Take A Tour Through Johannesburg - By Tumi Mogari

Written By: Tumi Mogari

Category: Essay

Competition: Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026

In the Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026, Tumi Mogari invites readers to "Take A Tour Through Johannesburg" with a vivid essay that showcases the dynamic essence of this African metropolis. In the category of Essay, Mogari's work offers a unique exploration of Johannesburg's vibrant contrasts, from the opulence of its affluent suburbs to the bustling energy of its central districts. This piece invites us to experience the city's modernity and the complexities of its urban life, offering a nuanced portrait of Johannesburg's diverse cultural landscape.

About the Work

Tumi Mogari's essay paints a rich tapestry of Johannesburg's urban landscape, capturing its dichotomies with keen insight. The narrative style is engaging, blending vivid imagery with candid observations to portray the city's high life juxtaposed with its everyday realities. The work immerses readers in the sensory experiences of Johannesburg, from the grandeur of O.R. Tambo International Airport to the vibrant street life. The essay skillfully highlights the city's multicultural influences and the resilience of its people, while subtly critiquing the social and economic divides that shape its identity.

Take A Tour Through Johannesburg

Original Submission by Tumi Mogari

25/05/2026

“Take A Tour Through Johannesburg”

An essay by Boitumelo (Tumi) Mogari

May 2026

Welcome to Our Johannesburg. Upon arrival, please notice O R Tambo International Airport and see its grandeur and all of its faults and feel charmed. Notice its sleek modern tiling and floor to ceiling windows as you walk from your plane to baggage claim. Marvel at all of the automatic doors that are preset to stay open so that we may not question if they are working or not. The walking pad-like strips on the floor aren’t, so there is some likelihood the doors aren’t either. Notice the baggage claim area and see its infinite number of carousels and imagine all of the places people are arriving from – you flew domestic so the carousel with your flight’s luggage is on the other side of the open are area you have just entered – they prioritise those from more distant lands even here. You will find yourself walking quite a bit in this airport and rather than being annoyed you will find yourself quite enjoying the fuss because it makes you feel important. Welcome to Our Johannesburg, a modern African city, and marvel at its presentation of a “high life.”

In Our Johannesburg, the high life is categorised by travel via aeroplane, a casual use of Uber comfort and Uber black, sleek cars of the latest models driven with little regard for road safety because one can afford any and all repairs, fancy fusion restaurants with cross-cuisines and international chefs, rooftop balcony’s and a view of the city from only its highest point. This high life is that of the affluent northern suburbs, where the houses have their own tennis courts never played on, and the area entrances are access controlled by boom-gates and 24/7 surveillance. Welcome to Our Johannesburg where our high life is too tainted by the everyday to truly enjoy it apathetically.

Welcome to Our Johannesburg. Notice the foot traffic and crowd that always lingers within Park Station bus terminal. You will see all of the ticket booths and their long winding lines and be appreciative that you are only just arriving and not leaving and do not have to suffer through it. No, you have just arrived after a 16-hour travel day from the South and thus are only using the terminal to rest and wait for the lift you arranged to pick you up. The 10-seater quantum, which will inevitably seat 17, picking you and some of the other travellers up will arrive soon and all you can do is wait while clutching your bags closely

You had thought about walking the 500 or so metres to the Park Station, Gautrain but decided against the idea so as to drive through the winding roads of the Johannesburg CBD. You decided while planning your travels that you will be staying in Auckland Park, so you’ll be close enough to the CBD to still feed off of its energy but far away enough that you’ll feel comfortable enough to venture walking around at night. You have been warned of the city’s crime, with its drug dealers, drug lords, and junkies who are looking to rob you to fund their next fix. “Phara’s,” you have learned these junkies are called, alongside how they will greet you before they rob you, and how the biggest risk to your safety, with them, will be the grime and grease that clings to their skin. There is an etiquette to going around Johannesburg and you are eager to learn it.

You’ll be close to the University of Johannesburg as well, and being near so many young adults will make you feel lively enough to join them on a night out. You had wanted to venture closer to the University of Witwatersrand, but its proximity to Braamfontein deters you.

Welcome to Our Johannesburg and take a ride on one of those red tour buses and see what you can in a day. You will not get to all of it, but the bus will show you the high-life highlights. It will show you Sandton and Rosebank, Illovo, Melrose Arch, Maboneng and even Constitution Hill. You won’t see Park Station if you flew into the city or The Carlton Hotel in all of its menacing glory, but you’ll probably visit the Apartheid museum and go by Gold Reef City so that you can lose your lunch on the Anaconda. Visit the University of Witwatersrand art museum or take yourself on a walk through the safer areas of town to see the graffiti art. You have been warned to stay in the areas where you see other tourists otherwise find yourself at risk of being lured away by someone promising you a private food tour that turns out to be a scam leaving you stranded - phoneless and barefoot. Were this to happen, be relieved to know that you likely will be allowed to keep your Sim Card and given the chance to back up any photos you took to whatever cloud you subscribe to. Our criminals are polite like that, and their mild manners must be noticed!

