Joubert Park.

I've been meaning to put this up for a while, but have been either emotionally or physically distant for most of that while. I apologise.

In December/November I spent two weeks in Joubert Park, a suburb in Johannesburg's inner city. The suburb is similar to its infamous neighbour Hillbrow. Both areas used to be wealthy whites-only suburbs during Apartheid but saw a rapid exodus of whites as (far) poorer blacks began living there. With the severe exodus of wealth, the area experienced sharp urban decay. Many of the buildings there are now squatted and controlled by 'property warlords'.

I was there to facilitate a comics workshop at the Keleketla! Library located at the historic Drill Hall, where in 1956 Nelson Mandela and 155 other ANC leaders were tried in the Treason Trial for their organized resistance to the newly introduced Apartheid laws. The library is a supercool project that provides kids living in the area with access to reading material and creative workshops. Facilitating the workshop was a wonderful experience and I'd like to do it again. Being in the inner-city was also a wonderful experience, a bit mindblowing.

While I was in Joubert Park I bought a disposable camera and took photos of the area:
(clicking these images will lead you to the higher res versions on Flickr)

My bedroom window looked onto an informal taxi rank. The building diagonally opposite mine was squatted.






This is Jon. He was the only white person I saw in Joubert Park. He has been homeless for a while and pushed a trolley around with the refuse that he collects and modifies.





These are some of the kids making comics.



This is the courtyard of the Drill Hall, the historic site of the 1956 Treason Trial that now is the site of the Keleketla! library. The strange building on the left used to be a cinema. It is now under the control of a 'property warlord' that 3rd Degree did a profile of.



The CBD.



Police raiding a squatted building.





The ANC headquarters. COSATU had just marched by.





The kids from the library outside the Johannesburg Art Gallery.



Intersection of Twist and Plein street. The building on the right is part of the Drill Hall. Park Central (Noord?) taxi rank is center.



Hanging out on the rooftop, with my laundry. Where I stayed is the bit on the right.




This is taken on the balcony of a restaurant in the Ethiopian section. Every time I sat there I saw police harassing hawkers. They (largely unpaid reservists) confiscate merchandise and demand bribes for it to be returned.

Possibly unrelated is this car that pulled up. Three men exited the car and entered an Ethiopian national's trading shop. One of them wore a police uniform and was armed with a shotgun.



The man with shotgun is standing between the stalls.



He returned to the street to disperse the crowd that was gathering. He waved his shotgun around aggressively then fired a round into the air. The crowd dispersed.







A police car drove up. A few policemen got out and entered the store. They exited with a sound system which they put into their car. They all left.





Around the corner from the Drill Hall. Hillbrow is on the left.



Hillbrow.







On my last day in Joubert Park the police raided the taxi rank that my bedroom looked onto.



They confiscated many minibuses.



This is Jan. We ran the comics workshop together.



I spent the last day of my time in Johannesburg in Sandton, which is one of South Africa's wealthiest suburbs.