An interview with former Hillbrow resident, Melanie Malema. Ms. Malema moved into Hillbrow in the late 1980s and lived in the iconic Ponte Towers for two years. The late 1980s were a volatile time is South Africa’s history. Nelson Mandela had not been released from prison yet but the negotiations to end apartheid was clearly on its way. Slowly many political dissidents and people in exile began to make their way back to South Africa. For Melanie and her family, living Hillbrow was one of the first stops. Hillbrow had already become a desegregated neighborhood and it pointer to monumental changes to come in Johannesburg and in the country as a whole.