My second full day in Joburg saw me take a guided tour with Joseph. there was a Canadian Lady on it, who was also travelling solo and probably in her mid 70’s. She was very interesting and had been to so many different countries. I hope I will still be able to travel when I’m her age??
Our first stop was an area called Houghton, which is a more affluent part of town, mainly white!! Lovely views across the city and beautiful tree lined roads. There was also an exclusion private girls school called Roedean, which is twinned with our Roedean Girls school in Brighton. I think the fees are very similar too.
After Houghton we drove to Soweto via Soccer City. This stadium was used for the Opening and Final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It was also the site of Nelson Mandela’s first speech in Joburg after his release from prison. The World Cup closing ceremony on the day of the final saw the final public appearance of Mandela. On the outskirts of the city are what appear to be many hills, but are actually hills of earth removed from the gold minds. Trees were planted on them to try and reduce the dust blowing over the city.
Miners 
Mandela Bridge 
There’s gold in them hills!!! 
Soweto, or South Western Township, was created in the 1930s when the White government started separating Blacks from Whites, creating Black Townships. Blacks were moved away from Johannesburg, to an area separated from White suburbs. There are now approx 2 million people living in Soweto with 40% of the population travelling into central Joburg for work. There are different areas within Soweto….rich, middle class, poor and very poor. The famous Vilakazi Street is here, which boasts the only street in the world where 2 Noble Peace Prize winners lived….Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. We stopped outside Desmond Tutu’s house (he still lives there) and went into Nelson Mandela’s house which is now a museum.
Middle class homes 
Middle class area 
Poor homes, no running water and only porta-loos 
New houses built and given to the people for free, but left empty for over 10years because they don’t want to pay for electricity/water etc 
‘Matchbox house’ 
You can bungee-jump between these 2 towers. I didn’t 
Desmond Tutu’s house 
Inside Mandela’s house 
Very poor houses
While in Soweto, we also visited the Hector Pieterson memorial site. Hector Pieterson was a South African schoolboy who was shot and killed during the Soweto uprising, when police opened fire on students protesting the enforcement of teaching in Afrikaans. A news photograph by Sam Nzima of the mortally wounded Pieterson being carried by another Soweto resident while his sister ran next to them was published around the world. The anniversary of his death is designated Youth Day, when South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.
Our final stop of the day was to the very impressive Apartheid Museum. Very moving and very thought provoking and quite overwhelming at times. The things that we humans do to each other is appalling, but equally it showed that people can make a change which should give us all hope. There was also a separate Nelson Mandela exhibition.
Your ticket told you which entrance to take so you could maybe feel it a bit 
I’m glad SA won then, but it’s got to be England’s year now 🙂 
And finally…..the hotel I’m staying in has an infinity pool on the 24th floor, which I was very excited to use. Not everything is what it seems….it was colder than the English Channel, and it only took 2 strokes to get from one side to the other!!!
