.jpg)
. Photo - Supplied (1).jpg)
Love and croissants
You can’t miss the vibrant red, green, and yellow bakery that flitters with early morning footfall while so much of Melville is just waking up. The friendly exterior of De Baba Eatery along 7th Street is a fitting indicator of its contents: goodness inside. And we don't only mean the almond croissants – though those are sinfully good.
Accountant turned baker extraordinaire Ansie van der Mescht and her husband and business partner Jean Rene Onyangunga (the brains behind fashion label Dr Pachanga) are the duo behind this charming spot, serving homely, farm-style fare for breakfast and lunch daily, and your pick of baked goods worth obsessing over. There are no shortcuts taken. Van der Mescht is meticulous about processes, adding a dose of love, stone-ground flour, and proper butter to everything. Keep reading and you'll soon see why we've fallen for De Baba.
You might like: Our guide to pairing bookshops and coffee spots in Joburg.
Joburg's literary map
"Blank maps say a lot," writes Bridge Books founder Griffin Shea for the Sunday Times. "They suggest there's nothing to see, so don't even bother visiting. They imply that, even if something is there, it's not worth recording. Because no one has bothered to take notes or share what they found, some people fill the emptiness with their own stories."
It's this sentiment that sparked the creation of a detailed map charting 71 booksellers in the City Centre, from brick-and-mortar centenarians and multistorey mega-collections to spaza shops and sidewalk vendors – all in a radius of three square kilometres. Many years in the making, this map of Joburg's literary district is a project close to our hearts, and one we as Johannesburg In Your Pocket were fortunate to play a role in bringing to fruition, alongside our fellow "accidental cartographer" Bradley Kirshenbaum of Love Jozi. From an original fact-finding mission to an underground booksellers walking tour, read the story behind Joburg's literary map.
Want to visit these booksellers? Find the pins on Google Maps here.
Verdant city
Chances are you've seen his handiwork in the community gardens at Victoria Yards, the sprawling NIROX Sculpture Park in the Cradle of Humankind, or even the minimalist landscape outside of Sandton's iStore, but do you know the wizard behind some of Joburg's most impressive green spaces? It's Patrick Watson we have to thank, who earns his titles of ecologist, artist, and philosopher as penned by his biographer Garreth van Niekerk in the book Veld.
Born to an architect and an enthusiastic gardener in Johannesburg in 1947, Watson showed a keen interest in plants from a young age. "All the kids garden, planting little flowers here and there, but I obviously carried on more seriously. I've always been happy with the veld," he says. The book is as much a map of city treasures as it is a guide to Watson's work; a tome to return to again and again. For a taste. As featured in Veld, discover five of our favourite of Watson's Joburg gardens.
Ride and shine
The streets of Johannesburg are full of twists, turns, colourful characters, landmarks... and, unfortunately, some potholes. One of the most enjoyable ways to navigate them is by riding a bike. Enter Street Friends: a cycling initiative based in Braamfontein founded by Itumeleng Kwenda, better known as Maestro, that draws a diverse community of city explorers into its fold.
From the camaraderie among riders to the unpredictable routes and cultural stops, a journey with Street Friends is a joyous affair. "With cycling, you feel every hill, you get to know most of the street names, and you end up making new friends on the street – street vendors, car parking guards, taxi drivers, homeless people. People get to know you in the streets, always passing through on a bicycle," says Maestro. Come with us for a spin around the city.
Walking with Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi
"Do not be mistaken. The mud walls we are building are not the real house but merely shelter from the sun and the rain. It is you I am building into a walking house." These words imparted to Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi by her grandmother have been a guiding light in life and in her work as an artist. It's been a significant year for this South African visionary and national treasure as she delightedly welcomed a collection of long-lost and miraculously re-found artworks on to home soil, more than 30 years later. These were shown to local audiences for the first time in the solo show Ntlo E Etsamayang (The Walking House) at UJ Art Gallery – one of our favourite exhibitions of the year.
Speaking to the show’s co-curator, Gabriel Baard, Sebidi says, "I feel that [the artworks] were hidden for this communication to be extended." The timing was poignant as South Africa's general elections were held in May 2024, marking 30 years since the dawn of our democracy. Even when Sebidi was creating at the height of apartheid, her work never fit the parameters of resistance or protest art. Nevertheless, her art rouses that which is most ancient and enduring, and offers a vision for the future. "I was taught that my work should communicate; my work should meet the world," says the artist. The story of these lost and found artworks reads like fiction.
See for yourself: The works from Ntlo E Etsamayang show at Everard Read's Circa Gallery alongside three new sculptural works until Mon, Jan 20, 2025.
Funk it, I'm free
It’s Thursday night in Soweto. The air has a wintry bite, and we are walking the streets of Orlando West, cutting a path through this famous neighbourhood where, in 1976, schoolchildren stood up bravely against the machine that was apartheid. It set in motion a chain of events that would lead to South Africa’s first democratic election 18 years later in 1994. Thirty years on, we are retracing some of their steps, marking the path of the youth leaders who gathered on these streets.
Led by the powerhouse that is Nomsa Mazwai, this is an excerpt from our experience walking one of the routes that forms part of Soweto Night Out. Walking freely outdoors, especially at night, is a reminder of the freedom we should love to have in this city. It’s this taste of freedom that Mazwai has nurtured since starting her walking experiences in Soweto under the banner of Funk It I'm Walking. An activist for change, find out how Mazwai is leading the charge when it comes to reclaiming the streets for tourism.
