Gold beneath the gloom — five amazing things to explore in Jozi

iMadiba installation at Bank City. Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber

By Bridget Hilton-Barber

27 Mar 2025

It’s good to be reminded that alongside the urban decay, there are vibrant attractions too.

In recent months, Johannesburg has had water shortages, flooding from heavy rains, load shedding, power failures and an increasingly shrill bad-news narrative about the city’s impending collapse.

It’s enough to make one want to throw one’s arms in the air and give up. But that’s exactly why we shouldn’t lose agency. Jozi may have serious challenges, but there’s also too much good at stake. In the past month I’ve walked the streets of the city. Wealth and poverty coexist; architectural marvels stand alongside urban decay; vibrant creativity emerges from challenging circumstances.

We won’t surrender these streets, so here are five amazing things happening in the city right now.

Did you know that Jozi has become one of the world’s most sought-after travel destinations for graffiti art and murals? Visitors are flocking to explore the bold and colourful murals across the city, from Braamfontein and Newtown in the west to Maboneng, Jewel City and Lorentzville in the east. Established and emerging local and international artists have created beauty and vibrancy in our streets, reflecting a diversity of cultural heritage.

A Dbongz mural in Maboneng. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

A mural in Newtown. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

The city’s street art scene is a powerful expression of its creative energy and a rich inspiration for its visual identity. As the digital guide Johannesburg in Your Pocket says: “The wall paintings by local and international artists enliven spaces, create reasons to pause along busy streets and add colour to the concrete cityscape.”

Did you know that the Maharishi Invincibility Institute and its community of organisations in Marshalltown have successfully educated more than 24,000 formerly unemployed young people, placing more than 21,000 in the fields of business, finance, banking, technology, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, management consultancy and more?

Maharishi is an accredited and registered nonprofit skills-to-work educational institution that provides accessible, high-quality and holistic education to all. It aims to develop a new generation of 100,000 African leaders, and CEO Dr Taddy Blecher has ambitious plans to turn the CBD into an “education town”.

Jewel City. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

The institution sees Washington’s urban renewal – where a successful education institution changed a whole precinct – as an example to follow. Together with its partners, including Anglo American, which has sponsored two major buildings for education, the Jozi My Jozi coalition and Wits Business School opening next door, Maharishi is determined to create more valuable opportunities for young people, more professional academies for jobs and many sports and other recreational facilities. The brand-new Maharishi Park basketball and soccer courts and leisure canteen area officially opened on 19 March.

Jewel City is also a model for mixed-use affordable and workable neighbourhoods. One of the biggest city-centre residential and commercial developments in recent years, the R2-billion Jewel City has transformed what was once a complex of diamond beneficiation buildings into affordable inner-city housing – with an emphasis on walkability, inviting public spaces and colourful public art.

Jewel City features 24/7 security, secure access controls, residential options, retail stores, dining experiences, banks and green outdoor spaces – all within this thriving urban community. It has built on the foundation of what the neighbouring Maboneng Precinct started, but has introduced shops and other basic necessities of city living that were once completely absent from the eastern side of the city.

And then, there is a thriving Literary District in the city: The LitDistrict, as it’s known, was pioneered by Bridge Books, which has a shop in the Barbican Centre. With more than a million books in the nearby City Library (where renovations are finally under way) and more than 70 booksellers in the nearby blocks, our literary culture flows through the streets.

From traditional bookstores to pavement vendors, the district celebrates Jozi’s book culture, bringing together the library, tourists, booksellers and readers in a safe and walkable neighbourhood.

A city bookseller. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

Books in the LitDistrict. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

Jozi Basketball courts at the Maharishi Invincibility Institute. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

BankCity. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

The iMadiba installation at BankCity. (Photo: Bridget Hilton-Barber)

Did you know that BankCity is a great stop in the city for breakfast and lunch, or just to hang out in a safe and pleasant public space? Nearby the legendary muti sellers of Diagonal Street and next to the beautiful Kerk Street mosque, BankCity is set around a series of grand granite-clad courtyards that have been transformed into an urban green oasis.

Think indigenous trees, fountains and outdoor lounges, as well as stores, cafes and coffee shops. Do look out for the iMadiba project in the piazza. DM

Bridget Hilton-Barber is a freelance writer and photographer who writes for Jozi My Jozi.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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