Johannesburg, Soweto and housesitting

And so we have reached the end of part I of our South African adventure, the end of the Housesit, and very sad we are too. I don’t know what it is about little Willow but she has won our hearts, she plays so hard to get, but actually does like having us around. On our return from Liliesleaf Farm, we pulled up and she ran over mewing, wanted to know where we’d been, had a little stroke, little bit of wet food and she was gone again, but she had been pleased to see us.

We had a very laid back New Year, seeing it in from the balcony. The evening started with huge amounts of lightning and finished with fireworks. Proud to say that we did manage to stay up, though Willow didn’t, she did let us have a little lie in in the morning.

Fussing Willow cat on the balcony on New Years Eve

Fizzat the ready waiting for midnight

All of a sudden the end of the sit was imminently looming and we still hadn’t been into Johannesburg or Soweto, so 2nd and 3rd were a two day ticket on the hop on, hop off bus tour, with Soweto extension. On the first day we drove to a big shopping centre in Rosebank where we could join the first loop, changing buses at Constitution Hill for the second loop. Constitution Hill now has the Constitutional Court but was the home of the big prisons for the city, started at the site of an old fort, there is a prison for white men, non-white men and women. In its time it housed ‘normal’ criminals as well as political

New Years Eve fireworks

prisoners, not only Nelson Mandela but Mohatma Ghandi (Yes, that one) who started his lifetime of passive resistance after being ejected from a train in Durban when as a respectable lawyer he refused to leave the first class carriage. He worked hard for equal rights in South Africa before leaving for India and becoming the man in the white robes he is most remembered as. It was in active use until the ‘80’s so there is much testimony from people who are still alive, making it very current (to old people like us) and horrific. Just ‘little things’ like white prisoners getting twice as much food as black prisoners, to include some protein. Black prisoners were given nothing but pap, with Indians and coloureds getting midway treatment! Having spent two hours there and not ventured into the fort or women’s prison, we thought better get on the second bus, for the bigger loop. Constitutional Hill location: 26°11'20.3"S 28°02'32.9"E

And some rather splendid lightning shows most nights

The old fort at Constitution Hill

This loop was through the city, that shouldn’t really be the city it is. It was established in 1886 after gold was found. At a height of 1750m (that was a surprise) with no real water supply, small city blocks were built as the expectation was it would be destined to become a mining ghost town, not the biggest city in South Africa, one of the 50 biggest in the world. As such, although it was very interesting to look round there actually wasn’t that much to see. 

The old men's prison at Constitution Hill. To the left is where Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi were held (not at the same time, Ghandi left South Africa in 1914, Mandela was only born in 1918, but he used Ghandis peaceful protest strategy for the ANC in its early years

The solitary confinement cells that black prisoners found so hard to endure

We only hopped off once to get some lunch before completing the two hour circuit back to Constitution Hill. We had a look round the women’s prison, which didn’t feel nearly as bad as the men’s prisons, but has been painted and modified to make meeting rooms and offices. Treatment was still horrible and degrading though, not just for the inmates, the life of a black guard was very different from the life of a black guard!

The skies were darkening with an impending storm and we’d had a full day out we thought we’d get the bus back to the car. We didn’t quite time it right, the heavens had opened before we got to the car and continued for most of the journey home. This did nothing to improve the general standard of driving which is shocking, we’ve seen many accidents even in the small amount we’ve driven.

Whilst white prisoners had cells for two people, blacks were housed in a communal cell of up to 30 with only a dirty blanket (washed once a year in dirty water) and a thin sleeping mat

Inside the Constitutional Court

Following day was up early too, we wanted to be at Gold Reef City (location: 26°14'18.4"S 28°00'44.2"E), a casino with free parking for the bus tours, where the first Soweto tour would be leaving from at 10.00. Images of riots in the ‘80’s through the streets of Soweto (standing for South West Township) made this a most unexpected place to be able to go visit. Location: 26°15'24.5"S 27°50'59.8"E. The tour was in a minibus driven by a Soweto local (Imbali) and was very good. It is not a wholly black area now, as it was setup to be, and is not entirely full of little tin boxes, though there are still some, there are also mid range and high end houses. Again we didn’t really hop on or off, but we did stop at

Have seen this before, but it's still amusing

the Hector Pieterson memorial (location: 26°14'07.0"S 27°54'28.9"E). At 12 years old, he was the youngest person killed in 1976 in what was meant to be a peaceful demonstration by students unhappy that the language they were being taught in had been changed to Afrikaans, that many of them didn’t understand, and that even their teachers were not fluent in. We were given a chat by a young local who really brought it alive. 

