PONTE CITY: A PORTRAIT

Ponte City, or the Vodacom tower as known by locals, is a residential building with a scarred past. In the 1970s, when Johannesburg was known as a world class city, the building was seen as an upmarket residential development by the white minority. By the 1980s an influx of black South Africans and immigrants from all over the continent moved to the Central Business District, which lead to the fleeing of the white middle class. Through the 1980s, 1990s, the building had been highjacked and became a haven of violent gangs and a hub for drug trafficking and prostitution. The tower was taken over by gangs, who would demand payment from residents.

The building had been known for its dark and gruesome stories until the tower was given a facelift ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. The tower's windows were sealed off to prevent people from tossing trash but even bodies into the inner atrium that had pilled up to the 14th floor.

Today, the 54 floor high rise is home to about 3000 working class South Africans living in a building considered as an oasis in a dangerous and volatile part of Johannesburg, Hillbrow.