blend in with people who have similar ideas and dreams. Maybe they will even make a success of it, and be able to bring you over to join them.....
A friend told me to have a look at your site, and I was shocked to see and read the pictures and comments. I am sorry to hear all the racest things being said, even though I can understand the reasoning for them. Yes there is a lot of murder and rapes in SA but its to all colours. Its just that its highlighted to whites. Looking at the pictures of JHB, Hillbrow a place where I lived and worked happily for many years(84-93). I am also sorry to see it go this way, but you must also remember that the majority of the africans there are foreiners and not south africans. I was lucky enough to work and educate myself and able to get out.My point is that not all of us are murdering, thieving blacks, and I hope not all whites are looking at me in that way. The only way forward is to have a country where our politicians are not corrupt and stealing the money for themselves. And we stamp out the bad element and we all get along together equally.
That's so sad. Looks like Detroit.
Looks like East downtown Los Angeles - Except worse.
move to Stockholm in Sweden! a big ritch white town!
I'm Gutted, Truly Gutted ! I remember so many of those places, I remember walking through Hillbrow after dark, going to Bella Napoli (Bellas) the doors, spending the afternoons in The Small street Mall, I stayed on the eighteenth floor of the Carlton hotel for 3 weeks (Still have a towel to prove it) I am now in a quandary, is it my Right to stay here in UK where I have built a good, safe, comfortable life? or is it my Duty to return home and do my best to help rebuild the country? all I know is that I am Lucky to have the option!
The Dark ages of Apartheid, the days of pass laws, signs on the benches, beatings etc. is all that Europe and USA remembers, or were shown! But the latter (and less newsworthy) days of the same government, when Private schools had Whites, Blacks, Coloureds and Indians side by side in the sam classroom, the days when there were Blacks allowed in "white" areas, Free enterprise, sweeties and wors rolls on sale from carts outside every night club, car parking attendants didn't have a dompass, didn't need one, but weren't beaten or arrested, the days with relaxed tolerance, not an all or nothing approach to segregation, THOSE were South Africas Glory days.
Well whaddya know, now whites are being denied jobs on the strength of their colour, is that not just as racist as denying a black a job on the same criteria?
Sadly it isn't possible for someone to be racist to a white person, for some reason we always deserve what ever comes our way. Whatever disrepect we recieve is not racist. But if we were to perhaps say that yes, since the majority of its inhabitants have become of the black persuasion hillbrow has turned into one of the scariest suburbs in South Africa, we would immediately be labeled as racist. It is a sad and well know truth.
I am so sad to see these pictures, i am young and do not remember any of the suburbs in their previous glory but I do know, without havng even seen what it used to be, that no place should ever look like that. How can a government sit around and say the countries fine when there are people who actually have to live their lives in these places.
I recently had to shoot a film in the heart of hillbrow at the twilight kids childrens home and couldn't wait to leave. and I remember thinking to myself, I can't wait to get out of here but this is these kids homes?
These last couple of month have been of shocking realisation as to the state of this country.
Goeiedag wat een rotzooi daar in Hillbrow. Mijn dochter doet daar vrijwillgerswerk in haar vakantie.
Zal erg blij zij als zij weer heelhuids thuis is.
I am English but I grew up in South Africa. We left with my family in 1977. It is hard to accept that many people on this planet are still defining people by the colour of their skin. We are in the 2000's, it is time to evolve. America and Britain let S.A. down when they didn't sufficiently help with the transition and building infrastructure. Under Apartheid so many African people were denied good education, and many children and adults are still under educated. I hope that the U.S republicans are ousted in the next election and that the democrats can be lobbied to help S.A. I hope that Bill Gates, Oprah, Obama, Hilary and other influential Americans will take an interest in South Afica's downhill spiral of poverty, lack of education, Aids and crime. South Africa is a beautiful country that with enough support could develop into one of the world's best places to live.
from
Canada
If you have ever travelled...every country in this world has a dirty downtown...im trying to get your psychi...
To those who said that leadership and investment is needed to turnaround the SA devastation all I can say, as an American, is that we've been trying this for 50 years.
Trillions have been wasted. From the Great Society to HUD to HEW and other countless government sponsored programs....nothing has worked. Our cities are crime infested, filthy, dangerous, non-stop feral baby births and no fathers in sight. Total disrespect for public facilities, litter everywhere and complete disdain for training and education providing the only hope for escaping ghetto circumstances.
It is getting worse. There is no hope.
Soon the whole world will be third world.
Someone sent me a link to this site, and I have to say that it's both the most depressing and most gratifying thing I have seen in a long time.
Most depressing because I can remember the way the place used to be back in the late 80's and early 90's even. I can remember walking home from Bella's at 3am on New Year's day, unmolested. Look at the place now. No way could I do that safely.
It's also the most gratifying thing I have seen, because it makes me really appreciate what I have now, having made the decision back in '98 to pack up and get out of there .
For those that call me a quitter, loser, traitor, deserter, or similar, all I can say is this: I don't regret for a second the decision to leave.
My family and I are safe, and live in a first world country that allows us to enjoy things SA has long forgotten, like kids playing outdoors all the time, sleeping with doors and windows open when it gets too hot, not having to lock ourselves up behind bars and razor wire and any number of other simple things like that.
And ja, I did my bit before I left, spent 2 years in the army, spent time doing camps as a volunteer when Hani was shot, spent time in Soweto and at Bara as a medic.
By all that's holy, I'm glad I left.
For those that can still get out, do it as soon as you can!
There can be only one verdict to all of this.
The "rainbow nation" has utterly failed and it was nothing unexpected if one take a look on the rest of the african continent.
Situation was BETTER during appartheid, even for the average black.
