Representah! Cosmopolitan Braamfontein.
Meet another gem in our crew of exciting Represent citizen journalists – Reuben Malema, who adores his buzzing and bustling suburb of Braamfontein and certainly loves to wax oh so lyrically. Read all about what’s happening in Braamies now and see some photos here:
4pm and a deafening roar of rush hour vehicles innumerably bustle through Braamfontein’s central motorway – Jorissen Street. How this well-preserved portion of a metropolitan – long engulfed by the stench of midden-ridden urban decay – has managed to emerge the city jewel that it is today has left an aura of perplexed expressions on the faces of many a benevolent resident – who’ve all lived through it’s at times beleaguering multifaceted socioeconomic dynamics.
Maybe the vexed reactions are merely unfounded hyperboles, in that Braamfontein has long been viewed as the cornerstone of premier African intelligentsia and Superior Master Brewer`s capabilities, because as far as memory can serve many a historian, it has always played host to The University of the Witwatersrand (chief among African Universities – in my opinion!) and The Corporate Head Quarters of SAB (Before the former performed a spectacular coup de `ta on Miller Breweries of the USA and subsequently relocating its African Quarters to Sandton – in order to keep up with the Jones I guess!!).
Modern day Braamfontein is categorized by a true lifestyle of laissez faire: the clean streets are indefinitely littered with students and bored security guards strolling around, but a surprisingly unbefitting and very alarming factor is the stone-cold lack of a decent place to dine at (not unless you regard take-away outlets as such place of cause). This anomaly is upsetting what is otherwise a well balanced neighborhood; perfectly conducive to a relaxed student and yuppie lifestyle and an ideal place to set-up shop for aspiring young entrepreneurs. Personally, I`m extremely bewildered by the so-called youth focused industry trend setters, vis-a-vis: YFM and Metro FM – Why are they so hypocritical and so distastefully target market focused, I mean why on earth is YFM based in Rosebank and Metro at the SABC when a considerable amount of their academic listenership and merchandise purchasers (which to me is their true target audience/ perpetual spending pockets) is domiciled or at least centered around Braamfontein? Go figure! Research has revealed that YFM was at one time pitted in Yeoville (Again, when the Jones move up, you better well make sure you move up too: Wa lala wa sala Mpya!!!).
Interviews conducted around the precinct have revealed scathing details about the grassroots fundamentals of the ostensibly uncompromising -xenophobic pockets which prowl the streets of this “cosmopolitan” segment of the great metropolitan (Jozi). Emotions typical of hard-knocks who refuse to be part of an ever evolving – integrated global village; founded upon the principles of multinational diversity; have found themselves a niche in Braamfontein were Foreigners (mostly of African descent) find themselves marginalized by the hard-nosed (minority, thank goodness!!) community members of Braamfontein. This all because they are blamed for being illegal aliens (Makwere-kwere) and hard faced drug dealers who thirst for nothing else, but unscrupulous acts against their South African “masters”. I really do wonder what would have become of these xenophobic ones (my fellow south Africans) if these “illegal Foreigners” were of European descent or maybe (just maybe) their myopic hostility could be attributed to the seismic environmental invasion of endless plooms of bellowing dust and constant pitch blackouts caused by the Gautrain con/obstruction mega-project . I think I better quit mumbling, lest my words be construed as nationally unbiased and blatantly unpatriotic.
What the heck, I adorably dig my hood. Regardless!
Reuben-The Matrix-Malema
