| The Jewish Web of South Africa > Weekends > Soweto |
 Soweto is a former township from the times of Apartheid. Starting about 15 km away from the centre of Johannesburg, it comprises some 63 sq. km, where an estimated two million people live. Johannesburg’s twin city populated exclusively by black people is Soweto (an acronym for South-Western Townships). It is the largest black township in the country consisting of 26 townships, each of which was designed to be independent. The township of Soweto as a whole could be called multiracial, in the sense that its residents are from all the tribes in South Africa. Thanks to its proximity to Johannesburg, the economic hub of the country, it is also the most metropolitan township in the country - setting trends in politics, fashion, music, dance and language. |
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Originally there were only temporary living quarters for the mine workers, before Soweto was declared a ghetto for the black population of Johannesburg by the infamous "Urban Areas Act" in 1923. Although the government had a housing program to build hundreds of thousands of plain two-room houses here, the illegal squatter camps kept on growing and spreading. |
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| Still Soweto is by no means only an accumulation of tin shacks. There are also better suburbs and a number of more or less functioning social institutions like schools and hospitals. The main impression though is that of great crowding and poverty. Violence and crime are a result, which the police can hardly handle. |
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The type of housing ranges from shacks to large mansions and there is one street where you can find the houses of two Nobel Peace Prize winners; Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Also located in Soweto is the Baragwanath Hospital, thought to be the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere but despite this, almost 85% of the local residents still consult traditional healers who concoct medicines in their age old tradition. |
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It was in Soweto that much of the struggle against apartheid was fought. On 16 June 1976 the riots, which spread through the country, started here with black children protesting against Afrikaans being used as a joint instruction medium with English in African schools. As the demonstration increased in size, the police threw a teargas canister into the crowd. This led to a wave of panic, stone-throwing and shooting into the crowd. |
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Recommended sites to visit in Soweto:
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