From Maropeng’s February 2010 newlsetter
On April 10, Maropeng and iHominin will give budding palaeontologists a rare opportunity to explore a 1.5-million-year-old fossil site. Cooper’s Cave, 1.2km from the famous Sterkfontein Caves near Johannesburg, is a relatively newly discovered fossil site, where several species of animals and a number of stone tools have been found. The [...]

What went right in 2009Dec 30th, 2009
by Pierre De Vos.
(1) South Africa had another free and fair election (it’s fourth!) without any serious violence and the fourth democratic President was inaugurated soon afterwards.
(2) The government decisively changed direction on HIV/AIDS and President Jacob Zuma appointed a health minister who clearly understands that the problem [...]

The disastrous 2008 power outages in Gauteng and the recent announcements of shocking electricity price hikes, (45% for the next 3 years), bring into focus yet again the political nature of electrical power. There has long been a contest and tussle between municipal power supply and national power supply. The city of Johannesburg historically generated [...]

A bronze sculpture of a lone man seated on a chair and holding his precious saxophone, was unveiled on 25th September.  
Located outside the ‘original’ Kippies Jazz club in Newtown, and designed by Guy Du Toit and Egon Tania, a second empty chair encourages the spectator to sit next to the figure of Kippie Morolong Moeketsi [...]

If you want to read a gripping courtroom drama and get a sense of South Africa in the dark days of the late 1980s you cannot miss Peter Harris’ book In a Different Time. Published in 2008, Harris’ page-turning drama won the Bookseller’s Choice Award and the prestigious Alan Paton Award in 2009. The book [...]

A superb Johannesburg exhibition ends on Saturday 10th October. If you are local get there if you can. If you are an international traveler, contact Sally Thompson of The Thompson Gallery in Melville (info@thompsonsgallery.co.za  or phone on 011-482-2039) for access to Sally Gaule’s photographs of Johannesburg.   The Jo’burg Gini takes its title from the Gini coefficient [...]

Alexandra Township, commonly known as Alex is a mere 4 km from the heart of the wealthy CBD of Sandton. Home to some 350-400,000 people it covers an area of about 28 square km. (Compare this to Soweto’s +/- 150 sq kms and ca 1.7 million people.) Present day Alex is divided roughly into 3 [...]

‘Craighall Park Township, which forms the northern boundary of the Johannesburg Municipality, is one of the beauty spots of the Rand. .. The business man finds in the exhilarating air a peace and calmness, which are part of the place, a restorative to the nerves.’ 
No, this is not part of a 21st Century marketing drive [...]

702 Talk Show host Jenny Crwys-Williams, had several conversations and interviews last week around the state of the Barbican building, a heritage resource in the Central CBD of Joburg.  Since leaving Wits University in 2005, where in my latter years I headed up a newly-established post-graduate division of Heritage, Tourism and Cultural Management Studies, (what a [...]

Kim Miller, assistant professor of women’s studies and art history at Wheaton College in the States, is currently researching visual representations of women political activists in South Africa both during and after the struggle against apartheid.  When in Johannesburg on her research trips, Kim stays at Liz at Lancaster Guest House.  Wanting to track down [...]