Inside the womens prison. Today its clean with white painted walls, it wasn't like that when it was still in use. It closed in 1983

Nelson Mandela's house, 8115 Vilakazi St, Soweto

Next stop was at Nelson Mandela’s house, though we didn’t go in (location: 26°14'18.6"S 27°54'31.5"E), before continuing down the street to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s house (location: 26°14'21.3"S 27°54'36.1"E). This being the only street in the world to have had two Nobel Peace prize winners living in it.

The apartheid museum was just over the road from the casino so we felt we should go (location: 26°14'14.6"S 28°00'32.3"E). We did learn a lot, but there was so much information which seemed to be laid out in quite a confusing fashion. We still spent three plus hours there!

This is as much as we saw of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's house. It's behind that wall and only the blue plaque marks it

Jackie with our Soweto guide Imbali

This left just Saturday and Sunday before Cat and her parents return on Sunday afternoon. Brian had a book of Cat’s “The State of Africa by Martin Meredith” which he was desperate to finish, and we had general fussing of Willow, washing and tidying to do. Did slightly worry about getting the washing done, the power went off at 04.00 on both Friday and Saturday mornings, not coming back on till after 08.30. This was power shedding, due to a fault in a power station. Glad we mentioned it to Cat as she looked at whatever App it is she has and warned us it would be going off at 20.00 on Sunday night, which it duly did! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time in Cat’s lovely apartment, we’ve felt completely safe behind our electric gates and electrified fence (though when I touched it there was no electricity running through it). The view has been stunning, the electrical storms stunning, the shop very local and Willow a sweetheart.

The cooling towers from the old power station in Soweto, from which you can now bungy jump (or even abseil down the centre). When working, the power station provided no power to Soweto, it all went to Johannesburg

The very poor area of Soweto

Our last couple of nights are at Cat’s friend Gabby’s, just over the road from her in another gated community. She is back in the U.K. and very kindly said we could stay before we head off on part 2 of our trip - four days in Victoria Falls. We’ll have to go and face packing shortly, the last time we had to zip our bags up with everything in we were wearing a lot more clothes as we left the U.K.!

An open air church service in Soweto

Some people dressed as warriors walking outside Mandela's house. Imbali told they were not Zulu's (his race), but were from Botswana

A row of typical government built houses for blacks in Soweto

This house is an original (with asbestos roof) surrounded by much improved houses. The bricks in the front garden indicate to his neighbours that he intends to improve it - sometime 

A street market in Johannesburg

These people are immigrants from all over Africa queuing outside the Home Affairs building hoping to get a permit to work to start a new life here

The Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto, with the iconic photo of of Hector being carried after being fatally shot by police, with his sister alongside. The photo was taken by a reporter who, realising the importance of what he'd shot, hid the reel of film in his sock and replaced it with a fresh roll in his camera. When the police saw him they confiscated his camera, but he managed to smuggle the film out

A close-up of the photo

Entering the apartheid museum. I went through the blacks entrance, Jackie through the whites

Inside the museum showing typical signs seen during apartheid 

Nothing need be said by us!

View from the balcony of Willow cat coming to Jackie 

Guinea fowl regularly walked through the grounds by us, one morning Jackie spotted this one on our balcony one floor up. Its looking a bit concerned at the height we think

Sweet little Willow cat, we'll miss her!

View from the balcony of our new home for two nights. We still have a great view over north Joburg

And last night we were treated to a fabulous sunset

A final picture (a bit out of order). This is the football stadium outside Soweto. It's apparently the third largest in the world with a capacity of over 94,000 people. Barcelona is at number 2 and, apparently one in North Korea is the largest with a capacity of about 114,000