Soweto Township Full Day Tour
ABOUT SOWETO
Soweto origins go back to 1905 when, using an outbreak of disease in the part of town now known as Newtown as an excuse, the then Johannesburg City Council took the opportunity of moving the black residents of this area to a place 20km south west of Johannesburg. After the National Party took power in 1948, it instituted the Group Areas Act and forcibly moved black population groups out of inner Johannesburg areas, such as Sophiatown, to Soweto, a name derived in 1963 from the acronym South West Townships. Today the city of Soweto has more than 2 million inhabitants. Previously under-resourced, it still has large areas of dire poverty but it also now has shopping malls; parks and recreation facilities; many restaurants and B&BS; the newly opened Soweto theatre; and Vista University campus which is part of the University of Johannesburg.
Soweto Full Day Tour Details
DURATION: 8 hours
PICK-UP TIME: 9:00
AVAILABILITY: Daily – except on New Year’s Day, Good Friday & Christmas Day (some attractions may be closed on other public holidays)
MEALS: Not included
ENTRANCE FEES: Included for Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House Museum.
(PLEASE NOTE – not all attractions on this tour are open every day)
COST: R 1,290.00 per person (2 people minimum)
TOUR DESCRIPTION:
- Enjoy lunch at one of Soweto’s many tavern restaurants where you can enjoy traditional township fare such as peri-peri chicken and pap, morogo (spinach) or chisanyama and chakalaka.
- Stop to see the Catholic Church of Regina Mundi which played a crucial role during the repressive years of Apartheid when political meetings were banned and many sought refuge in the safety of this building. It is home to the famous Black Madonna.
- Visit the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication at Kliptown. Formerly known as Freedom Square it took its name from the site where, in 1955, the Congress of the People held a meeting attended by more than 3 000 people. Here the Freedom Charter, which formulated principles of a free and democratic society, was adopted. The Freedom Charter was to form the basis of the Constitution of the 1994 democratic South Africa. You will see the nearby monument of the 10 pillars of the Freedom Charter. In the late 1990s Kliptown was redeveloped in one of Johannesburg City’s many urban regeneration projects post 1994.