Ardmore all over
Today it's an iconic African luxury brand, but not all fans know that the Ardmore Design ceramics studio was founded by Fée Halsted in the Drakensberg in 1985 and has since played a landmark role in shaping an art education for young people in rural KwaZulu-Natal. When Halsted began, she says, "I only had two things. My hands and lots of energy."
Taking things a step further, the Ardmore Satara Suite in collaboration with Fairlawns Boutique Hotel & Spa is a first of its kind, and utterly magical. Check in and be surrounded by the eight-metre-tall wraparound mural, hand-painted by talented artists Sydney Hadebe and Wiseman Mpofu. The mural is undoubtedly the showpiece, featuring South Africa's heritage flower and national symbol, proteas, along with vines, flowers, leaves, and the occasional frolicking wildcat, while the rest of the suite is decked out in some of Ardmore's finest homeware and ceramic pieces. We visited this suite when it launched and were awed by what we saw, we think you'll agree it's something special.
Pair with: Where to enjoy a hotel staycation in Joburg.
Art that's ours
Existing outside the confines of gallery spaces, public installations democratise art in a way that's good for a city and its people. There's an element of spontaneity at play, as encounters with art happen in unexpected places. Public art can deepen your relationship with art during your daily commute, or routes travelled frequently become woven into your tapestry of the city. As time goes by, your resonance with the work may grow in a way that simply isn't possible with temporary exhibits.
Often paying homage to key historical figures and events, Joburg's public art reflects our country's complex past and has much to say to our present society. New layers of meaning emerge continuously as pieces age and their surroundings change. Having shared a guide to some of our favourite spots where you can see public art in Joburg, we were excited to discover a far more comprehensive resource with the City of Johannesburg's Arts, Culture, and Heritage directorate's effort to chronicle Joburg's public art. More than 70 artworks are documented, with a Google Maps location for each piece. The directory gives insight into the artworks dotted around the city and the breadth of what they commemorate. Discover some of our favourites.
Choose your own adventure: Bookmark this catalogue of Johannesburg's public art.
Dressing up the Union
It's not often you get to rub shoulders with an award-winning fashion designer, an impressive dance troupe, and the Minister of Sport, Arts, and Culture Gayton Mckenzie in a single day. Pretoria's Union Buildings provided the surprising yet no less fitting location for this rendezvous on a sunny day in August, as we went behind the scenes with Gert-Johan Coetzee.
The occasion was a photoshoot starring A-Squad, a dance group of people with albinism, as models for Coetzee's love letter to South Africa, in wearable form. Clever textile construction and meaningful motifs are part of what makes these garments so special, meticulously hand-worked with more than 10,000 cowrie shells and 100,000 African beads. The talented thirty-something designer (born in Koster, a small farming town in North West Province) was named South Africa's Most Promising Designer at The Cape Town Fashion Festival in 2006 at just 19 years old, and he's soared since. We loved spending the day with this force in fashion and it seemed Mckenzie was duly impressed, too.
To infinity and beyond
For years, the Wits Planetarium has been a popular space with schoolgoers and students. Anyone who has visited will recall the wonder of looking up into the night sky and realising the vastness of the universe. While that unmistakable green dome seen from the M1 highway is here to stay, the rest of Joburg’s beloved planetarium has undergone a major transformation.
Kate Otten Architects took care of the structural upgrades to the building itself, sensitively bringing this heritage site (opened in 1960) into the 21st century. Meanwhile, the original Zeiss projector has made way for state-of-the-art tech and a spectacular 360-degree digital dome – giving the Braamfontein landmark its new name as the Wits Anglo American Digital Dome. While it only opens to the public in February 2025, keep reading to find out why you're going to want to book your seat.
To Jozi, with love
On Braamfontein's Juta Street in November of 2023, signatures were exchanged on a document that would set the wheels in motion for significant change in Joburg. Unlike the Bree Street explosion that ripped through the city and our hearts, revealing the dire state of our historic City Centre after years of neglect, this event barely caused a ripple. It came at a time when Joburg was hurtling into the festive season faster than a speeding taxi. But a memorandum of understanding backed by the City of Joburg is no small feat.
The change-makers? Jozi My Jozi. A movement that inspires hope, and a coalition whose founding members are a fascinating assortment that includes top-listed companies and not-for-profit organisations. They include mining giant Anglo American, Standard Bank, Wits University, the not-for-profit Maharishi Invincibility Institute, chicken giant Nando’s, and creative agency We Are Bizarre led by Melusi Mhlungu.
Since coming together, Jozi My Jozi representatives have spent a significant amount of time on Joburg’s streets – from a four-week clean-up that drew teams of up to 400 (the plastic collected was turned into a large-scale artwork by Mbongeni Buthelezi) to meetings with taxi owners at the Bree Street taxi rank to understand the issues that affect one of the city’s most critical sectors. After publishing our original article, Jozi My Jozi got the Nelson Mandela Bridge lights shining again. See the photos here. And with South Africa assuming the presidency of the G20 for 2025, we'll be watching to see what this crew has in store.
"It’s not enough to say ‘I love Joburg’," says Mhlungu. "Jozi My Jozi is an ode to the city we love. My thinking is, if we can use that love we have for the city, let’s use that love to help fix it." As we carry this spirit with us into the new year, be inspired by the unlikely crew who are changing the city for the better.
Comments