Following the power of google maps, Justin and I set off for Soweto from Gold Reef City. The sketchy directions lead us to BP where we asked a local petrol attendant how to get to Soweto. The attendant proceeded to tell us “Its so easy.” Where by he gave us awful directions, which he kept changing and finished off with “Eish, I don’t know – ask someone else, its so easy.”
We came into Soweto past the Chris Hani Baragwantha hospital, the largest hospital in the world. Driving past the Orlando Power Station, now decommissioned, the power station supplied electricity to the rich Northern Suburbs in Johannesburg, whilst the people of Soweto had no electricity. Then down to Vilakazi Street, the only street in the world where 2 Noble Peace Prize Winners have lived – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Walking down Vilakazi Street there were a group of Dutch tourists dancing with some locals dressed in their traditional Zulu outfits.
We went on a tour of Nelson Mandelas house, where he lived with his first wife Evelyn Mase and later with Winnie Madekezela Mandela. The house was redone about 2 years ago, having seeing it originally in 2004 and 2006 the renovations now make it seen impersonal. Originally the main room had a double bed in it with a jackal hide bed spread, which show cased Mandelas clan claim to royalty, and among other things a chest with a pair of Mandelas boots. Now the room holds a single bed and a photo of Zindiziswa and Zenani (Nelson and Winnies daughters) as adolesecents reading on their beds. The ‘new’ house is apparently a better reflection on how Nelson and Winnie lived, but for me its lost something that was originally magical about being in Nelson Mandelas house.
We then went to the Hector Pieterson Museum. In 1965 the children of Soweto protested Bantu education – the apartheid government had imposed Afrikaans as the medium of education for all black children, regardless of whether they knew the language or not. The protests were supposed to be peaceful but something went wrong and the police opened fire on the children, Hector Pieterson was the first child to be shot. The image of him being carried by another boy with his sister running next to him is the iconic symbol of the national holiday know as Youth Day where we remember the children standing up for their rights.
Justin and I having finished off our day with out breaking for lunch – a new habit that would leave me finishing the week off thinner than I had started it out. We went to Melville to eat at Soi, a great Vietnamese restaurant, to my shock and disappointment it had closed down. Justin and I settled for Melon, I couldn’t tell you what the cuisine was, or what we ate, but I think the food was good. The wine was definatley good. After dinner we went to the South of Joburg to watch the American vs England game. Yet another trip that rendered us lost and driving around in circles.
Justin's version of events
http://nogimmickneeded.blogspot.com/2010/07/south-africa-trip-day-3-jozi-tourism.html
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