Title: Joburg: Exhibition: A Day at the Absa Money and Banking Museum
Location: Johannesburg
Description: Money makes the world go round – and the one-of-a-kind Absa Money and Banking Museum tells the fascinating story of currency throughout South Africa’s history. The museum is perfect for moms and dads looking for fun activities for their children. It is the only museum of its kind in South Africa, and is home to the largest collection of money used in the country’s past. It displays ranges from fairly early money forms, such as cowrie shells and Venetian glass beads, through to gold coins recovered from sunken ships. In the past, people traded with commodities as money, such as salt, sea shells, metal and animals.

Where: Absa Money and Banking Museum, 187 Fox Street, Joburg

Date: Until 30 November 2010
Time: 9am – 5pm
Contact number: 011 350 6889
Contact person: Lawrence Billa
Email: lawrencebi@absa.co.za
Booking fees: Free

Start Date: 2010-08-19
Start Time: 9:00
End Date: 2010-11-30
End Time: 17:00

A burgeoning of African restaurants in Johannesburg offers testimony to the city’s cosmopolitan nature, with people flocking to here from all over Africa. Some restaurants offer traditional South African kos, others specialise in the cuisine of specific cultures, or try to offer an overview taste of the continent.

Abyssinica
Address: Seventh Street, Melville
Telephone: 011 482 5097
Hours: Open seven days a week; lunch 12-2pm, dinner 6.30-10pm
Ethiopian-born Samson Malugeta was Africa bureau chief for the New York newspaper Newsday when he heard a steakhouse was up for sale. He promptly turned his back on journalism and bought it. But something was missing ‘ specifically watt and injeera, the foods of his childhood.

No longer. With fellow Ethiopian Wondu Tesfaye he has opened an upmarket Ethiopian restaurant called Abyssinica, across the road from his steakhouse, the Melville Grill. (more…)

By Dianne Bayley

It’s the economic powerhouse of South Africa - and Africa - generating  some 16% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). It’s where the money and the action is. With its multi-lane freeways, skyscrapers, conference centres, casinos, sports venues and golf courses, Joburg also has some of the best drinking water (straight from the tap) on the planet! (more…)

By Nqobani Khumalo

Last year for my birthday I jumped off the Orlando Towers in Johannesburg’s most famous township, Soweto.  My birthday happened to fall very conveniently on a Saturday so I got a good friend of mine to accompany me. She had brought along a French colleague whom she was tasked with entertaining for the duration of his stay and he was over the moon that he was going to drive in an actual township! In Soweto, of all the famous townships in South Africa!
a
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Within easy reach of Johannesburg’s city centre are several opportunities to enjoy a walk in nature. The Wilds is one of them, offering a little gem in the midst of the bustling city surrounds. (more…)

Johannesburg is where the money is. And the action. It’s the most powerful commercial centre on the African continent. It is an African city that works: the phones dial, the lights switch on, you can drink the water, there are multi-lane freeways, skyscrapers, conference centres, and golf courses.

If you should get lost, ordinary people on the street speak English. Cellphones are everywhere. You can send e-mail from your hotel room, you can bank any foreign currency, you can watch CNN, and should you fall ill, the hospitals have world-class equipment and doctors who can be trusted with a scalpel.

Johannesburg generates 16% of South Africa’s GDP and employs 12% of the national workforce. It has a financial, municipal, roads and telecommunications infrastructure that matches leading first world cities, yet the cost of living is far lower. The World Economic Forum rates the banking sector the sixth most sophisticated in the world. (more…)

By Dianne Bayley

Unlike our friends down in the Cape, our rainy season happens in summer in Jo’burg. The jacaranda blossoms that turn the skyline lavender tumble groundwards under the force of sheets of rain, to collect in a purple snowpile along the roadsides. (more…)

By Dianne Bayley

That’s the thing about South Africans . . . Each of us believes with all our heart that our part of the country is the best part. Let me straighten things up right off the bat: There’s NO burger like a Jo’burger. Biased? Indeed I am. (more…)