Carol’s Column

Ain't no place like spunky Johannesburg today

I am a split personality. I live in Cape Town because my husband emigrated down there and I commute regularly to Johannesburg because I work here. Without exception, everyone enthuses about Cape Town. How lucky I am to live in such beautiful surroundings, in a gentle city where it's still safe to walk in the streets. How fortunate I am to gaze upon the mountains, sea and the winelands. How wonderful it is to be able to watch Southern Right whales cavorting in False Bay, swim with the penguins at Boulders and walk on the slopes of Table Mountain.

Ag, ja, well, no, fine. But let me tell you Gautengers something. I miss Johannesburg desperately. I miss the buzz of this funky, spunky city.

I like walking these downtown streets, winding my way past the informal traders selling everything from watches to wors. They greet you, smile, make eye contact.

I get a kick from the mushrooming buildings everywhere, the brash glass and concrete emporiums, the vast shopping centres where everything sparkles.

During the day this city hums, things happen. And I'm not talking shooting and hijacking here. I'm talking contact and networking, people bonding, chatting, breakfasting, lunching and coffeeing together. For your information, bad things happen in the Cape too.

A student was recently shot dead while changing a flat tyre. A young guy was hijacked and shot dead in his truck ...

Johannesburgers visit art galleries, exhibitions and concerts. You hear great music in unexpected places. Under a concrete subway, from a small second-hand record shop. Somebody's playing a trumpet in the street, a mouth organ and guitar.

Sure the traffic is fast and thick, cars are bumper to bumper and abominable mini-taxis are a law unto themselves. But Johannesburg people drive well. They stick to lanes, signal when they change direction and stop at robots - usually.

In Cape Town such discipline is unheard of, signalling is considered unnecessary. Barging in is the norm and everyone does it.

Here the locals are friendly. They meet, greet and say: “We must get together,” and make a date. In Cape Town the locals are so busy. They meet, greet, say: “We must get together,” and disappear for a year.

Johannesburg people are generous. They give to charities, put money into collection boxes, tip at restaurants. Capetonians suffer from the long pocket, short-arm syndrome. Here you attend a function - a banquet, a wedding, an occasion - and everyone puts a few rands on the table for the waiters. Not in Cape Town. There they practise the two Ds. Dine and Disappear. Without tipping.

Johannesburg is actually part of the greater world. Our international news coverage is not brilliant but it's comprehensive. Here we read and speak about the whole of South Africa, Africa, Europe, the Middle and Far East, China, the Americas, whatever. Global conflicts, politics and happenings form part of our lives. We're aware.

In Cape Town, the rest of South Africa doesn't exist, and the world? Well, that's another planet. News and views are parochial. If it's not happening in Cape Town, it's not relevant.

A popular cliché says Capetonians are smug. They are. They enthuse about being a city of culture yet can barely keep their symphony orchestra going and concerts, ballets, theatres are poorly attended. Somehow in Johannesburg, the intermingling of cultures and the integration of suburbs is more rapid than in Cape Town. Here, the mixing is seen to be happening.

The best thing of all about Johannesburg is it's alive, there's a buzz in the air.

I enjoy that.

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