Not on the bus now, but it will be the same coordinators, and they will assist in organising a smaller-group excursion so that you can see Soweto - but only Vilakazi street, and where Nelson Mandela used to live. Someone not from South Africa, but you are all visitors to our golden city, will ask about the memorial that you will definitely pass by, and the tour guide will have to explain who Hector Peterson is, was, and what happened in 1976. They would

have to tell the story, but in such a way that highlights the nobleness of the cause so as not to bring the group’s general mood down, otherwise no one will want to try a Kota for the first time afterwards. You’ll visit the Soweto Towers, and someone from the USA will make an untasteful joke about the name but then decide to be brave and bungee jump from the centre of one. All of you who took the day trip will cheer and then, to celebrate, partake in the chisanyama happening at the base of the towers with vendors and rows and rows of grills and cuts of meat. One traveller will recall a similar experience of communal cooking and eating that they shared in Southeast Asia and those listening will say the right words to prompt the traveller to regale them all with the tale. Far and wide, near and neighbouring, you are all foreigners for the day.

The bus won’t take you to Bedfordview, Northriding, Kempton Park, Greenstone, Randburg, or Germiston. They’re trying to show give you the high-life highlights and that doesn’t include Benoni or Florida - no, those you must venture to yourself.

Welcome to our Johannesburg and see Sandton with its neighbour, Alexandra. See the point where G-Wagon’s and BMW’s turn into Suzuki bakkies that have seen better days and Citi Golf’s that you’ll hear the locals call “korokoro’s” and wonder if the cars angles were purposeful or the result of peak-time traffic. You’ll think it dystopian the way the glitz and glam of the one area contrasts the dust, debris and clutter of the other but later you’ll be comforted that parts of each will have loadshedding at the same time. See the potholes mirrored between the two areas and notice how despite the municipalities focus on the former suburb, they never differ for too long.

See Waterfall in all of newness with its rapid growth and be warned of the R55 as were you to follow it, it would lead you to Tembisa and Johannesburg cannot follow you there. No, if you cross over the edge of Waterfall, you will find yourself in Johannesburg’s neighbour, the City of Tshwane and he is not there to soothe your aches and pains. In the City of Tshwane, Vorna Valley is Noordwyk, is Midrand, is Country View, is Centurion and the only ones there who look to allow you a semblance of ease are members of whatever HOA you will stumble upon. So, stay in Johannesburg where the suburbs will put effort into dressing themselves up for you.

Johannesburg, Joburg, to those she is familiar with, and Jozi, to those she holds close to her chest, does not let you forget about the smog-filled sky even when all of the buildings

around you are made of glass. For her green grass and lush parks, there are unintentional landfills and trails of litter on the streets. For her buildings so tall, you would think them skyscrapers, there are vacant lands, stripped of all of their nutrients, lost to abandoned mines. For her many shopping malls, and luxury stores, there are even more those who cannot afford such. The city likes you to become familiar with her, she favours those who find short cuts and loopholes. Know the highways, the N-somethings and M-what-nots but also know the back streets. Know Summit Road and Old Johannesburg Road, and how it differs from Pretoria Main Road because their locations are switched. Know the efficiency rating of each mall when it comes to visiting all of the shops you need and know how to decide what distances are worth it. She knows the streets will not be gentle, so she urges you to acclimatise quickly.

In Joburg, you are very aware of crime and violence and your proximity to it. Everyone learns to be cautious – be it at different rates and to different levels of severity – but everyone learns. You are no less safe in the suburbs, at the shopping centre that has a costume shop and haberdashery downstairs, than you are walking to the Malboro Gautrain station from the other side of the motorway bridge. Even in the former, you may be held at gunpoint and forced to part with your ten-thousand-rand watch. It’s something about potentiality – “there is always a potential for danger.” Ask the city how you can keep safe and she will give you pamphlets about where to get the tallest electric fence and a sign you can stick onto your gate that says “Danger! Gevaar! Ingozi!” over an illustration of a dog. It doesn’t matter that your dog isn’t actually dangerous or intimidating and is only just an anxious chihuahua – real criminals would have found a way in regardless. No, rather, take the sign, get the electric fence and decide between you and your neighbours on which security company everyone prefers to monitor the area. If you’re lucky, one of the neighbours would have a brother-in-law, or cousin-of-a coworker, or acquaintance of a past schoolmate who works at one of the security companies so that the whole neighbourhood could get a discount. Remember, the city favours those who take short-cuts and connections take you a long way.

Once you’ve settled in Joburg, the city will urge you to watch your tongue. Not in a sense to limit your speech, no, actually, she wants you to expand it and let it grow. Where the city resides, the province Gauteng, it touches provinces who (in comparison) are quite strict with the majority language of the black African’s who populate it. Its neighbours are North West on the west (as the name would suggest), Mpumalanga on the east, Free State in the south and Limpopo to the north. Depending on your proximity to each province within Gauteng itself,

if you are black African, you may be expected to be able to converse in the respective provinces’ majority language. While there is this expectation, Joburg will insist you prioritise learning general “Vernac” to get by. With a vocabular made up of an amalgamation of Afrikaans, Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi, English and Pretoria’s Spitori, general “Vernac” will get you far. I emphasise the word “Vernac” because you will come to acknowledge it or consider it a language in and of itself. “Vernac” has its own slang, words and nicknames borrowed and then butchered to fit this new dialect.

