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Soweto:
Here we go, notorious Soweto
has been in the news for years as it’s so intrinsically linked
to the recent history of South Africa, but it is one of the must
do’s in the Jo’berg area. The hostel said they arranged trips
so we took up the offer. The pick up started late due to the
guys who should be picking us up had been involved in a car
crash and had to get the police involved to make sure the person
who’s fault it was would sign to agree to that!
The two guys doing the tour
were a black version of little and large, now driving a beaten
up old BMW, but they sure knew their stuff on the city and
actually lived in Soweto themselves. From our supposedly safe
area we headed into Jo’berg city centre. By all accounts it
used to be a lovely city 20 years ago, now most of the
businesses have moved out and it is very run down with gangs of
people around on street corners. It was more like something
from the Bronx in the US in the 70’s. Glad we were with a
couple of homey’s! They even joked with us that the number
plate for Jo’berg starts with GP or as it’s locally known
“Gangsters Paradise”.
The guides knew everybody which
made it feel a lot safer. We were really shown all parts of
Soweto, the richer parts as well as the poor. As we first drove
into the township, we were shown normal, really nice houses with
NO security walls/devices etc. But as the boys said “you don’t
cause trouble or shit on your own doorstep” as they still
operate a lynch mob technique to sort out the trouble makers.
The nice houses soon passed
then you see this huge township of shanty houses for miles and
miles. If you can really call them houses – they are basically
tin shacks built out of scrap pieces of corrugated iron and
wood. To give you some numbers in one area alone there is 7-10K
homeless with no plumbing and only 250 porta loo’s for them ALL
to share. They are all waiting for new homes to be built by the
government. Would you believe they have been waiting 12 years
as well!
The guides dropped us off at
this area for a local lad to take us down one of the dirt tracks
into the camp and into a couple of houses. Scary to think even
what little they had they still secured with razor wire. You
could see the houses high up on the 12 year wait list as they
had bar codes on them. The amazing thing was the guide was
still so positive about being on the waiting list and appeared
to have no anger at having to wait for new housing for so long.
I think the situation during Apartheid would probably have been
much worse so this was seen as an improvement. Having said
that, leaving the camp area really made our stomachs turn with
all sorts of emotion and anger at a badly run country that is
still suffering from old Apartheid rule when the country as a
whole is a rich nation…!!!
Next stop was the Hector
Pieterson Museum in the heart of Soweto, which did an amazing
job of documenting the terrible troubles in 1976. This is when
the peaceful student demonstration against the introduction of
Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools resulted in
the death of many students at the hands of the police, 13 year
old Hector Pieterson famously being the first to be shot. It
was really moving. We then moved onto our stop for lunch which
was quite bizarre, as down one end of the road was Nelson
Mandela’s old house and next to the small restaurant was Bishop
Desmond Tu Tu’s house, meaning this is the only street in the
world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners have lived. This is
where we saw the one and only big tour coach, which really
looked out of place and they do the tour all by driving by and
looking out the windows.
Being over that way we asked
the guys to drop us off at the Apartheid Museum just outside of
Soweto. What an incredible museum, a must visit in Jo’berg. We
were there for a few hours, but it’s a huge place and many
people spend a day here. It’s set up really well to give a true
unbiased opinion about all the troubles South Africa is known
for and really brings to light how very recent it all is… And
so much of it is still in evidence in many places which is the
sad part. It really was a great day trip with really
knowledgeable guides and a highlight of SA for us… |
