Aerial
Corporate
Ponte Building
Client: Al Jazeera ©
Ponte Building in the inner CBD of Johannesburg
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A hair salon/shop on the street. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Prayers of the Christian faith, pray on Yeoville-koppies. Ponte can be seen in the background. Here they get cleansed by holy water. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A resident of Ponte uses the fingerprint scanner to gain access to Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The Landlords of Ponte: Jaap and Ria Breedt. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The Hillbrow/Telkom tower. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The core of Ponte, looking up . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Prayers of the Christian faith, pray on Yeoville-koppies. Ponte can be seen in the background . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A cleaner cleans the windows of some of the empty shops in Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A curtain outside a Ponte window, blown by the wind . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The view of Johannesburg from one of the apartments in Ponte . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A rainbow over the Johannesburg skyline. Ponte is part of that skyline (in the centre) Johannesburg is called Egoli: Place of Gold and the rainbow is symbolic of the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Michael Ramalivhana (25) He is studying Mechanical Engineering. He has been staying in Ponte for 2 years now. He works part time at Dlala Nje – a shop dedicated to uplift kids in Ponte. He stays on the 13th floor. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Desire Seko, an artist that stays on the 34th floor. He does pencil drawings. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Meat can be seen inside a butchery/supermarket, inside Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Ponte seen from the tstreet. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A rundown building can be seen close to Ponte. Although Ponte’s management is trying to revive Ponte, surrounding areas can often be seen as slum. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A local shop owner sits with his foot holding the door open of a caravan. He sells his goods from there. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Desire Seko, an artist that stays on the 34th floor. He does pencil drawings. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The core of Ponte, looking up . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Kids play video games in Dlala Nje. A safe haven for kids in Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Kids play in the Ponte pool. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. On a local makeshift advertising board, people will advertise single rooms to sublet. In Ponte and surrounding areas. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A cleaner cleans the floor in front of one of the shops inside Ponte. This one a salon. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A Ponte resident walks with her laundry bucket after she hanged her laundry on the washing line. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Fish can be seen inside a butchery/supermarket, inside Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Prayers of the Christian faith, pray on Yeoville-koppies. Ponte can be seen in the background . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Kids play in the Ponte pool. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Nickolaus Bauer, a journalist and co-founder of the Dlala Nje shop, stays on floor 51. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The view from the top of Ponte into the centre. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Patterns made by vehicles look like a heart, seen from a Ponte window. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A newspaper falls inside the core of Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. On a local makeshift advertising board, people will advertise single rooms to sublet. In Ponte and surrounding areas. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A security guard walks past tiles against the wall depicting the Johannesburg skyline. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A rooftop can be seen with washing on top from poutside a window in Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Ponte parking lot. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. The Landlords of Ponte: Jaap and Ria Breedt. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Live chickens being sold on the street. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. A little girl reaches for sweets in the butchery/supermarket, inside Ponte. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Prayers of the Christian faith, pray on Yeoville-koppies. Ponte can be seen in the background . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Ponte rises behind washing of the Ponte residents. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Desire Seko, an artist that stays on the 34th floor. He does pencil drawings. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Tomatoes being sold on the street. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera feature on the Ponte Building and surrounding areas in Johannesburg CBD, South Africa. Potatoes being delivered to a local shop. . Picture: Cornel van Heerden/Al Jazeera
Sport
News
Portraits
Home for Intellectually Disabled in South Africa suffering.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
Little Eden is the permanent home to 300 residents who have profound intellectual disability, the majority of whom have been discarded and abandoned by society. Although the average age of their residents is 20 years, the average intellectual age is that of a one-year-old.
Affected negatively by the Post Office strike they did not receive donations like usual and as an extra blow they couldn’t send letters to usual donators, asking for help.
Furthermore the South African Government decided that they would only give them money at the end of the month and not at the beginning as was normally the case. So they have a huge backlog on money to care for residents.
PICTURE: CORNÉL VAN HEERDEN
#photography #photojournalism #documentary #mental #southafrica #africa #mentalhealth
Gerard Rudolf
Chander Pahar actor Gerard Rudolf.
Nelson Mandela: From Alexandra to Houghton
In 1940, a 22-year old recently politicized Nelson Mandela found himself expelled from Fort Hare University for his involvement in a student strike. On the cusp of an unwanted arranged marriage, he escaped his home in the Eastern Cape for the promise of Johannesburg. Mandela ended up in Alexandra (or Alex), a sprawling township known as ‘Dark City’ because of its lack of electricity.
“Alexandra occupies a treasured place in my heart,” Mandela wrote in his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.
“Life in Alexandra was exhilarating and precarious. Its atmosphere was alive, its spirit adventurous, its people resourceful. In spite of the hellish aspects of life in Alexandra, the township was also a kind of heaven.”
As the struggle continued, Mandela found himself in other neighbourhoods, including Orlando in Soweto. Later he was moved across the country where he spent 27 years in prison. After South Africa’s transition to democracy, and following his single term as president, Mandela moved back to Johannesburg, to what would be his final home in Houghton, a wealthy and opulent suburb north-east of the city centre.
Today, Alex is still steeped in crime and poverty. Steel shacks echo across the township, while refuse and rubbish litters many streets and alleyways.
Although Alex is just a 15-minute drive away from Houghton, Mandela’s first and last homes are, in many ways, still a world apart.
Idris Elba smiles while talking about Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Idris plays Nelson Mandela in the movie.
Pic: Cornél van Heerden
CORNEL VAN HEERDEN 