It was a world class city. It will never be a world class city again. It’s a total dump, a slum and ghetto now. This building was the height of Arrival once. It has been systematically destroyed by an undeserving Element. This video is a sad last minute desperation to save the tower. The concrete is rotting from the lack of proper maintenance. Watch this is absolutely disgusting. Ya, don’t take pictures because they can’t stand the truth. ITS A TOTAL DUMP. I pray the Chinese will save SA from this sorry excuse for a populous. It’s an ugly building regardless of its disgraceful lack of maintenance.
@@NS-gk3zw The politics of the country want to keep people in the struggle! The struggle has changed now, its no longer apartheid its all about living and surviving. economy always tanks every once in a while.
Wow Lisa. This was a serious throwback for me. We grew up in our very young years in Tigerberg which is next to Ponte. This was our playground. We loved going to Ponte. I'm glad to see it's back to its previous glory though.
I lived in Berea at the Metropolitan building and i saw that building every day as i came out of my door,o was there working at my brother's store from 1992 until 2000 when i left South Africa for good. Unfortunately my brother passed away last year from COVID,i miss you Peter,i wish time could go back when we drove around the streets of Hillbrow
Very much enjoyed watching this. Thank you so much for taking your time to give us an insight of the building. I find it very enticing as I live about 2km away from it. Definitely going to check it out soon. :)
Im from Angola i lived in South África, in late 90s, and lady who showed me the building, said it was a suicide building, after that i never wanted to go near this building.... But my next trip to Jozi, i will visit this place... Thanks.
If you're going, definitely go with Dlala Nje. They run the tours and activities in Ponte and most of their proceeds go to keeping the youth center alive. A super awesome cause. And the sunset view is really spectacular🌻
Great video👌🏽 It's amazing when people really come together and make something work. That building looks amazing now! Brought back so many memories. I lived just around the corner when I was a child.
Amazing. I used to work there at the paging station for taxis etc as a student from 1984 Those days we had pagers. I worked at tour center travel agency in the city and at steers as manager. I was a production assistant for Sky film company at a young age and with them I became Anneline Kriels /kerzner/driver in Hillbrow too “a reason to die” with Arnold Vosloo and Wings Hauser before I moved to The Netherlands . I loved working everywhere I used to work with Milton(1984/5 I remember his name) Omg I got so many stories also about the races whom you won’t believe it’s true.
Geez, I’d never go there knowing certain things. My uncle worked for SAPS and he had the craziest stories about Ponte Tower in 2000/2001 (when it was still a hijacked building). He said the amount of drug use, death, and prostitution rings (some involving children) was ridiculous. SAPS hated going there. He called it the Tower of Hell. He talked about all the suicides, people jumping into the middle and that his police colleagues had no choice but to tuck bodies away into the rubbish, as they would randomly be shot at by gangsters from the upper floors. My uncle claims there are still skeletons in the building sub-sewage units that have been filled (one near the reception wing) and at the bottom of the 6 elevator shafts (probably long removed now). The craziest story was one he told of how gangsters competed for certain floors and would put severed heads on the stairwells to deter other competing gangs/criminals to stay out.
Wow, i live here in Johannesburg and i never knew that those apartments could look this good! this is amazing tour of the very city i live in, woow it makes me want to consider even someday buying one of the apartments at ponte. Brief History: when my dad came to South Africa he stayed at Ponte! but those were in the 19's before the Dark times Era😅 in the 2002's Yeah, outside it looks like the conditions are bad and terrible, i guess that's just how peoples judgements are! but the interiors definitely needed a facelift! and this is very very important! especially for the longevity of the building. Thanks so much this video was a really nice insight of the tour i really appreciated this wonderful tour. it takes alot of courage to tour a city like this where we are constantly living in fear and threats of all kinds of crime and violence etc...
24:15 Nothing wrong with that. Having guests stay anonymously for an indefinite amount of time is what lead to pontes demise. Why do u think people moved out? The neighbours had their whole family staying for the rent of 1 person.
Stay in hillbrow jo berg many years ago, now been taken over gangsters overlords the building owners could not carryout out repairs or collect rents so ended up as slums.
Back in the day (circa 1995) I knew a girl who lived on the 44th floor. We used to hang out there some nights after Bella Napoli which was a nightclub not far from here. That was when the center of the building was filled with trash and it was a popular suicide spot. We used to have to present ID and leave it with the 'concierge' to get in even when we were with the resident. It was a drug infested den back then but, I'm guessing it still is now.
Thank you for sharing your story. I love hearing different people's experiences of Ponte. The security is super tight there today and the residents feel safe living in the building. In terms of the drugs, I actually never thought to enquire. Would be interested to know more about that. Thanks for watching :)
I remember been out in Jhb one night in 1996 and watched a woman do a header from one of the windows a little more than mid way up, "Suicides" were a common occurrence from Ponte back then...
Well we started in the building and then for some reason we went shopping. Quick plug for the apple store later and then a twee little ode addressed to a drone !?!?
You raise a very good point. This is bad storytelling and we still have lots of room for improvement. I think we've gotten better since this video was posted last year😃, and well keep trying to deliver the best content we know how🙂. Thanks for your honest feedback
some of us are born in Jozi, so were our parents and grandparents but we've never been near ponte for obvious reasons 😂 need to go check it out up close and personal...
A lot happened. The rich moved towards more suburban areas (due to politics and other complex reasons), the buildings were not maintained as the owners did not see a need to maintain the building for their tenants that were non-white, hence property prices went down and attracted people from different income brackets and then attracted drug lords and prostitution controlled by drug lords. Basically a lot happened. But Ponte is taking a positive turn but of course change takes time
Residential buildings are traditionally defined for normal residential purposes like longer dwellings, dormitory, apartments, etc and because The Leonardo is a hotel, it's slightly different in that sense
If you drive in, its actually not too bad. To get into the building, you actually have to present your ID and be guided by a tour guide unless you are a resident
this comment is 4 the foundas of"dlala nje"I honestly dnt get y a Nigerian is giving a tour of the Ponte tower those ppl have done too much damage n 2 correct the Nigerian guy cos clearly he doesn't even know what his saying"VIMBA" means "stop them/him/her/it " not "catch them"🚮
