#Johannesburg Pretoria & Soweto Three Tenners South Africa PT3

We flew from Heathrow with Qatar. We took a dog leg flight to Johannesburg via Doha. This was purely economic reasons. It saved us several hundred pounds compared to a direct flight but we were in the air about 4 hours longer. Qatar is a top airline and Doha International a beautiful and massive airport. On this occasion there was a bit of a rush to get to our onward flight - but a fast walk got us there. For future reference there was 1hrs 30 mins between landing inbound and our outbound flight. Luggage was moved automatically and we did not have to go through passport control but it was still too tight to be comfortable and left no margin for delay. I recommending leaving more time.

Arriving Doha late at night.

The desert lit up

Anyway we arrived Johannesburg on time - 8 in the morning, picked up our pre arranged hire car and got to our hostel on modern open freeways in good time.

As usual I have done a bit of background reading so here is a bit about Jo'burg or Jozi.

Johannesburg is described as the economic powerhouse of SA. It is situated on the high veldt - a plateau 6000 ft above sea level. (apparently it takes one minute longer to boil an egg here!). It is in Gauteng - SA's smallest province - 2% of the land mass but producing 40% of GDP. S Africa's total population is about 50m of which 6m live in Jozi, 3m in the nearby township of Soweto and 2m in Pretoria. The guidebooks describe the area as mainly urban but immediate impressions are wide open spaces and while there are some skyscrapers the majority of building is single storey. It feels a big and spacious country already.

I immediately ran into lap top problems and issues with wi fi. Our trip had quite a bit of momentum so I am now finishing off this opening blog - almost 3 weeks later - so not ideal.

First of all we stayed at The Birches Backpackers hostel. Excellent - recommended.

Johannesburg - first afternoon - a Sunday. We drove to Park Station and did the excellent open top Red Bus Tour. The bus tour was very informative - first class headphone commentary. The CBD was quiet of course as it was a Sunday but we had an insight. We got off at Africa's highest building (claimed - it certainly was once) The Carlton Centre. Like much of Johannesburg it seems the buildings were built in the 1960's. Some pretty ugly buildings - a lot of concrete. We were accompanied by a bus company representative to the top via lifts. The building is largely redundant now - but from the 51st floor we had great views.

Johannesburg exists because in 1886 a nearby rich gold reef (Witwatersrand) (now largely worked out) was discovered. People flocked in - and was one of the main reasons the British left the Cape to confront the Dutch who were in this interior area having previously left the Cape to avoid the dominating British.

Just a note on security in Johannesburg. The CBD (Central Business District) did become very dangerous. This is because a new business centre was created in the Jo'burg district of Santon. Consequently many buildings were left empty and into these buildings moved the "red ants" - squatters - many from Zimbabwe. It became lawless. However more recently the CBD is being won back - unused buildings being bricked up - new investment including the Gauteng railway made and better policing. However some people still avoid the CBD - I must say Park Street did seem a bit edgy even on a daytime Sunday.

Johannesburg

Carlton Tower

Views from the 51st fllor

Soweto in the far distance - the World Cup Final stadium a touch closer

First afternoon SA. On top of the highest building in Africa

A bronze sculpture - the 3 George's responsible for discovering gold.

All round Johannesburg area - massive manmade hills - the spoil from goldmining

Nelson Mandela Bridge over the railway

Freedom monument of eternal flame

The next day we went to SA's administrative capital city - the seat of government - Pretoria. We spent time at the Voortrekker Monument - high on a hill over Pretoria. The monument built in 1940 was funded by the Afrikaans community to commemorate the (heroic) Boer (Dutch victory over the Zulu army at Blood River. It was THE place to learn about the Great Trek and the Boer history (which Afrikaners are so proud of - Boer in Dutch means farmer). I am not going to go into it here. It is complex - but a quick summary. SA did not exist as a country. The Dutch first come to the Cape in the 1650's and use slaves. The British move in (and abolish slavery in 1828). The Dutch move out of the Cape because of British interference/rule and start the Great Trek inland and to the east in search of a place of their own to farm etc. They confront the Zulus among many other hardships. Eventually the world's biggest deposit of gold is found near Johannesburg 1860's and diamonds at Kimberley - 1880's. The British decide they need to share the wealth. This leads to the Anglo - Boer Wars at the turn of the century and eventually after the Boer's were defeated the formation of South Africa in 1914.

I have to say something about Afrikaans. This is a Germanic/Dutch based language which became the dominant language of the whites in the apartheid era (although only about 5% of the population speak it!) In the 1940's there was associations with Nazism too.

It seems Afrikaans see their history as a glorious one - mainly a struggle to farm and lead a good life and the fact they built SA. As one Afrikaans told me - they built SA. When they arrived in SA very few indigenous people lived there and those that did never built anything - not one stone on top of another (his words).

Voortrekker Monument

Scanskop Fort. One of 4 built in 1897 to protect Pretoria.

We get behind the original bar at the Fort

Later we went into Pretoria proper to see The Union Buildings - perched majestically on the main hill. It was built in 1910 to symbolise the union of Britain and Boer. It is now the headquarters of the South African government and where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President. There is a massive and very impressive statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens below.

The Union building

Later in the day we drove to the township of Soweto and walked around the notorious Kliptown suburb. A few years ago this would have been a stupid thing to do but Soweto while still very much a sprawling township has generally been improved. Kliptown for some reason is a suburb that hasn't - something to do with its unauthorised status.

Soweto (South West Township) is SA's most famous township. For one thing it has produced 2 Nobel Peace prize recipients - in fact they both lived in the same street - Nelson Mandela (whose old home we visited (now a rather commercial experience) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu's. At the same time it did have the world's highest incidence of rape and murder and is a sprawling place.

However Soweto is perhaps most remembered for the student uprising in 1976 which became world news and focused the world's minds on putting pressure on SA to end apartheid. The root of the uprising was the Afrikaan Government decreed Afrikaan would be the first language of SA and all schools would use it to teach all lessons. SA has 11 recognised languages and Afrikaans was and is only spoken by a small minority (incidentally the language of Government is English). The imposition of Afrikaans brought nationwide student protest. The government dealt brutally with the peaceful student protests and in Soweto this lead to the death of a student called Hector Pietersen. All this was captured by world news and Pietersen's death became a world wide cause celebre. Among other things International Economic Sanctions were raised against SA and of course SA was banned from playing all international sport. These pressures mounted and we all know that Nelson Mandela became the President in 1994.

Millionaires now exist in Soweto but much is still desperately poor and deprived. There have been many initiatives taken and schemes to improve life there. We seen first hand good evidence of "community" and despite the basics of sanitation and water still lacking in Kliptown for instance - much has improved - and large parts of Soweto comprises of decent even attractive rows of little houses.

Soweto might represent "real" SA today. However we only scratched the surface and tourist access is limited. Initial impressions - black and white SA still does not mix well (or at all). The white community live elsewhere will big fences, big dogs and alarm systems and signs saying intruders will be met by armed response.