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Johannesburg is the
third largest city in Africa, after Cairo and Alexandria. At the end of the
19th century it was a gauche and untidy mining camp, but was
proclaimed a city in 1928. By 1960 it had more than one million inhabitants.
Today it is the centre of the most densely concentrated population in
southern Africa, all of whom live along the Witwatersrand in various
municipalities. These are stretched along an area almost 100 kilometres long
with very little vacant ground separating them. Johannesburg is also a city
of glaring disparities; here, more sharply than in other cities in the
world, inconceivable wealth contrasts with extreme poverty.
Known in Zulu as
eGoli (the golden), it is the capital of the province of Gauteng; it was
so-named in 1994 when the former province of the Transvaal was split into
four provinces. Apart from its new administrative position, Johannesburg
has, since its founding, been the principal financial, mining and industrial
centre of southern Africa. Although many gold mines in and around the city
have been closed down, Johannesburg remains the financial and industrial
metropolis of South Africa. Most of the country’s leading industries have
their headquarters here and 70% of South Africa’s industrial production
comes from the Witwatersrand area. |
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Soweto
Soweto (an
abbreviation for “south-western townships”) lies 20 kilometres southwest of
Johannesburg. Here, within an area of around 100 square kilometres, live
between 1.5 and 4 million people (census ever-changing because of the
population’s extreme mobility), making Soweto by far the largest of the
towns around Johannesburg designed to house the black population. Like all
South African black suburbs, Soweto combines townships, hostels and squatter
camps.
The inhabitants of
Soweto are by no means a homogeneous group; ethnically the town is very
mixed. The largest group, being the Zulus, constitutes about 33% of the
total population. There are a few wealthy people in Soweto and only small
numbers in the middle-income bracket, with the great majority of the
population living in slum conditions. Only a few of the inhabitants have a
regular income, and estimates of the unemployed range between 50% and 80% of
the working age population.
Soweto played a
crucial role in the struggle against apartheid. Soweto was in a virtual
state of war from 1976, when the first protesting school students were
killed, until the 1994 elections. During that time many thousands died.
Today, visitors who want to see Soweto can do so safely by taking a guided
tour. It may seem grotesque treating these places as just another tourist
attraction, but to get any kind of appreciation for South African reality,
one has to visit them.
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Pretoria
Pretoria, situated
in the fertile valley of the Apies River, at the foot of the Magaliesberg
range, is the administrative capital of South Africa and the seat of the
government for six months of the year. The Ndebele originally occupied the
area around Pretoria. The first Voortrekkers arrived in the area, then
sparsely populated, in 1827. Boer general M. W. Pretorius founded Pretoria
in 1855 and named it after his father Andries Pretorius, whose victory in
the battle of Blood River had made possible the establishment of an
independent white settlement in the Transvaal.
Lesedi Cultural Village
Nestling in the
Bushveld at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountains, one hour’s drive north
of Johannesburg, Lesedi is a multi cultural village, where families from the
Zulu Nation, the Xhosa, the Pedi, and the mountain dwelling Basotho, live in
their traditional homesteads. Visits to Lesedi are either half-day, day
visits or overnight experience (16 rooms). The Monati (lunch) and Boma
(dinner) cultural experiences are two and a half-hour programs. A
traditional welcome by the Lesedi inhabitants starts the experience. It is
followed by an audio-visual presentation depicting the lifestyles of the
ethnic groups. Visitors are then guided through the four “Umuzis”
(homesteads) followed by an exciting tribal dance display, before
participating in the “Pan African Feast” incorporating ethnic dishes from
south, east and North Africa.
Gold
Reef City
A leisurely way of observing the gold mining industry at
close hand is a visit to Gold Reef City, just 6 Km from Johannesburg. Here,
visitors are taken down a mineshaft and can watch the complete mining
process from the extraction of the ore to the pouring of the molten gold
into ingot-moulds. Above ground, the pioneer days of the “gold rush” have
been recreated in the form of a Victorian funfair, an old brewery and pub,
and an old-fashioned apothecary. This is a re-creation of old-time
Johannesburg. Visitors can also see displays of tribal and gumboot dancing.
Cradle of
Human Kind
This excursion takes
you back to pre-historical times in the Sterkfontein Valley where hominid
fossils dating back to 3.5 millions years have been discovered. The
Sterkfontein Valley environs; proclaimed as South Africa’s first World
heritage Site, includes internationally important fossil sites such as
Swartkrans, Ploverslake, Drimolen and Gladysvale, each generating a wealth
of fossils crucial to current palaeo-anthropological research. Situated in
beautiful and unspoilt wilderness, at a mere 45 minutes drive from
Johannesburg, the sites visited are some of the richest fossil sites in
Africa. Sterkfontein is the most famous site in the region. This is where
the first adult apeman was discovered in 1936 by Dr Robert Broom. The visit
is lead by qualified guides, in a refreshing and understandable way,
focusing on the fascinating complexities of human evolution. Transfers to
the site are either done by road or by air in helicopters. Picnic lunch in
the bush or exclusive lunch at the Cradle Restaurant, special tailor-made
tours for specific interest groups are available on request.
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