Johannesburg Soweto Cultural History Tour

Johannesburg, known as the “City of Gold,” was shaped by a gold rush and is now a major economic hub in Africa, offering diverse cultures, vibrant nightlife, and unique wildlife experiences.
Rich History and Cultural Significance
Nestled within the heart of Johannesburg, South Africa, Soweto stands as a testament to the indomitable spirit of its people and their unwavering resistance against apartheid. What was once a township marked by adversity has now transformed into a captivating destination that draws tourists from around the world. The allure of Soweto lies not only in its rich historical significance but also in its vibrant culture, authentic experiences, and profound community engagement.

Vilakazi Street: Nelson Mandela’s Legacy

Vilakazi Street stands as a testament to Soweto’s significance in world history, being the only street to have housed two Nobel Prize laureates. The humble abode of Nelson Mandela

What to expect:

Duration: between 1 hour and 5 hours

FNB Stadium

Gate B, Soccer City Avenue,, , Johannesburg, 2147

The unique design of FNB Stadium is highly regarded internationally, and is often fondly referred to as the “Calabash” or “African Pot” after being reconstructed to the tune of R3.3 billion in time for the first ever African World Cup in 2010.
Previously known as Soccer City, the stadia has been the centre of historic events, starting with the first speech from former President Nelson Mandela in 1990, a few days after being released from prison where he served 27 years.

The venue has hosted the biggest sports and music events this country has ever seen, including the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup ™. The continental Africa Cup of Nations final in 2013 was also played at the stadium

87 436-seater is the largest venue in South Africa and the country’s proud global colossal

International rugby test clashes and the biggest global music superstars, including U2, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have also featured here to record attendances.

FNB Stadium is, and has been, the go-to platform for other major events in the country, including the funeral of political activist Chris Hani in 1993 and the moving memorial service tribute to Mandela in 2013

20 minutes

Diepkloof Park

12257 Immink Street, Soweto, 1864

They are called “Rich Man’s Acre” by the residents because the stands here are bigger and intended as a more exclusive area...
others Call it DK

Diepkloof Extensions was built for middle to upper class

blacks (largely professionals employed by the state, but also privately employed professionals), which were offered 100% loans for the stand and the structure as part of the government housing scheme

20 minutes

Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital

26 Chris Hani Rd, Diepkloof 319-Iq, Johannesburg, 1864, South Africa

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is the 3rd largest hospital in the world, occupying around 173 acres (0.70 km2), with approximately 3'200 beds and about 6'760 staff members.
The facilities are housed in 429 buildings with a total surface area of 233'795 m2.

Approximately 70% of all admissions are emergencies, including approximately 160 victims of gunshot wounds per month.

Accident, emergency and ambulance represent the busiest services, counting over 350 daily patients. Every year, about 150'000 inpatient and 500'000 outpatient cases are registered.

The Department of Ophthalmology, the St John Eye Hospital, has 111 beds and counts about 50'000 patients per year.

Approximately 60'000 patients per year are treated in the Maternity Hospital.

The hospital is in the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. (Soweto was a separate municipality from 1983 to 2002, when it was amalgamated to the City of Johannesburg.)

It is one of the 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals, and is financed and run by the Gauteng Provincial Health Authorities.

It is a teaching hospital for the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, along with the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

This site's purpose is to make the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital easy to find and contact and to give the visitor the most important information about it (not managed by the government).

The Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital strives to:

Achieve the highest level of patient care based on sound scientific principles and administered with empathy and insight.

Train our work corps to be the best equipped and motivated to serve the sick and injured.

Maintain and defend truth, integrity and justice for all, at all times, to the benefit of patients, staff and the community.

CEO Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital: Dr Sandile Mfenyana

The History of the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

The story of Bara started soon after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand.

A young Cornish lad, John Albert Baragwanath, arrived on the gold fields to make his fortune. The surname "Baragwanath" was derived from the Welsh word "Bara", which means bread, and "gwanath" means wheat.

After trying a number of projects, John Albert started a refreshment post, one day's journey by ox wagon from Johannesburg, at the point where the road to Kimberly joined the road from Vereeniging. Here was good grazing and water. Soon he had a small hostel, "The Wayside Inn", established. However, to the transport drivers, and stagecoach passengers, it was "Baragwanath's Place"or just Baragwanath.

The Second World War brought many changes. As the five years of worldwide disruption and destruction unfolded, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth had to change rapidly from appeasement politics to war effort sacrifice. In South Africa the outbreak resulted in political upheaval, change of Government, and - Baragwanath Hospital.

In 1939 Britain, and the Empire, had large blacklogs in all services, including the provision of health care for military personnel.

By September 1940, with hostilities escalating, and with the need for hospital and convalescent facilities becoming urgent, the Secretary of State in London formally asked the South African Government if it would provide health care facilities for Imperial troops of Middle East Command. The British War Office suggested that 2 hospitals of 1'200 beds be built in South Africa, as well as a convalescent depot of 2'000 beds. After due consideration one of these hospitals was designated for Johannesburg. In November 1941 construction started on the ground bought from the Corner House mining group, at the 8th mile stone on the Potchefstroom road, - near the place where the old Wayside Inn had been situated.

The British Government ultimately paid 328'000 pounds for a hospital of 1'544 beds.

After experimenting with various names, it was finally agreed that this hospital would be "The Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath".

The situation internationally in 1941 and 1942 looked bleak for the Allies. There was thus real urgency to construct the hospital as quickly as possible. Within a remarkable 6 months the first patients could be admitted, in May 1942.

