Johannesburg!

After a delicious breakfast at The Residence we’re being taken for a tour of Johannesburg today. Our driver is Lucky his mum named him that because she was lucky to get him. 😂He kept us entertained on a six hour tour taking us to 2 of Nelson Mandela homes. One very modest one from his early years before his arrest and the big house where he spent his last years.

A drive through the city which was full of street markets, it looked like you could buy anything there. I would have loved to have a walk around but I don’t think Lucky thought that was a good idea. Followed by a quick tour of a gold mine museum which funnily enough is in the basement of one of the biggest banks in South Africa.

South of Johannesburg is Soweto, a city developed as a township for black people under the apartheid system. Most of the struggle against apartheid was fought in and from Soweto. The name Soweto is an acronym, made up - in apartheid days - from the first letters of the words “south western township”. It’s where Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Hector Pieterson lived.

Johannesburg is quite a confronting place. There are lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of crime and lots of poverty. We felt the inner city was more threatening than Soweto. The people of Soweto seemed friendlier, ready to smile and laugh with you. I was really impressed with how many sculptures and murals there where everywhere in Soweto. Disappointed I couldn’t get more photos of them some of them were so detailed. It’s a bit of an uphill battle but it nice to know someone is trying to bring some colour and art into what is really a very crowded community.

It’s a little surreal coming back to The Residence after that. It’s a luxurious haven in this vast city.

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