It was a case of curiosity overriding fear when I got the opportunity to spend a night in an Airbnb on the 52nd floor of Ponte recently. I don’t have vertigo, but I’m giddy around heights, and I must confess there were moments I had to sit down on the floor facing away from the views because I found them overpowering. Don’t go if you can’t handle heights but do go if you can cope with a bit of giddy and want to see the best nighttime views in Jozi city.
I arrived at No 1 Lily Avenue, Berea, Ponte’s official address, in the afternoon. After passing through the friendly security check, I was shown to a basement parking place and had my car padlocked in for the night — an authentic touch of inner-city hospitality, I thought, this being one tough ‘hood.
I walked two floors up a fire escape to reception, where the tall, dark and handsome Bruno graciously checked me in. Ponte works on biometrics so visitors must get photographed and fingerprinted. We then went through another security check, entered the lift and Bruno pressed the button for the 52nd floor.
Ponte’s turnaround from a panopticon to a well-run residential building for almost 2,000 people is quite remarkable. Once the most desired address in the cosmopolitan suburb of Berea in the ’70s, by the mid-’90s it was in such a bad state, overrun by gangs and piled high with trash, that there were even proposals made to take the building over and turn it into a high-rise prison. Then it was sold, turned around, and continues to be occupied, safe and functional.
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Ping went the lift, and out we stepped onto the passage of the 52nd floor. At the same time, my Airbnb host Jaco Vorster, who lives next door, arrived to say hi and make kind arrangements for the delivery of a pizza later from the pizza joint below. He told me that the Airbnb has had visitors from Russia, eastern Europe, Japan, the Middle East, some locals. You should book it for new year, he said, you can see the fireworks from the couch.
Then I was all alone — in a spacious 1970s retro-vibe apartment with kick-ass views from chest-height windows. Alarmingly, the windows can be opened wide.
Behold a miniature Jozi, Lilliputian, so far away that the skyscrapers fit in between thumb and forefinger. A tiny Ellis Park, flat slender ribbons of highway with dinky cars driven by ant-sized people. Hillbrow, Berea, Yeoville, where more than 100,000 people live within a few square kilometres, and yet, from 52 floors up, you can’t hear a thing except this weird skyscraper fridge hum. I couldn’t even hear gunshots, I joked with Jaco the next morning. Can I get a refund?
The sunset was glorious, and I watched the city lights start to shine — bonus, no loadshedding. Twinkle-twinkle Absa building, Betway sign, Transnet Carlton Centre, Lister Building. Nighttime views so spectacular you want to shout out loud. Afro New York. The lights, the traffic, the vastness, the relentlessness. Green, orange, red, purple, yellow; flashing, pulsing, shimmering, flickering, thrumming. I stared in amazement, felt giddy, sat down, repeated. Mercifully the pizza guy arrived and I ate hungrily, my back to the view.
I struggled to sleep. Visiting a place — and I’ve visited Ponte quite often — is different to trusting it enough to lay your head there. I’d also just done the This is Hillbrow walking tour with Dlala Nje — highly recommended — which included a walk around the city’s “most misunderstood hood”, and a visit to the infamous pit of Ponte, the heart of darkness, the bedrock that was actually keeping this building standing up, right now, with me in it, lying down, clinging to the bedside table.
When Ponte was fixed up in 2005, more than ten floors of rubbish were removed from the pit, including old fridges, beds, appliances and skeletons. Ponte was once a preferred suicide spot. Apparently, men jumped outwards, women into the pit.
The sunrise was spectacular. The coffee was hot; Jozi turned gold and the day was promising. I had a long hot bath as the little miniature city began moving faster and faster and it got lighter, and familiarity was revealed. Good morning Jozi. I finished the pizza with a second coffee and looked out a last time at the lengthening shadow of Ponte looming over Thursday morning. Then I went to the lift and hit the ground floor button with some relief.
YOUR TURN ...
The self-catering apartment sleeps four people in two en-suite double rooms. Prices vary but it’s generally around R1,300 for the apartment. There is an open-plan kitchen, lounge and dining area. Wifi and parking are included. To book, visit airbnb.co.za and search for Ponte City Apartments.
Combine the sleepover with a four-hour This is Hillbrow walking tour with Dlala Nje, beginning and ending at Ponte. R480 pp including a small lunch. Check out dlalanje.org.