Speaking of dialect, you will grow to recognise where people are from based on their accent and form your own biases of the areas yourself. If you ask Joburg what she thinks, she will have no comment for it is morally wrong for a mother to have a favourite child. Were I to guess, I would say she favours Braamfontein and Sandton as if they were her fraternal twins - existing together, so similar but too different to be identical. You will learn the Sandton accent, which spans over its many suburbs, and the slight twang to suggest its ‘larniness.’ The thing about these accents is that they are largely centred on the English spoken in that area. Most black African’s who do have an accent in their mother tongue, you will learn, are affected by this twing and twang because they were those who learnt English first. They’ll struggle with the vowels the most in their mother tongue, too used to the drag and drawl of Johannesburg English, and sometimes they’ll seem like they’re physically doing something different with their tongues causing their consonants and syllables to sound clunky and awkward. Too many hard t’s and soft g’s will point them out quickly. Fear not though, this parasitic language will take them far as they will be reported to all interview very well and will often be praised for their oratory skills. Make sure to remember that even they are not unaffected by the weight of the city’s influence.

Welcome to Our Joburg. You can call her that now, she has deemed you worthy – you may not yet call her Jozi, but with time you could. You’re leaving now but you will be back, she’s sure. Joburg is not a place you can leave completely as she tends to linger on you long past your visit reaching its end. You will miss the metropolitan with its 5-lane highways, and over-road signs that try and lead you to Bloemfontein. You will miss the SAPS officers and their road stops that have the cars in front of you doing blatantly illegal u-turns without a care in the world, because they don’t have cash to bribe the officers. They should know that the officers take EFT now too.

Welcome to Our Joburg, a part of her is truly yours now that you have explored her. You have seen the high life and its other and you still don’t know what to call it. Our Joburg with its polluted skies you can see from a distance that while obscures, still allows the sun to shine onto its landscape enough to cast warmth. Our Joburg with its business-oriented residents who all have side hustles and endless stories of a “my friend” who can help you with any problem. She is yours now and you are hers, she has claimed you as such. People will be able to tell you are hers now just from a glance or a whisper and she urges you to wear her mark with honour. Drag your vowels when speaking English and mix your African languages into one. Drive a minimum speed of 100km/h on any road with more than two lanes, know to use your hazards as a form of saying “thanks” and master the art of a 4-way stop if there is not a homeless man in a barely visible, visibility vest to guide traffic already stationed and ready to go. Know to always greet first, even in the face of violence, and to call every elder either Uncle, Ntate, Malome, Mme, Ma or Aunty – no one is your friend until you have at least said “Dumelang.” If they are not your elder, they are now your sister or your brother, unless they try to “shela” you, and even then, they still might be.

Welcome to Our Joburg and be welcome to its loadshedding, water issues, crime, potholes and informal settlements. Welcome to Our Joburg and be welcome to its nature reserves, historical sites, shopping malls, farmer’s markets, warehouse shops and backyard vehicle repairs. Be welcome to every “my friend” and every “phara” and take a ride in someone’s “korokoro” where they’ve replaced the back seats with speakers. Be welcome to haggle your prices when buying at non-nationally commercial shops and open your windows in stand-still traffic to listen to the Volkswagen Polo next to you blast Metro FM.

Welcome to Johannesburg. She is not Cape Town with its mountains and high points to capture the views. She is not Durban with its warm beaches suited for bathing suits and endless amounts of curry.

Welcome to Johannesburg and take a tour of the land, for you cannot see it and understand it from just a glance. Learn its streets, valleys, hills, buildings, bridges, backyards and parks and the city will learn you back.

“high life” – phrase referring to the City of Johannesburg’s middle-upper class and upper-class lifestyle. Lifestyle associated with the Johannesburg northern suburbs including Sandton, Bryanston, Fourways and Illovo. The “high life” being a phrase used by locals often in reference to the lifestyle advertised by actors, radio presenters and musicians holding connotations to greater wealth and privilege.

About the Competition

The Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026 by Hashtag Kalakar is a prestigious platform celebrating literary talent across the globe. This competition provides a stage for writers to express their creativity and share their unique perspectives with a worldwide audience. Open to various genres, including poetry, essays, and short stories, it fosters a vibrant community of writers who contribute diverse voices to the literary arts. Participants like Tumi Mogari bring compelling narratives and insightful reflections, enriching the tapestry of global literature.

We extend our gratitude to Tumi Mogari for sharing "Take A Tour Through Johannesburg" with us in the Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026. This evocative essay offers a profound glimpse into the heart of Johannesburg, inviting readers to explore its multifaceted character. Tumi's articulate portrayal of the city enriches our understanding of its complexities and beauty. We look forward to seeing more of Tumi's insightful work in the future. Thank you for your contribution.

About Hashtag Kalakar

Hashtag Kalakar is a creative platform dedicated to providing artists, writers, singers and other creative talents with opportunities to showcase their work and reach wider audiences through competitions, features and creative initiatives.