The landlord of Die Pienk Kerk is the same guy behind Parkhurst’s Jolly Roger. He bought the church on 2 March 2001, I guess the line between holy ground and half-price pizza is thinner than we thought. Welcome to Melville Untold.

In this week’s newsletter:

• Iron Memory: The Future Has Arrived on the Koppies In VR, It Brought the Past With It 🔮

• The water situation: The Saga Continues 💧

• De Baba Has Moved, and The New Spot is Very, Very Right 🥐

— Aubrey Moloto, Kele Jackson

The Digest

Iron Memory: The Future Has Arrived on the Koppies In VR, It Brought the Past With It 🔮

An iron forge, built within the last 500 years by the ancestors of Sotho/Tswana speaking people today, sits on the Melville Koppies. It survived the gold rush. It survived an apartheid government that probably wanted it erased. It was vandalised in the 1990s and rebuilt by hand, with the original clay. Most people three streets away have never heard of it. Well, that's about to change.

The Man Taking The Future Back 2 The Past

Izak Potgieter did not set out to digitally resurrect lost South African history. He studied architecture in Pretoria, did urban research in Jozi's CBD and townships, then kept asking himself one question that changed his career: how is virtual reality not a gimmick?

His answer: the representation of places that are physically lost.

That question led to a Sophiatown VR reconstruction, which became his PhD at UJ's Metaverse Research Unit. Now, almost by full circle, he is back on the Koppies, where the original idea first sparked.

"It's not that these places no longer exist," he says. "They still exist in people's memories, in cultural practices. But history plays out differently in Africa than it does in Europe, where you still have intact historical sites. Here, a lot of that has been erased. By representing these spaces, it's a way to reclaim that history and write it back into the greater story of South Africa. Which I think is a very urgent task for our young democracy."

What the Forge Actually Meant

Most people who visit the Koppies walk past the forge without realising the significance of what they're looking at. It was not just a workshop. It was an economic engine.

A single iron artefact could take up to sixteen hours to produce. The smiths who operated these furnaces trained for years under an apprenticeship system. The tools they forged — hoe heads, weapons — were traded down to the valley settlements below, enabling agriculture and creating networks of interdependence across what is now Johannesburg. Izak puts it plainly: "A site like this forge actually enabled the whole of society and the way that society was organised."

He also corrects a common misconception. "For a long time, the theory was that iron smelting was developed in the Middle East and filtered down to Africa. That has been widely disproven. This was independently discovered in Africa."

Jenny Grice, chairperson of the Melville Koppies Committee, makes the stakes clear: "It's the only furnace we know of that still exists. It's not possible to see this anywhere else."

That is what has been sitting, largely unknown, on the koppie above your suburb.

The Technology

The project is funded by UJ's Metaverse Research Unit. The primary tool is LiDAR — Light Detection and Ranging — which fires tiny beams of light and measures, in nanoseconds, how long they take to return. Combined with high-resolution photography, it builds millimetre-accurate 3D scans. What once required expensive specialist equipment can now be done on a decent smartphone.

That scan becomes the foundation for an AR experience that does not just show you the forge, it animates it, contextualises it, and places it back inside the living society that once surrounded it.

This is Phase One. Izak's longer vision involves ground-penetrating LiDAR, a variant already used at Klipriviersberg south of Joburg, where buried settlement outlines invisible for centuries were recently revealed. The same could be done across Melville.

"In my dream situation," he says, "you scan a QR code on a blue plaque, and you don't see Fourth Avenue anymore. You see an original settlement may have existed right where 27 Boxes is now. You could have walking tours connecting all those sites. You don't have to use distance to tour. You can use time."

He is not describing science fiction. This is all technically feasible right now.

The Committee

Tam Scheidegger, guide and Koppies Committee member, rates the committee's excitement at about eight out of ten, with an honest caveat: "We're all old foggies and have no idea what VR actually is."

But she is clear on what the technology is not. "It's not a replacement. It's just an additional way that can be used in a guide or in an education programme. All it's doing is boosting the experience."

She also sees something compelling in the collision of tech and nature. "Tech geeks coming outside, actually moving out of their four walls so that they can integrate. And that's really what, as a society, we want to do — be with nature, not excluded from it."

Jenny sees a global opportunity. "Someone sitting in Germany or Indonesia can click a link and have the experience. And maybe if they eventually come to South Africa and to Joburg, they can see the actual thing rather than the virtual thing."

