SOWETO TOUR (four hours)
Wednesday 26th November 2008
Cost: AUD $52 per person

Early development

The establishment of Soweto is, like Johannesburg , linked directly to the discovery of Gold in 1885. Thousands of people from around the world and South Africa flocked to the new town to seek their fortunes or to offer their labour. Within 4 years Johannesburg was the second largest city. More than half the population was black, most living in multi racial shanty towns near the gold mines in the centre of the town. As the gold mining industry developed, so did the need for labour increase. Migrant labour was started and most of these workers lived in mine compounds. However other workers had to find their own accommodation often in appalling conditions.

The first residents of what is now known as Soweto were located into the area called Klipspriut in 1905 following their relocation from “Coolietown” in the centre of Johannesburg as a result of an outbreak of bubonic plague. The Johannesburg City Council took the opportunity to establish racially segregated residential areas. Some residents were to be relocated to Alexandra township (near the present day Sandton). This group comprised black, Indian and coloured families and they received freehold title to their land (this was subsequently reversed by the Apartheid Government). Only black families were located into Klipspruit and the housing was on a rental basis. Klipspruit was subsequently renamed Pimville.

During the 1930's the demand for housing for the large numbers of black people who had moved into Johannesburg grew to such an extent that new housing was built in an area known as Orlando, named after the first administrator Edwin Orlando Leaky.

In the 1940's a controversial character James Mpanza led the first land invasion and some 20000 squatters occupied land near Orlando. James Mpanza is known as the “Father of Soweto”.

In 1959 the residents of Sophiatown were forcibly removed to Soweto and occupied the area known as Meadowlands. Sir Earnest Oppenheimer, the first chairman of the Anglo American Corporation, was appalled by the housing shortage and was instrumental in arranging a loan for the construction of additional housing and this is commemorated by the Oppenheimer Tower in Jabulani.

Current status of Soweto

Soweto falls within the municipality of the Johannesburg Metro Council in the province of Gauteng which appropriately means place of Gold.

The original rental houses have now been sold to the tenants who received a subsidy from the government to cover the cost of the houses. Private sector housing was developed from the 1980's funded by the various banks. Freehold title is available to the properties. Services are provided by the Johannesburg Metro council and electricity by Escom.

Origins of the name

Soweto obtained its name from the first two letters of South Western Township which was the original description of the area.

“Soweto is a symbol of the New South Africa, caught between old squatter misery and new prosperity, squalor and an upbeat lifestyle, it's a vibrant city which still openly bears the scars of the Apartheid past and yet shows what's possible in the New South Africa”

On this tour you will see:

The Nelson Mandela Bridge, the largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa, 284 m long crossing over 42 operational railway lines linking Braamfontein and the north of Johannesburg to Newtown in the heart of the city's central business district.

Hector Pieterson Museum

Hector Pieterson (1964 - 16 June 1976) became the iconic image of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, where school children protested over the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in township schools, when a news photograph by Sam Mzima of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow student, was published around the world. He was killed at the age of 12 when the police opened fire on protesting students. By the end of the fateful day 556 children were dead.

For years, 16 June stood as a symbol of resistance to the brutality of the apartheid government. Today, it's known as National Youth Day - a day on which South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

Pitso or Petersen or Pieterson?

Since June 1976, Hector's surname has been spelt "Petersen". Now the family insists that the correct spelling is "Pieterson". That's not the full story.

The Pieterson family was originally the Pitso family. It decided to adopt the Pieterson name to try to pass as "coloured", a minority grouping who had slightly better privileges, like marginally higher wages.
Antoinette Sithole, Hector's sister, says that before she married she had always been "Pieterson", but that she and her siblings had always considered it a joke.

Regina Mundi Church

No trip to Soweto in Johannesburg is complete without a visit to Regina Mundi, the largest Catholic Church in the most populous black urban residential area in the country.

Not only has the vast church always been a spiritual haven for thousands of Sowetans, it has also played a pivotal role in the township's history of resistance against apartheid. As such it is a well-circled destination on the tourist map: every day the church opens its doors to streams of visitors keen to witness the scars it still bears from the Soweto uprisings, when police stormed through its doors, firing live ammunition at fleeing students.

But both before and after the dramas of the Soweto uprisings, Regina Mundi - whose name in Latin means Queen of the World - has quietly offered its protection to those struggling for liberation. When political meetings were banned, people sought the safety of Regina Mundi - if not Queen of the World, then surely Queen of Soweto - to form their political strategies.

Freedom Square

The site of the signing of the historic Freedom Charter by anti-apartheid organizations in 1955, is to be the center of a massive upgrade project to revive the Kliptown area. The square will be renamed Walter Sisulu Square in honour of the 90-year-old former ANC leader.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

The story of Bara starts soon after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand.

A young Cornish lad, John Albert Baragwanath, arrived on the gold fields to make his fortune. The surname "Baragwanath" was derived from the Welsh word "Bara", which means bread, and "gwanath" meaning wheat.

After trying a number of projects, John Albert started a refreshment post, Soon he had a small hostel, "The Wayside Inn". However, to the transport drivers, and stagecoach passengers, it was "Baragwanath's Place" or just Baragwanath.

It is the largest hospital in the world, occupying 173 acres, with 3200 beds and 6760 staff members. The hospital is in Soweto, South Africa - just outside Johannesburg. It is one of the 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals, and is financed and run by the Gauteng provincial Health Authorities.

Opened in 1941 by Prime Minister Smuts as the Royal Imperial Hospital, Baragwanath, the facility was known as Baragwanath Hospital from 1948. The name Chris Hani was added in 1997 to honour a slain African National Congress and South African Communist Party member.

More than two thousand patients check in to the hospital daily and nearly half of them are HIV positive.

Mandela House Museum

Nelson Mandela's humble little house in Orlando West, Soweto, now called the Mandela Family Museum ,is an interesting stopover for those keen to imbibe a slice of authentic history on the world's most famous former prisoner.

Oppenheimer Tower

Popular tourist attraction offering a unique vantage point from where most of Soweto can be viewed. Built from the ruins of the old Sofiatown, the tower is set in unusual gardens.