Bloemfontein recently decided to procure a new planetarium; being the third one in the country excluding miniatures like the one that Ysterplaat Airforce Base has at its military history museum and the like.
Cape Towns Iziko Museum has a sizeable edifice for projecting astronomical objects, which is only superseded by the Wits University dome which can be found on campus just off Empire Road and the M1 motorway, in Braamfontein. Which one was built first is still a matter of research for me, however, that fact only partly enters into the story of Planetarium Jim.
The Johannesburg Planetariums web site cites its history as beginning in 1956, when a festival committee was tasked with finding ways to celebrate Johannesburgs 70th birthday.
While the instrument was still being upgraded and modernised in its home country of Germany, the Johannesburg City Council sold it to the University of the Witwatersrand and construction of the planetarium building on University property began in 1959.
The Herald will certainly have recorded the events which played out in the early days of Brakpans council meetings, dominated by the discussion motivated by the then aspiring mayor of the small mining town on the East Rand of the Witwatersrand underground gold deposit complex.
Clr Jim Vining decided, after hearing about the Joburg Councils failure to agree on whether to construct the new planetarium dome as an attraction for the public or not, that it would make a fine addition to the Brakpan skyline, of which there is yet little to speak of, and also place the then one-horse-town squarely on the map in anticipation of a bright future.
He made an offer to acquire it with the help of a few good men in his party, and others who could see the benefits down the road.
What followed was a huge uproar from Johannesburgs voters scathing the counciLlors for being outplayed by a bid from Brakpan, resulting in a reversal of their decision to deny the acquisition, with the financial support of Wits University, who purchased the Zeiss projector from Hamburg, thus usurping Brakpans option on the bid and up-scaling the tender somewhat.
Making headlines, clr Vining became known as Planetarium Jim and ended a successful career in local politics as a twice elected mayor, stalwart chairman of the management committee, alderman, and finally as regional administrator of the transitional local council.
Jim Vining would have celebrated his 90th birthday by now, had he not succumbed to complications from a stroke suffered in 2010.
We believe he rests peacefully among the stars he was so eager to have projected in the little town he lived in so long ago.
Planetarium Jim indeed!
