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Published: November 28th 2020
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November 27, 2020 LX 288 touched down at Johannesburg International Airport (called Tambo), at 03:55 AM, after a 9:47 hours flight from Zurich. In it were two mighty excited passengers Nui & Nenad. Despite the Covid restrictions everywhere, we managed to squeeze out of Europe and into the summer of the southern hemisphere. As the SWISS Boeing 777-300 ER taxied, we looked how darkness slowly gave way to dawn, and at each other, gave us a big kiss, and said YES !!! we are here. Nenad was previously in several other African countries, but never in Southern Africa, nor the country South Africa. A wish he held for years. And for Nui, this exotic, far away place held so many mysteries and excitements she was eager to discover.
Johannesburg the biggest city of the country with close to 6 million inhabitants was waking up, as we made our way to the hotel. South Africa is not a particularly safe place, we were told from all sides. So our adrenaline did keep us alert and awake. Security concerns occupied our planning all along, as we (just the two of us) are going to do a 4X4 self driving adventure, crossing the
country in a Nissan 4X4 from the tropical North East, through the Drakensberg mountain ranges surrounding Lesotho, to the wide beaches of the Southern Indian and Atlantic Ocean of the South West. Later that morning Nicole, our agent from SAMA Tours who helped us stitch the program together, met us for a detailed briefing. Unfortunately we had to skip Lesotho and Swaziland, as these two countries were still closed for tourism due to Covid. In South Africa we had to observe the same rules as we knew them from Asia and Europe; mask wearing, distance and hygiene. Not even 'Simba' can beat Corona !!!
Johannesburg informally known as Joburg, or The City of Gold was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been just a farm. Due to the extremely large gold deposit of high purity and value it grew fast in a very anarchic, rough and chaotic way, within ten years to a population of 100,000 inhabitants. It is part of the Gauteng province, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. The city is the center of large-scale gold and diamond trade, with most of the head offices of larger companies and banks
also being situated there. A complicated history and ethnic mix makes greater Johannesburg a fascinating place. At the same time however harboring an explosive mixture as the races often have incompatible ideas and wishes. Former British and Afrikaans (Dutch, German and Huguenots immigrants, called the Boers) settlers combined and other white immigrants, who jumped on the mining boom from Australia, the US and Europe, settled there. They make about 14% of the population. "Colored people" (no joke !!!) is the official term for the multiracial ethnic group native to Southern Africa, who have ancestry from more than one of the various populations, mostly mixes between Black, White and Asian people. They make up also 14%. The Asians, mainly migrants from India are 7%. Outnumbering by far all others is the African community with 64%. Although large by number they were never, not in history, and not today homogeneous in attempt. Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi (North Sotho), Tswana, South Ndebele, Basotho (South Sotho), Venda, Tsonga, and Swazi, all cramped in townships and exploited fought each other as much as they fought the whites.
We settled in the suburb of Sandton, the area to stay in Joburg. Urban decay in downtown Johannesburg
caused by migrants from Zimbabwe, Nigeria and other folks from the black continent, made many corporate offices move from Johannesburg down town to Sandton in the 1990s. It has become the new financial district of South Africa and Johannesburg's premier business center. The rest of our day was filled with sightseeing. Joburg does not have too many attractions so we concentrated our time visiting the infamous townships Soweto and Crafton, where so much recent South African history was written. And where the enormous social and economic problems this country still has are best visible. Originally populated mostly by native African workers from the gold mining industry, Soweto and Crafton had been separated as a poor residential area for Blacks, who lived there deprived of any economic advancement and freedom, not permitted to move to Johannesburg proper or any other area designated for the White under the policies of Apartheid. Lenasia used to be another such separated area populated by English speaking South Africans of Indian descent. With our township guide Herbert a former employee of the South African railways now turned guide, we set out to see Mandela House (where Nelson Mandela and is wife Winnie lived after he was
released from prison), Freedom Square (where the 10 commandments of the future constitutional charter were written in 1955 by the ANC activists. It took them till 1994 to make them reality !!!), the Hector Pieterson Memorial (where Hector, a South African schoolboy was shot and killed during the Soweto uprising in 1976 (together with other 600+ kids), when the police opened fire on students who were protesting the enforcement of the new teaching language Afrikaans superseding English), the Church of Regina Mundi, (also called the unofficial parliament of Soweto, where activists supported by the local church gathered in spiritual and political protests) . You may remember a young Indian lawyer, who worked for a while in South Africa, fighting for racial equality? Mohandes 'Mahatma' Gandhi came to South Africa in 1893, settling first in Durban before moving to Johannesburg, where he lived from 1903-1913. During his time in Joburg he developed his philosophy of satyagraha, or non-violent resistance. The old location of the city's law courts was renamed Gandhi Square in his honor, holding a small statue of the young Gandhi. We ended the day in Sandton, visiting Nelson Mandela Square and having dinner with Nicole our agent in a
steakhouse, a meal type typical for the Transvaal (historic name of the area Gauteng province) culture of meat eating, of course with South African wine; one of many bottles to come :-).
By the way why do we name these Blogs "Springbok Diaries"? The springbok is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in southern and southwestern Africa, first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1780. We shall encounter them in a number of game reserves along our route. It is South Africa's national animal. It can leap up to four meters in the air, land and immediately leap again. For black South Africans under white minority rule during the apartheid era, the Springbok or “Bok” emblem was a symbol of oppression. The National Rugby team of South Africa is called "Springboks" too, during Apartheid a game played only by Whites. The Springboks nickname and logo dates from the 1906-07 rugby tour of Britain. The springbok was chosen to represent the team by tour captain Paul Roos in an attempt to prevent the British press from inventing their own names for them, certainly of a much less kind nature.
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