South Africa
Johannesburg is not the capital city of South Africa, although better known than Pretoria - just like Cape Town.
Business life left the city centre of Johannesburg. In downtown african
life is spreading - an unreal mixture of cultures. Windows are broken,
sidewalks were turned into market places. On a trip through this area I
locked the doors of my car.
New satellite towns next to Johannesburg boomed, just like Sandton, the new home of the South African Stock Exchange.
Johannesburg was founded at the end of 19th century after discovering a
gold mine and developped rapidly during the following decades.
Still today you can see the yellow piles from gold exploitation in
the outskirts of Johannesburg. Meanwhile they are used again in order
to get some more gold out of them. The methods were improved
permanently and today's technique achieves a rate of 5 grams gold
per ton!
Just south of Johannesburg is Gold Reef City - a copy of a historic town, built on the site of a former gold mine.