In 1975, after one too many unpleasant encounters with BOSS, I emigrated to the United States and have never been back to South Africa.
Visiting this site has been a huge shock.
Thanks.
Sad what this neighborhood has become, but improvement is on the way. It's interesting how people expect a group who have been largely left uneducated during the apartheid era, to automatically keep a city running, when many lack to skills to successfully lead a city.
I'm happy the European exodus of Afrika is taking place, I just wish it would accelerate. With the grace of god, the new president is putting the priorities of Black Africans first, and making sure Health and Education are being paid attention to.
The massive education of the real South Africans is going to really take place these next few year, and I can't wait. The day of dependence on White skilled workers is very soon coming to an end.
If this post isn't shown, it just proves how biased, and in denial the moderator of this forum is. Just a few words to you, have fun in your abode, because you nor the rest of you are wanted.
I'm English, and as a child I remember my Uncle who then lived Tanzania (then known as Tanganyika) saying that Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and S.Africa were the bread baskets of Africa. I looked at these pictures and was horrified. No wonder my Uncle said when Rhodesia finally fell and then S.Africa that Africa was finished, and that despots and terrorists (which is how he viewed Nelson Mandela) would become the norm, along with starvation, and poverty. I wondered what he meant as like all English people, I through our media and Goverment, had been spoon feed about the 'horrors of aparthard' and how downtrodden all black people were out in these countries. I now fully understand what my Uncle meant, and it disgusts me the lies that were fed to me and my fellow Brits back then. As an English person all I can say is that one stupid word that comes nowhere near to what I feel for what has happened to a once great country, (two if Zimbabwe is added) and that useless word is sorry, such an inadaquate word for the wrong that was done.
As a white South African, I am proud of my country and I WILL KEEP BUILDING IT UP! Love the way so many Saffies who've emigrated are over on this blog commenting, seems your comments really prove you are RACIST!
Our government is bad, that is why I'm involved in opposition politics. The opposition is growing day by day... and just btw my friends from across the world - THE ANC HAS MANY WHITE SUPPORTERS AND MEMBERS! It would be false to say that black people have led to the end of SA as we know it!
Black people now have homes, water, electicity and opportunities. Our country can be better, obviously. The ANC has mismanaged the nation and lies to voters about the opposition.
Let's put our hands together AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL! Instead of complaining!
I've been robbed in my home before, tied up and threatened with a gun but I won't give up. I won't stop fighting for real liberty and opportunity for all my people. I'm sure I seem foolish and dramatic, but the last 100 years in SA were not rosy and right now I know I can and will be part of the solution in fixing SA!
All we need is the ideals of an open opportunity society instilled in the people. VOTE DA! STEM DA! VOTELA iDA!
EEN NASIE. EEN TOEKOMS.
ONE NATION. ONE FUTURE.
Vote DA! VOTE FOR HELEN ZILLE - anti-apartheid and liberal activist, mayor of Cape Town and the only real alternative in our beautiful country!
2014 WILL BE OUR YEAR.
2009 WILL BE OUR STEPPING STONE!
Visit: www.da.org.za
Let's create a non-racial, democratic Open Opportuity South Africa.
I WAS feeling nostalgic about the area - I worked in Bree Street for a couple of years in the 70s/80s and went to the Carlton Centre, cinemas, the disco at the Carlton Hotel etc.etc. nearly every weekend - my friend and I were able to walk the streets without feeling threatened (2 early 20s females). Can't imagine that now. I left SA in 1983 and haven't been back since. What a sinful waste of a beautiful city. I now live in the UK and saw a Louis Theroux documentary mainly about Hillbrow. It was terrifying. I wouldn't even consider going back now, it all looked totally unrecognisable and it seemed to me that many of the people interviewed were total sociopaths with the attitude that human life was valueless.
I still live in SA and can tell you that every year this sort of decay affects more areas. The people around here don't really seem to notice it though and actually believe that things are getting\going to get better.
I have yet to see one city centre that is safer or cleaner than it was during the apartheid era.
I remember the days when Hillbrow, Yeoville, Mellville were the in places to be and to be seen. I remember eating Chicken at 4 am in the morning at Fontana (after a night of jolling on the town). I remember the many nights of people-watching at Zurich Cafe. It's a FUCKIN shame what has happened to these places.
I think your site is excellent, tell it as it is!! I was wondering whether anyone can help me with some information from the 50's & eighties. Around about 1959-1963, there was a restaurant on the corner of Bree & Eloff Street...DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT IT WAS CALLED AND WHO THE OWNERS ERE? I know there were 2 brothers (aparently the owners) and all I could find out so far is that they were either from Hungarian or Polish desent?
I have been dong this research for 5 years and no luck, but their seems to be many epople on your blog that may know something.
Also, does anyone remember a night club from that era in Pretoria, called The Three Monkeys??
I am still figuring out how to join here, but you can mail me on abnett4@gmail.com if you have any info (in the meantime I shall try and figure out this site & how to register.
Many many thanks
Julius Malema will soon be president of South Africa. Already his Youth League thugs are enrolled to be census-takers in the upcoming census. But why do they need military training for this? Plaasmorde is a word the world will learn to its sorrow and shame.
the Carlton Centre is ok. not too many empty shops. i was there just the other day as i needed to get a book from the juta store.
if you dont mind the smell of fried chicken or being the white dot on the domino its ok
To all those whining, we in the US don't owe you a single thing. Fix it yourself.
please let me know how is today the YMCA
Dagnabbit. This looks like American white flight all over again, Detroit and Newark and Camden.
Not many white faces in Hillbrow now.
Just took a "drive" through Hillbrow using Google Street view.
No matter which street you are in, turn 180 degrees and there is a Jeep Grand Cherokee behind. I'd imagine it's there as an armed escort.
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