A Drive Down Jeppe Street
Jeppe Street, Johannesburg . . . what can one say to someone who didn't know it "back then" ? A major shopping thoroughfare on the eastern end, and a residential centre on the western end... but today, well, let the pictures do the talking...
Below: A Witchdoctor is always on standby if you need him in Jeppe Street...
Below: Directly opposite the Jeppe Street Post Office...
Below: The Jeppe Street Post Office
posted by The Real Realist at 9:57 PM
21 Comments:
I am a proud S.African an this makes me wanna run away!I pray that this does'nt happen to our entire beautiful country.
going to get mail...is really exciting!
If those pics could only have a scratch n sniff section....phew!
Our work still has a box there, and there are times i need to go and collect the mail. The place stinks...corridors are dirty, light bulbs are broken..dungeon like...smiling happy people no where in sight.
Not a good sign. But you wont believe people are accepting and dont even bat an eyelid...thats the scary thing. They have no realisation that there is a problem or the standards have dropped.
We were fortunate to be posted to Johannesburg in 1987-91 and enjoyed our time there immensely. Our South African family and friends were warm hearted and generous, showing us your beautiful country. My husband's grandfather, Julius Jeppe, must be spinning in his grave to see the destruction of this city! When we returned in 1996, things were not yet so out of control. I am greatly saddened seeing your photographs. What a terrible loss for everyone who worked so hard to build your country.
This is disgusting.
I hate the ANC. This demonstrates the ineffectiveness and savagery that they encourage and embrace.
In the 70's opposite the Jeppe Street Post Office a large number of Doctores had their practices. Names like Pasteur Chamber Harley Chambers . All gone
Apartheid was very bad, but why did Johannesburg, the city of gold have to end up like this. Unacceptable, the new government of the new South Africa should never have let this happen. They could have set aside some money from their housing project to maintain and refurbish the old already existing buildings in the city centre. After all the previously disadvantaged homeless people could have been given a chance to live there had there been some support.
Hi, i wonder how many people can actually say "I worked in the Jeppe Street Post office!" We way back in 1974 i worked my christmas holidays there and earned about R60 for the 15 days work.
So 32 years on and i look at the first formal place of work and show my kids. My kids will never see where their father worked, or walked as we live very very very far away from this now. Africa is surely the greatest continent on earth! This is where mankind began (as we know it) but this is where mankind will make it's first dramatic exit. Yes the social system was not good for some, but what has happened since that fateful day in 91, well just looking we can see. Many will have forgotten what the true meaning of RDP stands for!
Moved to S Africa in 1980 from N.Ireland,got a flat first in Hillbrow then moved not far away to the Bostonian on Abel Rd if my memory serves me right,then on to Yeoville,it was a great time then,Hillbrow was the place to be on the weekends for the nightlife.Times were good then,it was safe to go out at night,moved to England in late 1992 after being the victim of serious crime,I would have loved to have stayed on but the writeing was on the wall even back then that things were slowly getting out of control,as regards crime.As I view the photos on your excellent blogsite,photos of what I can only decribe as utter destruction and decay of a city I once loved,it makes me so sad and angry that that it was S Africans who actually voted for the mess which they now find themselves in. Why for heavens sake, did the whites who were at their strongest not negotiate for a separate state,after all they know the history of decline in other African run countries as the whites handed over power.What shocks me most is the speed of the decline of Johannesburg,at the rate it is moveing,it cannot be many more years before the whole of one of the greatest cities in the world is a crime ridden slum.
It always amazes me when people have great "hindsight". Let me tell you as a South African (now living in Canada) - the outcome could only have been different if there had been no PW Botha. If SA had a forward thinking, progressive person leading the country - first of all, apartheid would have been abolished years before. Many racist crimes would not have happened. THere would not be so much to forgive for what the white people did to the blacks. But having said that ... I believe that poverty begets violence - and if we want to do something positive - we have to eliminate poverty in South Africa. Only then will people have a chance to live in a civilised society.
It is all very well saying that poverty should be eliminated - do you have any suggestions?
