Soweto and Pretoria

This morning our guide Linda showed us around his hometown of Soweto. He was able to show us many different areas to give us an idea of how things are changing through the years. This first photo of Linda and one of our tour members has migrant worker barracks in the background. These were for males only who were "encouraged" to come in from the countryside to work in Johannesburg. Nowadays, the barracks are being subdivided into small homes and migrant workers are encouraged to bring their families.



This next photo is of the home Nelson Mandela purchased in Soweto in 1956. It's now run as a museum. You can definitely see that conditions in Soweto are improving with the new government. But the population growth is still keeping ahead of home building and some folks are forced to move onto public land and build their own homes out of the materials at hand.


Unemployment runs at about 40% in Soweto. But school attendance is compulsory for all children so hopefully the next generation will be better equipped for the jobs that are available.

We drove past the catholic church which provided sanctuary for many of the political meetings that were held during apartheid.

This is a memorial to the many students who lost their lives during the demonstations against having Afrikaans as the required 1st language for all students in June of 1976. The resultant violence against them and the international reaction to it helped focus world attention on apartheid.We visited a museum that had many photos and videos of life during apartheid and the June 1976 demonstrations.


We left Linda in Soweto and then headed toward Pretoria which is the capital for the executive branch of government. We'll later see the legislative capital in Capetown. The judicial capital is in a third city. The first big building I noticed was UNISA which our guide Peter told us is the largest correspondence university in the world.

Here is the executive building. It looks out over lovely gardens on a terraced hillside. A crowd had gathered at the bottom of the hill to hear a speaker.

Now we're back at the hotel. I found the right power adaptor for the computer so we're good to go. Now we're off to dinner and a meeting with our tour guide.

Having fun. Wish you all were here!