Johannesburg: Soweto, Apartheid Museum, Caves & Cradle tours｜South Africa

Explore the history of Soweto on a half or full-day pvt tour, with German, French & Dutch speaking guides. We tailor make private tours to suit your needs. Minimum of 2 people. Halfday tours from only R 1 980 per person, including all entrance fees. Full day includes also visiting two UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Sterkfontein Caves & The Cradle of Humankind. is from only R 3 860 per person. Best prices. Check out our reviews on our WhatsApp link.
We also have more than 10 exciting day tours in the Johannesburg area including
• Lilliesleaf Museum Tour.
Go to magictravelstours for details.

Soweto is a symbol of the New South Africa, caught between old squatter misery and new prosperity, squalor and an upbeat lifestyle. It’s a vibrant city which still openly bears the scars of the Apartheid past and yet shows what’s possible in the New South Africa”

The est. of Soweto is, like Jhb, linked directly to the discovery of Gold in 1886. Thousands of people from around the world and SA flocked to the new town to seek their fortunes or to offer their labour. Within 4 years Jhb was the 2 nd largest city in South Africa. More than half the population was black, most living in multi racial shanty towns near the gold mines. As the gold mining industry developed, so did the need for labour increase. Migrant labour was started and most of these workers lived in mine compounds. However, other workers had to find their own accommodation.

The first residents of what is now known as Soweto were located into the area called Klipspruit in 1905 following their relocation from “Coolietown” in the centre of Johannesburg as a result of an outbreak of bubonic plague. The Johannesburg City Council took the opportunity to establish racially segregated residential areas.
Some residents were to be relocated to Alexandra township (North of Johannesburg, near the present day Sandton). This group comprised black, Indian and coloured families and they received freehold title to their land (this was subsequently reversed by the Apartheid Government). Only black families were located into Klipspruit and the housing was on a rental basis. Klipspruit was subsequently renamed Pimville.

During the 1930s the demand for housing for the large numbers of black people who had moved into Johannesburg grew to such an extent that new housing was built in an area known as Orlando, named after the 1st administrator Edwin Orlando Leaky. In the 1940s a controversial character James Mpanza led the first land invasion and some 20000 squatters occupied land near Orlando. James Mpanza is known as the “Father of Soweto”.

In 1959 the residents of Sophiatown were forcibly removed to Soweto and occupied the area known as Meadowlands. Sir Earnest Oppenheimer, the first chairman of the Anglo American Corporation, was appalled by the housing shortage and was instrumental in arranging a loan for the construction of additional housing and this is commemorated by the Oppenheimer Tower in Jabulani, Soweto.