Not a great start to the day. Messages from home confirm that my brother passed away overnight then to top it of my sister in law, other brothers wife, who has been unwell for some time passed away a few hours later. We console each other, shed a few tears and phone home to talk with loved ones.
We have arranged a guided tour for today firstly to Jo'burg city centre then to the Nelson Mandela Museum and Soweto.
After being picked up by Charles our black African driver and guide we travelled towards the old city centre of Johannesburg, the most dangerous city in the world. So rife with crime in fact that most of the buildings are empty. The government offices as well as most other company offices have moved to safer locations. We stop at the Carlton Centre, a 50 floor tower referred to as the roof of Africa as it is the tallest building on the African continent. The lower level has a shopping mall with various shopping outlets. We take the elevator up to the top to view the city. The haze limited the view but we could see that many of the surrounding buildings have been taken over by squatters, clothes lines on the roof being the main give away. We saw the rail corridor which was the official boundary between black and white Johannesburg.
The next stop was the Mandela museum which tells the story of Nelson Mandela, the Apartheid laws and the battle to end the era. This is a very large museum, too complex to describe in detail. Suffice to say, unimaginable hardship, anger, sorrow and sacrifice. The pillars of the African constitution are spelled out on concrete pillars at the entrance to the museum. Democracy, equality, reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom.
Next onto Soweto a home to 5 million black Africans and the centre of the battle against Apartheid. A tour of a shanty town was not high on our agenda but we did it and found the people very friendly and our guide very knowledgeable. The people were, despite the dusty environment, dressed in spotless clothing and were all well presented. We were invited into one dwelling and found it clean and tidy, it had a double bed, kerosene stove, candles for lighting and a small table with a few canisters of food.
Then we drove up Vilakazi Street, past the home of Desmond Tutu which is still occupied by his family, then onto Nelson Mandela's home at number 8115. That is 2 Nobel Prize winners from one street in Soweto only a few hundred metres apart.
The next highlight or more correctly lowlight was a visit to a memorial for school children shot in a protest against the introduction of Afrikaans as the official educational language. This was an attempt by the apartheid regime to exclude black Africans from education as most did not speak the language. The official number killed is 176, some estimates are as high as 700.
This was a full day, so much sadness, history and hope for the future of South African Society and our guide Charles was very informative and knowledgeable.
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