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Published: March 23rd 2010
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Johannesburg
Saturday 6th March
When I told friends that I was going to South Africa most people’s reaction was the same - “Don’t go to
Johannesburg”.
So here I am. I have no choice, really - the next organised trip I’ve arranged sets out from here tomorrow. I arrived here from
Cape Town yesterday expecting the same heat as we had been experiencing in Cape Town, only to arrive in a thunderstorm. Today I’ve been out with a waterproof and it’s been non-stop sunshine all day.
Soweto
I’ve managed to avoid spending the day hiding in my hotel room in fear of being robbed and murdered and I’ve booked myself on a coach trip to
Soweto. I don’t imagine that a coach tour to Soweto will be one lots of comfort breaks and a stop at a nice tea room.
The mini-bus picks me up from my budget hotel before picking up the rest of the trippers from the Hilton and Intercontinental. Our driver delights in firstly taking us around the
Hillbrow area of the city. This is clearly the area of the city where I’m supposed to
be robbed and murdered but the windows of the bus are all closed, the doors are locked and we never stop.
From here our drive takes us out of
Johannesburg, past the new football stadium for the World Cup and on to
Soweto. The city seems to be decorated everywhere with footballs in preparation for the World Cup - even the large radio transmitter has a football on it!
I don’t imagine there will be too much to see in
Soweto, I just want to go there because of its historical significance. Initially I’m not very impressed with what we are shown. Our guide is keen to show us what improvements have been made in Soweto and drives us past the homes of Soweto’s millionaires and past the new shopping mall. I don’t really want to see a shopping mall. We even drive past a sign advertising the
Soweto Country Club! I think I was expecting more of a walking tour and a bit of a history lesson.
Eventually we reach the more interesting parts as we drive down
Vilikazi Street. This is the street where both
Desmond Tutu and
Nelson Mandela lived. How many other streets
can there be that have had two Nobel Prize winners living on them? It was also at the top of this street that the first school child to be killed in the 1976 demonstrations, Hector Pieterson, was shot. We stop off at the
Hector Pieterson Memorial and
Museum. The museum is really an account of the events of June 1976 in Soweto. We get to spend about 30 minutes here - there is plenty to see here and I could have done with much more time.
The Apartheid Museum
In the afternoon my coach drops me off outside the
Apartheid Museum with a promise that I’ll be picked up about 3½ hours later. This is a museum that has been recommended to me by everyone who has been to Johannesburg. After this and Soweto I don’t think there is much more in Johannesburg that I would want to see. Johannesburg is much more a functional working city than Cape Town.
When I visited the museum there was also a temporary exhibition about the life of Nelson Mandela so there was plenty to see. We are put in the mood for the museum at the
entrance as we are arbitrarily categorised as “white” or “non-white” and given different entrances.
I spent about 3½ hours in the museum and had to come out to meet my coach rather than because I had finished my visit. Well worth a visit!
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