The University Bet

Herman Myburgh, who leads the Metaverse Research Unit at UJ, the team funding this project, is direct about why the institution is backing this kind of work. "It's part of our societal responsibility, educating South Africans about our history. Both the good and the bad." For him, the technology is not the point. Getting people talking is. "If the stories we tell through virtual reality get people talking, then I believe we've achieved what we wanted to do."

He is equally direct about the broader stakes. "We need to upskill our youth in using these technologies. Otherwise, we're just going to create a bigger divide between us and the global north." The tools, he points out, are already here, most of the software is free. He points to a local XR enthusiast network of over 260 members, 99% Africa-based, with participants from Namibia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. "South Africans can tell the stories of South Africans. I'm a firm believer of that."

I Love Melville

I first encountered Izak when he was walking his dog down Seventh Street. We stopped him for a few questions for our Forgotten Citizens issue, and even then, something in how he thought struck me, not how places look, but what they do to the people who move through them. That is why I believe he is the right person for this. I sit on the Koppies Committee, and I run Snaps on Seventh, the official marketing partner on this AR project. I am close to this story, and honestly, that is the point. Anything that deepens what the Koppies means to people makes our job easier and makes Melville better. That is what this project does.

Izak has hiked the koppies more times than he can count. His favourite Melville memory was at a flat on the corner of Beyers Naude and Fourth, no curtains, and an Adult World neon sign that bathed their lounge in red for months, broken up by a taxi that drove into a traffic light that somehow kept working, so the whole place cycled red, green, orange until payday. Above the Adult World was a church. Above the church, a dojo. A local comedian called it the most South African building in existence: "first we fight the problem, then we pray, then we say f** it* and make a plan". Izak loves Melville because it is the full picture. Not a bubble, not a slice of South Africa, all of it at once. Which is exactly what this project is trying to give back to the Koppies. Some things, it turns out, are worth crossing through time for.

If you could bring back one place from your history, or from your family's history, what would it be? What place would you like to walk through just one more time?

What's Coming

The Melville Koppies AR experience is targeting a Worker’s Day launch — 1 May — though final event details are still being confirmed. Watch this space. In the meantime, keep an eye on the Melville Koppies official website and social media.

The project is funded by the Metaverse Research Unit at the University of Johannesburg. 

For more on Izak Potgieter's research, or to find out how heritage institutions can get involved in future phases, reach out to him:

Call: 082 738 3657
Email: [email protected]

If the news about the koppies moving into the metaverse excites you, consider buying us a coffee.

What’s Happenin’ 🤔

Here’s what there is to do this week in our hood. (Because you can only stare at your empty water taps for so long before it becomes weird).

For more updates as the week goes on, visit our Instagram page @snapson7th or our Melville Pulse event calendar

Live & Music Events 🎸

Melville Weather For The Week ☔️

Thursday  

29° 🌡️ 17° | ⛅️ | 🌧️ 25% | NNW 11 km/h 💨

Friday 

27° 🌡️ 16° | ⛈ | 🌧️ 55% | WNW 9 km/h 💨

Saturday 

24° 🌡️ 16° | 🌧️ |  🌧️ 73% | NW 13 km/h 💨

Sunday

26° 🌡️ 16° | 25 | 🌧️ 84% | NW 15 km/h 💨

Monday 

26° 🌡️ 15° | ☁️ |  🌧️ 58% | NE 7 km/h 💨

Tuesday 

22° 🌡️ 15° | ☁️ |  🌧️ 55% | NE 7 km/h 💨

Biz Bites 📂

De Baba Has Moved, And It's a Glow Up!

Put the tissues away. De Baba is not leaving Melville. One of our best pastry spots is simply levelling up, and the new address? Iconic.

They're moving into the old Mug n Bean spot on 4th. Yes, a legendary breakfast destination taking over a legendary breakfast spot. The universe is working correctly.

Look for the bright orange building rising where Baalbek bar once stood. It burnt down. De Baba rose from the ashes in its place. If that's not a Melville origin story, we don't know what is.

Head down 4th toward 7th Street. You will not miss it.

Melville Art Mile 🎨 

This Weekend: Linda Joan at Stokvel Gallery

If you blink, you'll miss it. The Stokvel Gallery doesn't keep shows up long, which means when something's on, you go now.

