Thursday, June 12, 2025
We got up at 5:25 and got ready for the day. We had breakfast at 6:15. They had a big spread with fruit, yogurt, toast, cereal, juice, coffee, and tea. The woman in charge comes to your table and takes your order. I had scrambled eggs, granola, yogurt, orange juice, and coffee. We arranged to have some clothes washed. We went back and got ready and collected our laundry. We left the hotel at 7:35. We were headed to a tour of Soweto, which is a black township that was established under apartheid. It was over an hour away. We saw mine dumps where they put the leftover earth from the gold mines. You can recognize a mine dump by the gold color of the “dirt.” They are as big as a mountain. Tammy’s dad told us that they used to include sparkling gold dust, but recently they have discovered a more efficient process that takes more gold out of the waste. Tammy’s dad remembers sledding down the mine dumps. The waste includes a lot of cyanide so it’s really not safe. After the mine dump has been there long enough, it collects enough dirt on top for small plants to take root. Most of the mine dumps we have seen also have plants or even small trees growing on them.
We saw downtown Johannesburg from the highway. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but it is really run down. Most of the windows in the buildings are broken. The businesses and stores have mostly moved elsewhere because it is unsafe.
We arrived early to the coffee shop where we were supposed to meet for the tour. They also had a little gift shop. We looked around and went to the bathroom. We talked to several other travelers who were there for the tour. It was a very cold morning. We wore multiple layers including our down jackets and gloves.
Our tour guide’s name was Maweza. He grew up in Soweto and still lives at the edge of Soweto. He did an excellent job. We started at Hector Pieterson Memorial Square. He was a young boy that was killed by police during a student uprising on June 16, 1976. The high school students were protesting against the Bantu Education Act that stipulated that all schools had to provide instruction in Afrikaans. This discriminated against the black students who mainly spoke tribal languages or English. They didn’t have a reason to learn Afrikaans other than to work for Afrikaners. Our guide said that the curriculum removed more rigorous subjects such as science for the black students so their education really only prepared them for service to Afrikaners. Hector Pieterson was a primary school student and the when the protest started, the primary schools released early. He went to meet his high school sister and that’s when he was shot by the police. Hector Pieterson Memorial Square had a memorial plaque dedicated to Hector, brick pillars that represented the age of the students killed based on how tall the pillars were, and trees planted by Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and other important people.
We walked down the street and saw the actual street corner where Hector was shot.
There is a Methodist church there and after the children were shot, they were taken to the church where their parents found them.
We also saw a wire sculpture that showed a police officer with a dog attacking a group of children.
We turned and walked down the street and saw a group of Africans performing a song and dance. It was really cold and they were wearing what I assume were supposed to be tribal costumes that left their chests, arms, and legs bare. We were all wearing down coats and gloves.
Right after that, we made it to the Nelson Mandela house where he lived in Soweto for many years. Now it is a museum.
We saw all kinds of artifacts from photos to personal items that belonged to him to information about him and his family. We saw his favorite chair and a metal trash can lid that was used as a shield during the June 16, 1976 protest.
We also saw the tree where Mandela buried the umbilical cords of all his children according to tradition. I had read about that in Long Walk to Freedom, so it was extra cool to see that.
Then we went to a restaurant for lunch. We had Kotas, which are a think piece of bread with melted cheese, bologna, French fries, hot dogs, and something else on it. There was spicy sauce you could put on top. Maweza showed us how to smash it down and roll it up a bit so everything didn’t fall out. One woman on our tour was adding the spicy sauce and the lid came off and buried her sandwich. She had a good attitude about it, though.
When we finished, Tammy and I went out back and used the outhouse before we continued our tour.
We walked through the “Beverly Hills” section of Soweto (20%), as Maweza put it. No matter how much money black people had, they still had to live in the townships under apartheid so there were some really nice houses.
We then walked up a hill overlooking Soweto so we could see more of it. While we were up there, we saw the house Mandela lived in after his release. Apparently it still belongs to his family, but no one lives in it because his descendants are fighting over it.
We continued walking and saw the cinder block houses that were built by the government. They were decent and had small yards where people had hung out their clothes. Many of the houses had wire fences around them, some made out of mattress springs! Maweza told us that the government pays for the electricity in these houses and they have running water. The final section of Soweto was the shanty town. Maweza asked us if we wanted to enter. He is in contact with leaders of the shanty town community. He passed us off to our shanty town guide. He was well-spoken and told us we could ask any questions or take any pictures we wanted. He explained that the community has rules and if someone does something bad, the mob justice will beat the person and then call the police. He spoke Xhosa and Kwa Kwa.
He led us through the narrow passages between the shacks. He warned us about the overhead wires. Some were to carry electricity to the shacks that had been hotwired from the electric poles near the road and others were for hanging out clothes. Don’t get confused! Each shack had a number on it. I thought it was an address until the guide explained that the number is from the government and tells where that family is on the waiting list to get government housing. He told us that he has been on the waiting list for 18 years. The last time the government built more houses was in 2009. He seemed hopeful that eventually he would get a house. The government does provide clean water at central faucets and port-a-potties around the edge of the shanty town. The guide said that trucks come and empty them 1-2 times a week. We saw where the school was across from the shanty town. Some kids have to walk an hour to school, but he said all children go to school. The government provides money for poor kids until age 18 so the guide said that many people have kids young and have lots of kids. We stopped and went into one woman’s house. She had a baby about a year old. The house was one room with a bed on one side, a chest freezer that was being used for storage (not working), and labels from vitamin bottles were stuck all over the corrugated metal walls to try to provide insulation from the cold. We gave the lady a tip for letting us see her house.
The guide said that when visitors come, they take them to different houses so that more people can benefit from the money. He said that the tips he received are divided among many families, including those on the far side of the shanty town because it’s too far for visitors to walk there.
We had to go back out to meet Maweza. As we left, we saw a group of men on a homemade ladder trying to attach wires to an electric line because the police come and take them down. It was very high and looked very dangerous.
We walked to the famous Soweto Towers that used to be part of a coal plant but are now painted with murals. There is a bungee jumping place between the towers. We called an Uber and Maweza waited with us until it arrived. We rode back to the coffee shop with Mel, a woman originally from Malaysia who now lives and works in New York. It was fun talking to her.
We left Soweto and went back to our hotel to get ready. We showered and got somewhat dressed up to go to a big dinner at a steakhouse called Fahrenheit with Tammy’s relatives. I met Ineike’s sister’s children (Tammy’s cousins): Courtney (husband Vaughn and kids Koa, age 2 and Kyro, 6 months), Sheldon (wife Leticia and son Carter, age 2.5), and Keagan (wife Dani). We also met Byron and his girlfriend, Bonita. We had a really cool room in the basement of the restaurant. It had stairs that came down in a V from two directions and a long gas fireplace. In the middle was a big square table with room for all of us. We talked for a long time while we waited for the rest of them to arrive from work. We finally ordered. I had gnocchi with pomodoro sauce. Most people got steak. After dinner, they brought Tammy a bowl of ice cream and sang in an African language because we were celebrating her birthday. Courtney had brought a cake that was delicious. The waiter, Reggie, brought it down with a sparkler on top while they were singing. The cake had four layers with caramel icing in between each layer. We took a picture. Then we finally headed out. We had been there 5:30-9:30 and both two year olds had been really good! We drove back to the hotel and got ready for bed. I worked on my blog before going to sleep around midnight.
Comments
Post a Comment