South Africa - Johannesburg

One of the couples, Trevor & Debs, I met on the US trip invited me to visit them in South Africa and attend the IRB Rugby Sevens.  It was in the top three of my Bucket List and too good to pass up, so....................

We arrived to fine weather, sunny and warm.  Jean's foot had survived two airports and the flight without major bother, despite the injury to her caused by me some weeks ago - my Harley tipped over in a muddy field while parking for the Ride To The Wall ride-out at the beginning of October.  Cast removed just two days before we travelled meant she was with crutches, not a good start!

We went straight to the hotel and got ourselves sorted before heading for Nelson Mandela Square, close by.  There we found a very tall statue of this great statesman in the middle of an alfresco dining area with shopping mall behind.  We were staying in a suburb north of the old city centre, more later.

We got a whole day tour to Soweto and Johannesburg, which started with Liliesleaf Farm, a place of great historical importance in the struggle against apartheid.  Our guide for the day introduced himself in the first person as Mandela and mostly talked about 'him' and his life, which was unusual, but made the day interesting.  There we found a very well laid out museum on the site of the farm that was used as a clandestine meeting place for activists, including Nelson Mandela, using an alias, again more later.  It was raided by police, with lots of conspiracy theories about insiders informants, the CIA and MI6, leading to the arrest and the landmark Rivonia Trial in 1964 that led to Mandela being imprisoned for 27 years along with others.  A passport in a false name, plus many notes that he had asked to be destroyed but hadn't been, were found that were the evidence for his conviction.  We visited his room, and also climbed aboard a safari truck that had been used for arms smuggling, unknown to its tourist passengers!

"Nelson" wearing his number, 46664

 Mandela's room at Liliesleaf

The coal bunker where papers found imprisoned Mandela for 27 years

Safari truck with false compartment

From there, we headed for Soweto (South West Townships abbreviated), a township that was key in the uprising that led to the overthrow of apartheid, triggered by the march by school children, of their own volition, that ended in shootings and death, the first being Hector Pietersen at the tender age of 12, firing up emotions and resistance against the regime of the day.  We visited and lunched in the street that includes the house of both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and, a short distance away, Nelson Mandela.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu's (still current) house

Mandela's house, now a museum

It's a popular tourist destination and is near the Freedom Square where the thoughts of the native peoples were assimilated to formulate a Freedom Charter in a secret meeting, as long ago as 1955, and included Mandela as an observer.  It's a shanty town of forced resettlement that is more recently and slowly becoming more stable with better living conditions.

Lunch stop in Soweto, Vilakazi Street

Gum Boot Dancers entertain over lunch

Painted cooling towers with bungy jump in between!

From there, we went to the centre of Johannesburg to view the city from its highest tower and to learn how it has become such a lawless place, especially from the early 90s and the post-apartheid era.  Native peoples poured into the city that only exists because of gold being found in the area in the early 1900s, in search of fortune.  This led to many businesses shutting down and moving out, leading, in turn, to many vacated office and residential blocks that were occupied by poor squatters.  Only slowly, it is beginning to be reclaimed, but meantime businesses moved out to the northern suburb of Sandton, where we were staying.

Our guide told us of an occasion when, as a soldier, he and his colleagues entered a church at 2:30 am because they thought there was an illegal meeting take place, only to find a service in progress.  Humbled, they could only sit and watch.

Last in the day, we went to Constitution Hill, initially a fort, then an apartheid era prison with grim history, but now the site of a museum and also the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land, modelled on the open (under the tree) native justice system.  It was more than just a little captivating and we were both struck with the involvement of Ghandi there in the early 1900s fighting for the rights of Indians, and having a great effect on the, initially at least, peaceful resistance movements, including the ANC.

"It is said that no one knows a country until one has been inside its jails"!

We also took a trip to the Apartheid Museum, a moving place documenting the awful history and polices of the various regimes, starting in the early 1900s, that led on to the formal introduction of apartheid in 1948.  Entry, randomly, was segregated to give a feel for the past.  We both realised that these most turbulent years occurred in our lifetime!

On a lighter note, we were both amused by the name used for what we call wheelie bins - Piki Tup!