Jules Street stood at the bottom of the hill. Busy as always. Cars hooting, ancient trucks spewing noxious fumes as they carried their goods to and from the nearby warehouses.
“Ah,” thought Toni, finally Jules Street, always same same.4 Chaotic. Filled with people and cars. Large supermarkets and little spaza shops side by side. What stories this street could tell. A street almost as old as the city of Johannesburg itself.
Over 120 years ago, when Jozi was nothing more than a mining town that attracted only adventurers and mad men, the dirt track that became Jules Street connected the mines to the trading hub. The old tram station, converted a dozen times to serve the changing needs of each new generation, proudly announces her age from her date stone: 1911. Jules Street watched Johannesburg become a city. It is also the longest perfectly straight street in the city, running over three kilometres from Malvern, through Kensington, Belgravia, and Jeppestown, before turning into downtown Johannesburg. Over the years, bakeries and eateries gave way to spaza shops, hair braiding salons, and any collection of legitimate and illegitimate businesses. The neat row of second-hand car dealerships became panel beaters.
But one thing remains true. Jules Street is still a buzzing, dynamic, happening street where chancers and dreamers become small business owners or gamble away their life savings on a good idea that went bad. Their grit and tenacity can end in success or failure. But these are the hardworking men and women of Joburg, who for over a century have built their homes, fed their families and educated their children, often in the most trying circumstances. This Jules Street never was and never will be the street of the rich and powerful. It’ll never be filled with the soft money made in corporate offices in Sandton. Jules Street is the everyday person’s street. It is sparse of beauty but rich in human ingenuity. Its buildings are worn, tired and buckling under the need of long overdue maintenance. But still they stand. These paint-peeled walls, just like the people who work and live in them, are the foundations upon which this entire city is built.
Toni smiled as she turned into Jules Street. The people of Jules Street are tough, they have grit. Don’t mess with them or you’ll be sorry. But if you’re down on your luck, you’ll not find more generous people than the ones of Jules Street. These are my people. Their blood runs in my veins today, even though I live far way.
“Sjoe5, but this nostalgia is hitting you deep today,” Toni told herself as she felt tears prick at the edges of her eyes. She thought of the many times she’d walked this street on her way to the Malvern Library (which was still there) or to grab the best burger at The Clan (now under the management of its gazillionth owner). Looking at the crowded streets, filled with pedestrians and hawkers, she wondered if she’d still have the guts to walk down here alone, possibly the only white face on the entire street. There certainly were all kinds here – good people going about their business, bad ones looking for an opportunity to steal a phone or a handbag, and everyone else in between.
Toni rolled to a gentle stop in front of a non-functioning robot6 that was treated like a four-way stop. As she took in the scene directly in front of her. And her heart turned cold. A deep shiver ran down her spine. “Girl, what the hell have you got yourself into now?”
Right in front of her were two white bakkies7, each with about five men on the open back of the vehicles, holding AK-47s at the ready, each pointing their weapon in a different direction in a 360˚ array. The two bakkies were positioned across the intersection to prevent any vehicles from moving down the lane that Toni was in, or the lane on the far side of the road for oncoming traffic.
“Who are these guys? What’s going on?” Toni asked herself, as her heart started to beat a little faster. She glanced in the rearview mirror. There was a car right behind her. To her right, another car had tried to overtake her, only to realize, as she had, that there was no thoroughfare. She was blocked on the right. On the left, several vehicles were parked in front of the curb. There was no way out, and no way to U-turn anywhere.
Was this a hold up? Or were these protective services? Toni peered through the line of armed men and could see that there were another two vehicles at the opposite side of the intersection, similarly carrying men with assault rifles. Then she saw it. The white, unmarked, armoured vehicle parked in front of the Spar supermarket on the opposite side of the road. This was a cash collection operation.
In most instances, cash-in-transit vehicles travelled in twos in closed armoured vans to collect money from banks, malls, and large stores. Toni had read that in dangerous neighbourhoods, which were vulnerable to ambushes, cash collectors carried a mini battalion to prevent a cash-in-transit heist. She hadn’t realized that Malvern had become so dangerous. Opportunist crime was one thing, but this was next level.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
4. Same same is a South African expression to indicate things that are unchanging or have identical qualities.
5. Afrikaans interjection that can express many different emotions, from surprise to relief or even exhaustion.
6. Typical South African word for traffic lights.
7. South African term for an open-back pickup truck.
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Pandemic Love – Li Xiakun (China)
December: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Left column (top to bottom): 1. South Africa – Shopping – van Blerk (Shutterstock); 2. Capetown, South Africa – Residential – Travelview (Shutterstock); 3. Johannesburg, South Africa – A family – Carlo Kaminski (Shutterstock)
Middle column (top to bottom): 1. Kakamas, South Africa – Die Pienk Padstal – Grobler du Preez (Shutterstock); 2. Karoo, South Africa – Roadside padstal – mehdi (Shutterstock)
Right column (top to bottom): 1. South Africa – Transport – rawf (Shutterstock); 2. Ruiterbos, South Africa – Boerqi Bistro Padstal – Roger de la Harpe (Shutterstock)