To me SA is the greatest country in the world. However, I would not consider returning with dependent children. I cannot see a future for them in SA.
Of course he doesn't have any suggestions. This is the typical sound of the self-loathing white from the bleeding heart liberal camp usually already safely immigrated to another WHITE country where it is safe (for the time being). I have a brother that talks like that too, and he believes that all evils and hard times befalling blacks, jews, mexicans etc is all the fault of the white man.
In the case of Johannesburg he asserts that it became a crime ridden death trap because after 1994 blacks could live wherever they damn well pleased (they could already do that before 1994) but did not want to remain in Soweto so they inundated the city of Johannesburg, driving away white tenants causing the Johannesburg Sun and the Carton Center to close and overwhelmed the city's infrastructure. Sure they did. But were the president (Mandela) and the Johannesburg City Council so damn shortsighted and stupid not to realise what would happpen if a human tsunami inundated the city? Apparently not, but I will NEVER accept that it was our fault. We built a great city and we should have blown it up before handing the country over (under duress). That would have been the proud thing to do. Let the Africans build their own city if they can.
I now live in Canada, but remember Jeppe Street Post Office. I use to work for the S.A.P.O in the telephone exchange above the main post office, and enjoyed the Johannesburg day and night life. My favourite hang out was the Rand International Hotel. I must say the disappointment of the pic is sad.
I see what they're doing to our cities here in the US, but I had no idea they were capable of so much...so little, rather.
This should serve as a warning to White European and North American nations, political correctness and artificial black appreciation propaganda will inevitably lead your cities to those depicted in the photos. Black and third world immigration should be stopped at all costs, it should take priority for the European Union, instead those idiots are more concerned with the environment, rather than securing a future for their children.
what a disgusting cesspit of racist backslapping this website is. The 'great city' that you speak of was enabled by and built upon the crimes perpetrated upon untold thousands of innocent people. You can't expect to live in a fantasy world of luxury and decadence, blind to the fate of those that you exploit forever. This is the seed of Apartheid - the natural consequence of ignoring the fundamental rights of so many for so long.
Ah, comment moderation is enabled - I understand now why there are no dissenting voices here. Well, have fun in your very own little gated online community, 'the real realist'. I hope your reality continues to treat you well, and your blinkers stay firmly attached.
Sick-making nostalgia!
I am so sad to see these pictures.
Sadder yet, for those of my friends and relations who chose to remain in Sunny South Africa
My Mum worked at the Rand International **** stars quite posh in the early 70's then came June 16th 1976. It would be interesting to see if anyone has pictures of Jeppe Street that fateful day - we weren't sure if it would end or whether we would see our Mum again. They were running and smashing all the shop windows as they moved east towards Park Station, I remember there being lots of clothes shops in Jeppe Street - we all knew it would come and that it's taken so long for Europeans to see it like it is...
I worked in the Jeppe Street GPO in the 70's.
Does the GPO still operate?
My dad was right... "Within a year of majority rule Jeppe & Eloff streets will be dumps."
The same is evidently true for the rest of JHB - sad!
To Jono Russell: Your logic makes no sense. Apartheid doesn't force anyone to do anything. The say that apartheid is the reason South African blacks destroy Johannesburg is akin to if I had an abusive roommate, and in 'revenge' I burned down the entire apartment building. Or perhaps your real argument is that "poverty makes them violent and criminally incline", which is obviously untrue, considering the millions of impoverished Afrikaners in South Africa today who don't exhibit the same behavior. Not the mention the fact that in the US, West Virginia is very poor, and predominantly white, but has a very low crime rate.
What is the best place to live in Johannesburg? Where are the consulates? I'm from Paris and I might soon be posted to Johannesburg. Where should I live, according to you? We are accustomed to a rather comfortable standard of living.
Thank you,
M Bataille
To Jono Russell:
Oh yea, we (the white people) are at fault, not the blacks.
Funny, a bear wont even shit in its own den, but never mind, they destroyed their city because they were angry so thats OK.
Makes perfect sense to me.
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