Soweto Tour

Lying on the southern fringe of Johannesburg, Soweto (abbreviation of SOuth WEstern TOwnships) is a rambling urban settlement.

Our guide was very funny whilst being informative. We saw Mandela House where Nelson Mandela lived with his family for 16 years (from 1946-1962). We saw the largest sports ground in South Africa-the FNB Stadium-that hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

We drove past the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital constructed during WWII and which used to be the world’s biggest hospital till 1997. And sprawled out on the other side of the road (opposite the hospital) is Johannesburg’s largest taxi stand-the Bara Taxi Rank.

Our guide explained that maxi taxis were the most common form of transport. They are everywhere and people standing on the roadside signal with hand gestures where they want to go and if it is where the taxi is going they pick them up. You don't have to wait long for a taxi.

We stopped at the Orlando Towers which has the highest SCAD (Suspended Catch Air Device) freefall in the world (a bungee jump). It was a decommissioned thermal coal electricity generation plant. They left the twin cooling towers, which dominated the landscape.

Then it was off to the Hector Pietersen Memorial in Orlando West which served as the breeding grounds for the 1976 Soweto Uprising.

The last stop was to buy a local beer for those interested.Læs mere