Inside Africa’s ‘tower of death’

THIS massive 54-storey tower was advertised as “heaven on Earth”, but it went on to become a site of drugs, prostitution, death and despair.

“WELCOME to heaven on Earth.”

Forty years ago, this was the advertising slogan for Ponte City tower, which was once one of the most coveted addresses in Johannesburg but went on to become the site of drugs, death and despair. Despite its dark history, its luck is finally being turned around in recent years. The hideous 54-storey cylindrical tower, the tallest apartment tower in Africa, was built in the 1970s. It was part of apartheid city planning; only the wealthy white families could live in the apartments facing outside, while their black servants lived in gloomy spaces with windows so tiny they were impossible to see out of. There were six extravagant penthouses for the wealthier residents complete with saunas and wine cellars. “I lined the walls of the penthouses with shaggy dog orange carpet — it was all very posh,” Rodney Grosskopff, who at the time worked for the architectural firm of Manfred Hermer, which designed the building, told Slate. “Everyone wanted to say they’d stayed in the tallest apartment building in Africa.” But it wasn’t long before things changed. The notorious building is located in one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the country, at the centre of the areas of Yeoville, Berea and Hillbrow. These statistics from the Citizen newspaper give a perspective of what life was like in the area: “A staggering 59,000 crimes were committed in Hillbrow between 1999 and 2001, including 640 murders, 988 rapes, 7521 assaults, 6775 robberies with firearms, 7689 other robberies, 3523 vehicles stolen and 18717 other thefts.” It was almost inevitable that trouble would find its way inside. Crime rates at Ponte began to soar in the 1980s and 90s, and after the fall of Apartheid in 1994 things worsened as drug-dealers and gangs moved in. “There was no control, and most of the buildings started to deteriorate and ... became havens of criminals,” General Theko Pharasi from S.A. Police Service told news organisation Vocativ. Many fearful families abandoned the now depressing skyscraper. Rent prices were slashed and the building’s value plummeted. It was on the way to becoming Africa’s tallest slum. The 173 metre-high building was essentially left to rot, with garbage piling inside up to five storeys high. Rumour had it that decomposing cats lay among the waste. Ponte then became known as “suicide central” due to the number of people who ended their lives by jumping from their balconies. Resident Ntombi Masuku told Vocativ: “It was notorious, there have been a lot of suicides happening in the building.” Another resident, Desire Seko, said: “It was easy for people to jump into the hole so they’ve tried to seal the windows in order to make it safer and not for people to jump into the hole.” The exact number of deaths from suicide in the building is unknown. The situation became so dire that, in 1998, it was suggested the building be turned into a prison. But the idea was soon discarded. Now, there’s finally hope for residents. Life in the hollow tower is starting to become better. It’s essentially being pulled back from the brink. It’s reported that many of the gangs that occupied Ponte have moved to the nearby Sands Hotel. New owners took over the tower in 2007, and it has been renovated, becoming safer and cleaner. It now draws tourists who were too scared to venture in before, and there are even organised tours for the curious amongst us. Mike Luptak, Director of tour group Dlala Nje said the tours offer people the chance to see the changes taking place at Ponte, and Johannesburg as a whole. “The journey that Ponte has gone through has been an incredibly interesting one, just purely because of the fact that it’s still here and people are living here you know, and it’s not a prison or it’s not something that people have forgotten about,” he said. “So at the moment we’re just trying to get Ponte on the map again because it’s such a beautiful place and it’s so diverse and multicultural, and it’s bursting with creativity and fun and opportunity, so we try and take those factors and put them into one really big organisation that we have here.” The tour has become a hit on TripAdvisor, with travellers calling it an “eye opening experience” and “intriguing”. As described by filmmaker Philip Bloom in the video above, the tower’s transformation has been “astounding”. So would you dare to go inside?