This weekend it's Linda Joan's solo show, Confluence, opening Friday the 27th at 5:30pm. The gallery runs weekends only: Saturday 10am–4pm, Sunday 10am–2pm. Beautiful work, tight window. Don't say we didn't warn you.

The Melville Art Mile VIP Tour, Here's Why It's Worth It

First Thursdays is coming and the Melville Art Mile is just around the corner. And with it, a question we’d like to answer: is the VIP guided tour actually worth it?

Short answer: yes. Here's the longer one.

The tour grew out of our Jozi My Jozi, JoziWalks concept; immersive, neighbourhood-deep, designed to make you fall in love with Melville all over again. The JoziWalks tour took guests from 27 Boxes to Resource Gallery for a darwing competition and breakfast by Gourmet Gimba and coffee from The Soucery, then the Market at Kruis, up to the Koppies with Wendy Carstens telling the Koppies heritage stories that many have never heard, pit stops at Rustenburg Road Market, and koeksusters at Agterplaas to finish. It was a proper journey.

People loved it. And they immediately asked when the next one was, enter Melville Art Mile.

We're still developing it, that's real talk. The pilot taught us that people care. The launch taught us how it works. Now we're tightening, structuring, and getting ready to be a world-class experience by spring. We're raising funds, stacking learnings, and we will blow Jozi away come December.

So why buy a VIP ticket for the Melville Art Mile right now, while we're still in development?

1. Because you'd be directly supporting Snaps on Seventh and helping us build something bigger.

2. Because it's one of the best ways to see your own neighbourhood through fresh eyes.

3. And because it's quietly becoming one of the best networking tools in Jozi, we invite sponsors, potential partners, and media, and the relationships that form on these walks are something else to witness.

We've also nudged the prices slightly to better cover participant costs. Value is still firmly the priority though!

Free ticket: always available

Self-Guided Explore: R150

Premium Guided Tour: R450

Grab your tickets here: Melville Art Mile on Quicket

Don't sleep on the Melville Art Mile guided tour. Seriously.

Civil Matters 👷‍♀️

The Water Situation, Here's Where We Are

Let's talk about it. Because if you live on a higher-lying street in Melville, you already know.

The Hursthill 2 reservoir has been struggling to supply large parts of the area. The root cause is not local; it is a bulk supply problem coming into the entire Commando system. Crown Gardens and South Hills are critically low, too. This is bigger than our pipes.

Here is the good news. The Department of Water and Sanitation has granted a temporary relaxation of the extraction licence from the Vaal Dam, which is currently sitting at over 100% capacity. That means Rand Water can pull more raw water, treat more of it, and pump more into the system. An additional 200 million-cubic metres has been approved. The measure runs from February to June 2026.

Here is the complicated part. A recent report confirmed that the City of Johannesburg owes Rand Water a substantial amount in outstanding payments. What that means for the speed of the increased pumping is not yet confirmed. Cllr Kyle Jacobs is escalating this at the senior City level and keeping the pressure on.

In the meantime, Melville residents made their frustration very visible. A makeshift toilet appeared in the street as a protest, blunt, creative, and very Melville.

What you can do right now

Log and report every burst and leak you spot directly to Johannesburg Water. Every report Cllr Jacobs can escalate helps.

MRA Meeting Tuesday 3 March

The Melville Residents' Association meets next Tuesday the 3rd of March at 6pm, at 34 4th Avenue. If something is bothering you about the suburb, water, safety, development, anything, this is the room to be in. Show up. Your voice matters here.

Extra Sprinkles 🧁 

Hotel Hope Last Call Before Tax Year End

Financial year-end is 28 February. That means any donation to Hotel Hope Ministries before Friday is tax deductible in South Africa. Love in action plus tax efficiency, as Oliver puts it, a genuine win-win.

Hotel Hope runs life-changing work with children in their care and a Montessori preschool right here in our community. If you have been meaning to give, now is the smartest time to do it.

Banking Details Hotel Hope | FNB Account: 62194003382 | Branch: 250655 | SWIFT: FIRNZAJJ

Queries: [email protected] | www.hotelhopeministries.org

Thank you! 🙏

Thanks for coming to Snaps Land for a few minutes. If you had a good read, why not tip us? Buy us a coffee? 

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Got the scoop? Hit us up!

’Til next Wednesday, Melville,

Stay daring. Stay dedicated. Stay dazzling.

Mar sin leat. ✌️