![]() ![]() ![]() It’s their first hotel in South Africa, evidence of a perceptive eye that has noticed that things here are on the up and up. Sensing Joburg’s increasing vitality are the Four Seasons, who have recently opened their new hotel, the Westcliff, in an upmarket area of the city known as the Parks. Reasons for this reversal of fortune are many – increased investment (especially during the South African World Cup), civic improvements, the growing corporate presence (Johannesburg is the financial centre of South Africa), and strong crime prevention all play a role. Tourism is booming, and international travellers no longer only use the city as a layover en route to hunting the herds of wildebeest out on the great savannahs. Shops, restaurants and markets are flourishing and expensive cars cruise down streets that, a decade ago, were no-go areas for, well, anyone with an expensive car. Artists are setting up galleries and big business is moving back in. Yet against all odds, Johannesburg is rising phoenix-like from the ashes, slowly but surely becoming a vibrant, economic powerhouse again. Instead of precious metals and prosperity, when one thinks of Johannesburg now, one thinks of the slums of Soweto the cruelties of apartheid which saw figures like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela locked up and subjected to years of torture and the relentless crime and desperation seen in news footage and documentaries and even the sci-fi films ‘District 9’ and ‘Chappie’ made by native Johannesburg filmmaker, Neil Blomkamp.Īnd indeed, following the end of apartheid, Johannesburg became a dangerous place instability and white flight created a vacuum in which crime flourished and ‘Jozi’ and ‘Joburg’, the affectionate childlike nicknames given to Johannesburg, seemed cruelly ill-suited to a city that was apparently dying visitors heading to the safer environs of the suburbs and sister city Cape Town rather than spend time in a city that, at times, resembled a warzone rather than a prosperous metropolis. ![]() Yet today, the overwhelming picture most outsiders have of Johannesburg couldn’t be further from its land of milk and honey beginnings. Established in 1886, following the discovery of gold on a small farmstead in the area, Johannesburg rapidly swelled in size as prospectors swarmed through chasing their gilded dreams, eventually expanding to become the largest city in South Africa. ![]()
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