Johannesburg

After Capetown I flew to "Joburg" for a couple days before the flight back to the US. Joburg is the financial center of South Africa. It's also a city pretty much over-run by crime. I was there for only a short time so I didn't explore much. There are "no-go" areas of town where it's foolish to even visit. Middle and upper class residents live in the suburbs in walled in compounds, I stayed in a nice suburb, Melville, where it's safe to walk around. Security guards are common. With my one free day I decided to visit Soweto, which is a township southwest of the city...it was also the center of the movement to resist apartheid with the student uprising of 1976 being one of the seminal moments in the resistance. Mandela grew up here, as did Desmond Tutu. Once out of prison Mandela tried to return to live in the humble house where he was raised, but stresses on his privacy became too much. Winnie Mandela, his first wife, grew up several blocks away. There are 3.5 million people in Soweto, roughly half of them still live in shanty style shacks without power or running water. There is also a growing middle class there too and many homes there are fairly typical suburban homes. The government provides one porta-potty for every household if needed, and there is a waiting list to move into the free government housing being built...but some people I talked to have been waiting for 13 years, and feel the only way to get to the top is via bribe. Soweto isn't the dangerous place that it once was but it still has it's problems. Like a lot of places the discrepancy between the rich and poor is a tough one to reconcile. Lingering racism and the obvious separation of "black, colored, and white" make the imperfections here hard to ignore. I've been told that unemployment is 45%. Soweto's current state and history are fascinating, I could go on....I will add that if you want to start a conversation here you simple ask whether someone supports the Pirates or the Chiefs, they are complete soccer fanatics here.

In the background of the picture of the kids is Winnie Mandela's house.