Johannesburg

Driving past downtown Johannesburg on our way to the Soweto township.

Welcome to Soweto

Welcome to Soweto, a township within the city of Johannesburg. Soweto (the name made up of the first two letters of South Western Townships) is actually made of up 29 previously separate townships. The population of Soweto is about 1.3 million, mainly black.

The establishment of the townships goes back to the discovery of gold in 1885 in Johannesburg. The thousands of people who came for the gold needed housing. Most lived in multiracial shanty towns near the gold mines. The first township was Klipspruit in 1905, established after an outbreak of bubonic plague, which resulted in relocation of people living in the center of Johannesburg. The Johannesburg City Council used the relocations to establish racially segregated residential areas––the townships.

Soweto

Many income levels live in Soweto, from the poorest to the very well off. The housing runs from shacks to mansions. In the photo is probably middle–income housing.

Soweto

The lower on the scale housing. People who have no income are provided with free housing by the government.

Mandela House

Our first stop in Soweto was at the Mandela House, a house that Winnie and Nelson Mandela shared. It is now a museum.

Mandela House

The outside of the Mandela House.

Mandela House

Inside the Mandela House are numerous photos, posters, and other items outlining Mandela’s life, including this photo of a young Nelson Mandela.

Orlando Towers

The Orlando Towers definitely stand out in Soweto. They were once the cooling towers of a power station. Today, there is a bridge between them and bungee jumping.

Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum

Our next stop was at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. Hector Pieterson was a 12–year–old student who was shot to death by police during the June 16, 1976, Soweto Uprising. Students from the high schools came out to protest the government’s new policy that secondary school education would be taught only in Afrikaans, not in their native languages. The police shot at the protesters.

Hector Pieterson Museum

The Hector Pieterson Museum. No photos were allowed of the exhibits inside it, which told the story of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Many groups of school children were visiting the museum.

Apartheid Museum

Next, we stopped at the Apartheid Museum, which covers 20th–century South Africa and apartheid, a system of racial classification set up by the South African government. In 1948, the National Party gained power and the all–white government enforced existing policies of racial segregation, a system called apartheid. Existing policies included the 1913 Land Act that forced Black Africans to live in certain areas and not allowing them to work as sharecroppers.

The Population Registration Act of 1950 divided the population into four classifications: Bantu (all Black Africans), Colored (those of mixed race), White, and Asian (Indian and Pakistani). People of the different classifications had to live in separate areas from one another. In 1991, apartheid began to be repealed.

No photos were allowed in the museum. Google “Apartheid Museum” to look at some of its exhibitions.

Apartheid Museum

On a wall outside the museum: “To be free is not merely to cast off ones chains but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,” Nelson Mandela.

I have put my photos of Soweto on a slideshow. Go to

http://www.peggysphotos.com/soweto–township/

(Slide Shows, Southern Africa, South Africa, “Soweto Township”).

Nelson Mandela Square

We went out to dinner as a group at Nelson Mandela Square. In its courtyard was a huge statue of Nelson Mandela, though it wasn’t lit up.

Pigalle Restaurant

We had a very nice dinner at the Pigalle Restaurant. Some of our tour group would be leaving the tour the next day as they did not sign up for the extension to Victoria Falls or for the one after that one to Botswana, so the dinner was partly a good–bye dinner.