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Orlando Towers

, , Soweto

The two cooling towers are a prominent landmark in Soweto. They were built in 1951 to supplement the spray pond cooling system as this source of cooling was running at its capacity
Being supplied by sewage effluent from the Klipspruit Sewage Works, the spray ponds at Orlando were the first in South Africa to make use of this ready supply of coolant liquid.

Both towers are painted, one functioning as an advertising billboard and the other containing the largest mural painting in South Africa.The towers are also used for bungee and BASE jumping from a platform between the top of the two towers as well as a bungee swing into one of the towers.

The tower was since used for a Fast Forward on the seventh season of The Amazing Race. Their task was for teams (Ray & Deana in particular) to walk across a suspension bridge 9 metres (30 ft) above the ground between the power station's towers. In the movie Chappie the power station is the headquarter of the protagonists, the two iconic cooling towers and the main building are decorated with typical Die Antwoord artwork

History

Planning for the construction of Orlando started in 1935, as the electricity demand of Johannesburg was rising faster than what could be met with the existing City Generating Station located in downtown Johannesburg. The location for the station was selected due to its proximity to water supply for coolant and railway lines for the delivery of coal. Construction started in 1939 with Merz & McLellan as consulting engineers, but completion was delayed due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The last phase of construction was completed in 1955. Until 1990 two Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST steam engines (Nos. 7805 Elizabeth and 7398 George) were used to move incoming coal trains through a wagon tipper at the power plant,The station was decommissioned in 1998 after 56 years of service.In 2006 work was started to transform the site of the power station into an entertainment and business centre.

On 25 June 2014, the decommissioned power plant collapsed killing 1 and trapping 5 others in the rubble

20 minutes

Vilakazi Street

Vilakazi Street, Soweto, 1804

The homes of two Nobel Peace Prize laureates – South Africa’s first democratically elected president, the late Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – are found on Vilakazi Street. This is the only street in the world that can boast having had two Nobel Laureates as residents.
Vilakazi Street is the Soweto street of the greats, named after Dr Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, a distinguished writer and educator who wrote the first poetry book published in Zulu.

30 minutes

Mandela House

8115 Vilakazi Street, Orlando West, Soweto, 1804

In Orlando West, Soweto, on the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets, you’ll find the modest house that Nelson Mandela and his family called home from 1946 to the 1990s. Mandela lived in the house with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, and, after his divorce, with his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Mandela himself didn’t spend much time at the Vilakazi Street home: his growing role in the anti-apartheid struggle drove him underground before his arrest in 1962. Madikizela-Mandela continued to live in the house with their two daughters, Zenani and Zindzi, until she was banished to the Free State town of Brandfort in 1977.

Upon his release from prison in 1990, Mandela moved back to the house for a short 11 days before moving to larger and more secure premises in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton.

The Mandela family’s four-roomed Soweto home is now a museum and houses various memorabilia, artworks, awards and honorary doctorates conferred on Nelson Mandela and his family, as well as photographs of the family dating back to the 1950s. It's one of the major tourist attractions in South Africa due to its deep history and ties to Madiba's pre-presidential life

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included

Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial

8287 Khumalo St, , Soweto

On June 16, 1976, Soweto high school students took to the streets in a peaceful protest against the mandatory use of Afrikaans as a language of instruction in black secondary schools. The students planned to meet at Orlando Stadium before marching to the regional offices of the Department of Bantu Education, where they intended to raise their grievances with the authorities.
They carried placards that read, “Away with Afrikaans”, “Amandla awethu” (“Power to the people”) and “Free Azania” (“Free South Africa”), and sang the hymn Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa), now the basis for the national anthem of democratic South Africa.

45 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Constitution Hill Human Rights Precinct

11 Kotze Street, Johannesburg, 2001

Constitution Hill is a living museum that tells the story of South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site is a former prison and military fort that bears testament to South Africa’s turbulent past and, today is home to the country’s Constitutional Court, which endorses the rights of all citizens.

30 minutes • Admission Ticket Not Included

Braamfontein

Braamfontein

Braamfontein, located in Johannesburg, is a vibrant neighborhood that pulsates with creativity. Its streets are a canvas for artistic expression, adorned with impressive public art installations and colorful graffiti murals

20 minutes

Nelson Mandela Bridge

Bertha St., Johannesburg

Paris has its Eiffel Tower, New York its Statue of Liberty, and Sydney its Harbour Bridge. Johannesburg has the largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa. Who else to name it after but Nelson Mandela, the man who led South Africa across the apartheid divide
The 284-metre-long bridge crosses over 42 operational railway lines in linking Braamfontein and the north of Johannesburg to Newtown in the heart of the city's central business district

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Sci-Bono Discovery Centre

Helen Joseph Street, Corner of Miriam Makeba, Johannesburg, 2107

Sci-Bono is a world-class science centre that supports maths, science and technology education and offers innovative, dynamic learning experiences that contribute to building South Africa’s science, engineering and technology capacity.

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Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Built between 1927 and 1934, originally the largest of Johannesburg’s three steam-driven
power stations, Turbine Hall is an iconic building in the heart of Newtown’s art and culture
precinct

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Greater Johannesburg

“Mandela and Tambo” read the brass plate on the door of the attorneys’ shabby offices in downtown Johannesburg. It was late 1952, four years after the National Party victory, and the two young partners of South Africa’s first black-owned law firm were busy.

10 minutes

Standard Bank Ferreira Mine Stope

5 Simmonds Street, Building No 5, Johannesburg, 2001

In the basement of the Standard Bank headquarters in downtown Joburg, is Ferreira's mine stope, one of the very first gold prospecting sites in the city. The long forgotten mine entrance was discovered in the 1980s during the construction of the Standard Bank building and it has since been preserved as a small museum. The stope is named for Ignatius Phillip Ferreira, a farmer, soldier and later a gold prospector, who also has a city district

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