THE RIVERS WE PATROL

Johannesburg shares the distinction of not being built on a river or harbour with one other major city in the world - Birmingham in England. But that doesn’t mean Johannesburg doesn’t have watercourses. Far from it. The streams that meander through the suburbs form the source of two of southern Africa’s mightiest rivers - the Limpopo and the Orange.

If you look closer, you’ll find a myriad of small streams or spruits trickling through the suburbs, particularly the northern suburbs. Most of the springs from which many of these streams flow are now covered in concrete, accounted for by the fact that the names of early farms in the area often end with “fontein”, meaning “spring” in Afrikaans. Braamfontein, Rietfontein, Zevenfontein, Doornfontein, Zandfontein and Randjiesfontein are some examples.

The Braamfontein Spruit is the most popular of the city’s rivers

The city’s longest and most popular stream, the Braamfontein Spruit ( “Braamfontein” means “spring of brambles”), is covered and channelled near its source, but once the river runs out of the Parkview Golf Course it meanders through parkland so that Joburgers can still enjoy it in its original state. Walkers, runners, dogwalkers and cyclists use a trail along its banks every weekend.

It’s a beautiful river, with waterfalls in places, tumbling over masses of large boulders, and grassy banks, planted with dozens of weeping willows, gum trees and reeds, and guinea fowl wandering on the grassy verges.

In 1981 the late Wendy Bodman researched the streams running north of the city, and published a 15-page booklet. Her work was thorough, and is filled with suggestions on how to preserve the natural streams. It is peppered with phrases like: “there is wonderful potential here for a natural park and bird sanctuary”, or “there is great potential for this stream and before it enters the Jukskei it should be kept natural”.

What follows is largely is a summary of her research, following the progress of the main streams, into which many other small tributaries flow. There are several streams rising in the ridges north of the city, which all eventually flow into the Hartebeespoort Dam.

Sandspruit

The Sandspruit’s origins can be traced to three places. Firstly, the Orange Grove Stream, which starts in the Mountain View ridge, near the corner called “Death Bend” in Louis Botha Avenue. It flows down to Houghton Drive, and along the edge of the Houghton Golf Course. At Melrose North it meets with a second, smaller stream that rises in the vicinity of the Houghton Golf Course and lies buried as it flows through Norwood. The third stream has two sources: in Pine Avenue near St John’s College, emerging again in the Killarney Golf Course. These three streams join just north east of the Melrose Bird Sanctuary flowing under Corlett Drive and north into Sunninghill Park.

Braamfontein Spruit

Further west the next stream is the Braamfontein Spruit, which provides residents with a much-needed green lung running through the northern suburbs. It begins life in the grounds of the Barnato Park High School in Berea, and has two major tributaries: Westdene Dam and Albertville.

From Berea the stream runs through Pieter Roos Park, down Empire Road to the Frank Brown Park, then on towards the German School in Auckland Park. The stream then flows towards the Parkview Golf Course, where sections of it are channelled into canals. It exits the golf course and runs through Parkhurst, where it meets the second small tributary of the Braamfontein Spruit - the Westdene Spruit.

This spruit has its origins just above the peaceful Westdene Dam, once a brickfield. It flows north east under the RAU sports grounds, and down through the western and central sections of Melville Koppies to the popular Emmarentia Dam, then to Parkhurst.
The third stream is the Montgomery Spruit, which lies over the next ridge with two small branches - one in Albertville, another in Albert’s Farm, Albertskroon. These two streams converge in the Roosevelt Park, and from there flow towards Parkhurst.

The three streams merge at the bottom of Rustenburg Road and flow through the western edge of Parkhurst, heading towards Delta Park, then they wend their way through the northern suburbs, heading towards its confluence with the Sandspruit at Sunninghill Park.

Religious groups use the Spruit on Sundays, often for baptisms and, in Craighall and the Sandton Field & Study Centre, horses are stabled near its banks. 30 horses are also kept in Paulshof at the point at which the Sandspruit meets the Braamfontein Spruit to flow through Leeukop and Lonehill. They are used for river patrols and leisure activities.

Early Joburgers relied more heavily on the river than we do these days. They fished in it, used it for their household needs, their cattle grazed alongside it and drank from it, children used it as a playground and when it flooded, caused consternation to those north of it cutting them off from services like doctors, schools and the postman.

According to long-time Joburg environmental writer, James Clarke, trout were seen at Lonehill as late as 1978, probably having swum upstream from the Magaliesberg, some 80km north west of the city.

The Braamfontein and Sandspruit merge near Leeuwkop Prison, at a rocky spot marked by a large gum tree. The resultant river, with it’s increased width is called the Jukskei and it meets the Ellis Park Jukskei a kilometre or two beyond. Then it gains volume as it flows in the direction of Hartebeespoort Dam, north west of Johannesburg.

Klein Jukskei

Moving further west is another set of streams, which, once they converge, form the Klein Jukskei River. The Klein Jukskei River meets the Jukskei at Chartwell, and flows north as the Jukskei, which joins the Crocodile River 3-4km north of Lanseria Airport. From this point it is referred to as the Crocodile and its waters flow into the Hartebeespoort Dam.

The Crocodile flows out of Hartebeespoort Dam and meets the Marico River, which runs along the border with Botswana. They merge with another tributary, the Lenkwane River, in Limpopo, and at a point near Olifants Drift, according to Mike Silberbauer, senior specialist scientist at the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry - the Limpopo River begins. It surges on north eastwards, forming the border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, through the border posts of Pontdrif and Beitbridge - and exiting South Africa just north of the Krugers’ Pafuri Gate, into Mozambique. Then it flows down through western Mozambique and reaches the Indian Ocean below Xai Xai (approximately 200km north of Maputo) as a mighty river. It’s a journey of about 1 800km, and at its mouth the river is about 800m wide.

Bodman, writing in 1981, bemoans the disrespect the City and its citizens have shown Joburg’s environs, and concludes her booklet with the following sobering assessment: “In the interface between people and the environment, it is usually the environment that must change. People are learning, however, what is ‘good’ change and this must be encouraged. A new dimension has come into technological thinking, viz: the knowledge that old mistakes need not be perpetuated and can often be corrected. Our rivers are a precious natural heritage to be conserved for the future.”

Info from www.joburg.org.za
Edited from an article by Lucille Davie. Dec 24, 2004