Welcome to South Africa, Starting with Jo'Burg..

We arrived at Johannesburg's Tambo Airport in the middle of a thunderstorm which led to a pretty bumping landing! All I can say is that we were glad when we got off the plane  safely!!

We then got our bags and  were picked up by Joan from out hostel - Bob's Bunkhouse, which was in Edenvale not for from the airport but about 20k from Johannesburg city.
The first thing that struck us when driving to our hostel was the high fences and big gates.  It seemed every property was hidden behind big walls topped with electric fences and security gates.  We arrived at our hostel with looked like Fort Knox from the outside but was very pleasant inside with a nice pool and gardens.  Bob the owner of the hostel was a nice guy and told us it was ok around Edenvale but to be care in other parts of town.  This all seemed a bit strange to us, after travelling round South America and visiting a lot of big scary cities,  it seems there is a bit of paranoia here about security.

Gillian in the gardens of Bobs Bunk House (check out the electric fence).

We wanted to get into Johannesburg and see for ourselves, so we booked onto a tour with the biggest black guy we had ever seen- Jeebo.  He was a great character and took us on a tour of downtown Jo'Burg and to Soweto Township.

 Downtown Jo'Burg.

Heading Into Jo'Burg City.

Downtown Jo'burg seemed to be the same as most other modern cities, big skyscrapers and lots of suits going about their daily business.  We also went to see some shops selling a variety of weird and wonderful African goods.

African goods store.

Drums and sticks.

After our tour of the city, we headed to the famous Soweto, which means South West Township.  Back in the 1940's the city planners wanted to move all the black people out of the city in order to make nice suburbs for the white people, so forced them to pack up and move to empty land on the outskirts of the city.

Welcome to Soweto.

As we drove around Soweto we soon discovered it was like most other cities.  There were some wealthy areas and lots of poorer areas.

Soweto housing.

Some more wealthy housing.

Some of the poorer dwellings in Kliptown.

Winnie Mandela's House in the 'Beverly Hills' of Soweto.

Decoratated gas towers.

Nelson Mandela's house.

Bungy jump Soweto style !!

We then got a chance to have a look around one of the poorer shanty area's:

Getting to grips with the locals !!!

Street in the shanty town.

The People of Soweta are very friendly and it was a great privilege to be able to look around.

Anyone for a pint ?

At freedom square in Soweto we saw the 7 pillars of the South African constitution (Democracy, Equality, Diversity, Respect, Freedom, Responsibility and Reconciliation.) and the freedom charter drafted by the ANC (African Nation Congress Party), during the struggle against apartheid.

The seven pillars of the constitution.

The freedom charter.

We then went to the Memorial of the Hector Peiterson.  Back in 1976 the South African government enforced the teaching of some subjects in Afrikaans (The language of the Dutch Boers).  None of the students (or even the teachers) spoke Afrikaans and did not want to learn it. On the 16th June 1976 all the students got together to form a peaceful protest march but things started to get out of hand and the authorities opened fire on them.  Hector Pierterson was the first child to be shot, around 200 people were killed over the subsequent weeks.  This sparked riots and fighting in townships all over South Africa.

Hector Pieterson Memorial.

One of the placards held by the students during the protests.

We then took a drive out to Soccer City where the 2010 World Cup Final and Opening Ceremony was held.

Soccer city.

Some discrete advertising by Coca Cola !!.

The final part of our tour was a visit to the Apartheid Museum.  It was very interesting and we certainly learned a lot about South Africa and the struggle against Apartheid.  Basically this means separation in Afrikaans. At the time, the  white South Africans did not want to live amoung other races, so every once was classified into White, Coloured, and Black, and different rights were applied to different races.  We can all guess who got the best deal here !!!

Which entrance to take?

A selection of the various signs used during Apartheid.

Johannesburg was certainly an education and a very interesting place to visit.  Hopefully as time goes on the image of the  city will become better and encourage more visitors.