Podcasts, open studios take fight to Mr Sushi’s bulldozers
When politicians resort to spectacle, you can be sure that the aim is to distract members of the public from a lack of substance. It’s like that other ancient form of deflection: to avoid criticism for weak leadership, to hide corruption or ineptitude, find an enemy and go to war.
Johannesburg MMC for transport, Kenny Kunene, knows all too well that residents have had enough of the coalition shenanigans and horse trading that have brought the city council and the mayoral office into a state of dysfunction. So when “Mr Sushi” became “Mr Mayor” for a few hours earlier this week, he knew just what to do. He went to war — on the poor.
Instead of a systemic overhaul of housing in SA’s major city, or a strategy to tackle crime, or a policy of urban renewal, Kunene and his ilk have only crummy spectacle to offer: video footage of a random demolition, a few bullying raids and plenty of bluster about evicting the occupants of hijacked buildings. If they knew anything about the history of the city they claim to serve, these overblown grifters would have to acknowledge that their tactics are as old as the place itself.
If, however, they want to educate themselves, they could
start by listening to the first couple of episodes of This Is Jo’burg — a new podcast produced by Charles Leonard for the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study.
In the launch episode, Leonard talks to arts, education and diplomacy veteran Barbara Masekela about Joburg’s past, present and future. In episode two, his guest is DJ, author and Johannesburg historian Marc Latilla. Listening to these conversations, one cannot fail to see that the latest round of anti-poor rhetoric and threatened action (with its barely veiled xenophobia) is a continuation of a pattern of “slum clearance” that began soon after the gold-diggers’ tented camps grew into a small but booming mining town.
Within the first decade of the 20th century — when Johannesburg was still a teenager — putative concerns around hygiene, morality and safety were offered as justification for creating boundaries and barriers. First it was the rich and the poor. Then, very soon, the city fathers began to fret about multiracial and multicultural “mixing”. By the time apartheid-era forced removals began in the 1950s and 1960s, the displacement of inconvenient and “undesirable” members of society was a wellestablished practice.
When Herman Charles Bosman observed, even before World War 2, that Joburgers were worryingly eager to destroy existing buildings, his complaint focused on matters architectural and aesthetic. But both the destruction of “old” buildings and the commissioning of new ones has almost always, in Johannesburg, formed part of segregationist social engineering.
It is easy to demolish. It is far more difficult to build. Similarly, it is easy to be cynical, to bemoan Johannesburg’s decline. It is more difficult, but certainly not impossible, to identify pockets of development and enterprise — especially within the creative sector. If only those in charge of our collective resources had just a sliver of the courage, conviction or vision of those working to sustain the Johannesburg art scene and to restore (or even reimagine) parts of the city that are often recruited into the narrative of urban decay.
I am thinking, in particular, of the META Foundation and the artists’ hub that is August House, a five-storey building in Doornfontein that provides studio space for 40 artists. August House is one of 11 destinations in Troyeville, Newtown, Braamfontein, Fordsburg and other parts of “downtown” Johannesburg welcoming visitors as part of Open Studios Joburg 2023.
The brainchild of META Foundation director Sara Hallatt, Open Studios attracted about 2,000 art enthusiasts in 2022, and this year’s event (sponsored by Nando’s) promises to be even bigger. Shuttles will run between participating studios and the lavish RMB Latitudes art fair, which takes place at Shepstone Gardens in Mountainview over the weekend of May 26-28. The Latitudes programme, in turn, is expansive and diverse. More than 250 artists will share an innovative indoor/outdoor exhibition space.
Together, these twin events make bold to affirm, in the face of politicians’ posturing and negligence, that Johannesburg is still a place of ambition and vision. Joburgers, clear your calendars.