Page 320 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - South Africa

318  GA UTENG , LIMPOPO AND MPUM ALANGA

2 Soweto

Soweto is the oldest, largest and best-known of the so-called
“townships” in Gauteng. Its oldest quarter, Pimville (originally
Klipspruit), was established in 1904; the suburb of Orlando
sprung up in the 1930s; another settlement of 20,000 squatters
took root in the 1940s; and Meadowlands was created to
accommodate people evicted from Sophiatown in 1959. This
cluster of settlements was formally amalgamated as “Soweto” in
1963. Several pivotal events associated with the anti-apartheid
struggle took place in Soweto, most notably the drawing up of
the Freedom Charter in 1955 and the student uprising of 1976.
It has also been home to some of the country’s most revered
figures, including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, who once lived a few houses apart on Vilakazi Street. Mandela House Family Museum, former
home of Nelson Mandela
Exploring Soweto illuminate and contextualise the
Although it is no longer unsafe to Soweto Uprising – an event fit into the structure, an unusual
visit, Soweto is still best explored whose broader significance can A-frame with low side walls only
on a guided tour and a half- or be gauged by the fact that 16 a quarter as high as the pinnacle
full-day here ranks among June, the anniversary of the first of the tall sloping roof. The
Johannesburg’s most popular protest, is now commemorated church served as a clandestine
tourist activities. Tours are usually as a public holiday. rendezvous for activists during
guided by Soweto residents and the apartheid era, when overt
take in key landmarks associated E Mandela House political meetings were
with the anti-apartheid move- Family Museum outlawed. It also provided refuge
ment, along with a visit to a local Vilakazi Street. Tel 011 936 7754. to demonstrators fleeing the
shebeen (bar) or restaurant, while Open 9am–5pm daily. & police in the 1976 Soweto
avoiding potential trouble spots. ∑ mandelahouse.com Uprising, and scars of gunfire
This small museum preserves associated with that event can
E Hector Pieterson 8115 Orlando West, the modest still be seen on the interior and
Memorial and Museum house where Nelson Mandela outside walls. US president Bill
Khumalo Street, Orlando West. lived from 1948, until he was Clinton and his wife Hillary took
Tel 011 536 0611/2. Open 10am– imprisoned in 1963, initially with communion at Regina Mundi
5pm Mon–Sat, 10am–4pm Sun. his first wife Evelyn Ntoko Mase, in 1998, and former First Lady
& museum only. then from 1958 with his second Michelle Obama made an
On 16 July 1976, 13-year-old wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. address here in the company
Hector Pieterson became the It was restored in 2009 and of Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca
first victim of police action in now functions as a museum Machel in 2013.
the Soweto Uprising, a landmark dedicated to the Mandela family.
wave of anti-apartheid clashes Walter Sisulu Square
triggered by student protests 5 Regina Mundi Church Cnr Klipspruit Valley & Union Rd.
against the proposed Khumalo Street. Tel 011 986 2546. Tel 011 945 2200. Open 9am–5pm
introduction of Afrikaans in local Open 9am-5pm daily. & Mon-Fri, 9am–4pm Sat & Sun.
schools. More than 20,000 ∑ reginamundichurch.co.za ∑ walter-sisulusquare.co.za
people took part in the protests, Built in 1964, Regina Mundi is Describing itself as “South Africa’s
and a subsequent commission South Africa’s largest Catholic first township entertainment
attributed 451 student deaths church. Up to 5,000 people can explosion centre”, Walter Sisulu
and 2,389 injuries to the police.
The poignant Hector Pieterson
Memorial, erected in the early
1990s two blocks from where its
namesake was shot by police, is
dominated by Sam Nzima’s
iconic photograph of the dying
Pieterson being carried by
another student, accompanied
by his elder sister Antoinette.
Next to the memorial, the Hector
Pieterson Museum houses
photographs, oral testimonies
and historical documents that The interior of the Regina Mundi Church
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp389–90 and pp408–10

318-319_EW_South_Africa.indd 318 25/05/17 12:00 pm