Being in Benoni – and loving it
EAST RAND CITY OF TWO SECRETS Each week Marie-Lais looks out for the unusual, the unique, the downright quirky or just something or someone we might have had no idea about, even though we live here. We like to travel our own cities and their surrounds, c
avid Batzofin asked during his radio travel show what there is to do in Benoni. I mentioned the snail farm where French restaurants get escargot, the bunny park with signs for the rabbits, the Syrian restaurant with its fragrant coffee. But there’s doing and there’s being.
Tourism directs us to places for doing. When I travel, after doing any major sights, I like to be with locals, as they like nothing touristy, just observing.
Laurice grew up in Benoni. She, Heather and I separately hunt forgotten corners of Gauteng, even brand-new corners. Benoni has both, plus two Secrets. We’re together on an urban road trip. “Let’s look for pink flamingos!” Lots of hadedas live on the Bird Sanctuary lake now but we gaze the other way, astonished by ostentatious, weightily embellished houses that surround the lake, replacing the dwellings Laurice knew as a kid. I muse about estate agents selling ‘Lakeside views’, when what you get from your palace is a view of no flamingos through a black mesh fence.
“We even have a museum – I’ve never been in.” Through vaguely furnished rooms, we reach one with walls of orange storyboards, dedicated to Oliver Tambo. They omit the facts that Tambo lived in Benoni and is buried here. Lesser print mentions he was ‘restricted to the area between Joburg and Benoni’. A comfrey plant flourishes in the Herb Garden, near an antique, delicate-legged seat I’ve seen somewhere before with its gilded back panels and pale blue velvet seat. This one has been painted uniformly with red stoep paint to match the paths.
In the street stands a restored steam locomotive from Benoni’s gold mining days. An electricity box plastered with posters about the Illuminati serves as a display for Aloe Blossom Herbal Tea.
“There’s our famous Korsmann’s Ice Creams!” Laurice, wise about urban shifts, is still girlishly delighted by some constants in her Benoni. To Heather and I it’s all fascinating and different. The main streets feature remarkable art deco buildings and an Edwardian house hosts Victoria’s Secret tearoom. I see many signs on poles for ‘Lapas, Thatches, Pools’.
Uncle Tim’s Cabin is across a Benoni divide, “on that side, the Farrarmere side.” It’s an antique compound of nic-nackeries, embroidery and book shops, the outdoors Secret Garden café, with attendant cats.
We turn onto the highway. I’ve loved our being in Benoni.
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