Soweto Cycle & Bus Tour

Soweto Cycle & Bus Tour comprises:

Soweto Tour: We are supportive of the local site guides who are volunteers at the various places of interest in Soweto and gratuities are always appreciated but not compulsory for the site guides, should you wish to give gratuities it is always useful to have small denominations of money with you.

Freedom Square (Kliptown)

The site of the signing of the historic Freedom Charter by anti-apartheid organizations in 1955, is to be the center of a massive upgrade project to revive the Kliptown area. The square will be renamed Walter Sisulu Square in honor of the 90-year-old former ANC leader.

Baragwanath Taxi Rank

Baragwanath taxi rank, the biggest and busiest bus and taxi rank in Soweto, is set to get a major facelift, thanks to a whopping R60-million government funding over a three-year period.

Hector Pieterson Museum

Hector Pieterson (1964 - 16 June 1976) became the iconic image of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, where school children protested over the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in township schools, when a news photograph by Sam Mzima of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow student, was published around the world. He was killed at the age of 12 when the police opened fire on protesting students. By the end of the fateful day 556 children were dead. For years, 16 June stood as a symbol of resistance to the brutality of the apartheid government. Today, it's known as National Youth Day - a day on which South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

Pitso or Petersen or Pieterson?

Since June 1976, Hector's surname has been spelt "Petersen". Now the family insists that the correct spelling is "Pieterson". That's not the full story. The Pieterson family was originally the Pitso family. The Family decided to adopt the Pieterson name to try to pass as "coloured", a minority grouping that had slightly better privileges, like marginally higher wages. Antoinette Sithole, Hector's sister, says that before she married she had always been "Pieterson", but that she and her siblings had always considered it a joke.

Regina Mundi Church

No trip to Soweto in Johannesburg is complete without a visit to Regina Mundi, the largest Catholic Church in the most populous black urban residential area in the country. Not only has the vast church always been a spiritual haven for thousands of Sowetans, it has also played a pivotal role in the township's history of resistance against apartheid. As such it is a well-circled destination on the tourist map: every day the church opens its doors to streams of visitors keen to witness the scars it still bears from the Soweto uprisings, when police stormed through its doors, firing live ammunition at fleeing students.

But both before and after the dramas of the Soweto uprisings, Regina Mundi - whose name in Latin means Queen of the World - has quietly offered its protection to those struggling for liberation. When political meetings were banned, people sought the safety of Regina Mundi - if not Queen of the World, then surely Queen of Soweto - to form their political strategies.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

The story of Bara starts soon after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand.
A young Cornish lad, John Albert Baragwanath, arrived on the gold fields to make his fortune.  The surname "Baragwanath" was derived from the Welsh word "Bara", which means bread, and "gwanath" meaning wheat. After trying a number of projects, John Albert started a refreshment post, Soon he had a small hostel, "The Wayside Inn". However, to the transport drivers, and stagecoach passengers, it was "Baragwanath's Place" or just Baragwanath.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is the largest hospital in the world, occupying 173 acres (0.70 km2), with 3 200 beds and 6 760 staff members. The hospital is in the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is one of the 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals, and is financed and run by the Gauteng Provincial Health Authorities. It is a teaching hospital for the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, along with the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital and the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

Opened in 1941 by Prime Minister Smuts as the Royal Imperial Hospital, Baragwanath, the facility was known as Baragwanath Hospital from 1948. The name Chris Hani was added in 1997 to honour a slain African National Congress and South African Communist Party member. More than two thousand patients check in to the hospital daily and nearly half of them are HIV positive.

Mandela House Museum

Nelson Mandela's humble little house in Orlando West, Soweto, now called the
Mandela Family Museum ,is an interesting stopover for those keen to imbibe a slice of authentic history on the world's most famous former prisoner.

The Mandela House attracts thousands of visitors each year. It has been returned to its former humble, three-roomed lay-out, with concrete floors and the corrugated roof visible from inside. A wall of display cabinets are filled with documents and certificates. A kitchen dresser rests against one wall, a painting of Madiba on another, while a large photograph of Madikizela-Mandela ironing is visible as one steps through the front door. An old cast-iron coal stove sits against the wall of what was the kitchen. Video and audio recordings run continuously.

The site now boasts a visitors' centre, with ablution facilities and a small museum. The yard is enclosed in a brick walling on one side and round steel fence poles, making it possible to look in on it and its small garden. Paving and low face-brick walling demarcate the garden, which contains several trees of significance to the family.

"Preserving our country's heritage and teaching young people about our history are critical elements of nation building. With this restoration we aim to make a contribution to this effort," said Tina Eboka, a trust trustee and a corporate affairs executive at Standard Bank.

The members of the Mandela family provided the trust with invaluable insight and support in the restoration of the house and the displays inside the visitors' centre, she said. "We are also grateful to the family for its help in unpacking and understanding the uniqueness of the site and what life was like during those years."

The house is largely bare of furniture, giving it a deceptively spacious feel, despite its smallness. The trust's Marius van Blerck said all the original furniture had been stored, and the displays in the house would be changed and added to, over time.

About 100 people milled around the site while the dignitaries toured the house. Sixty-four-year-old Mlungisi Nhlapo came from Mofolo to attend the opening. Of the significance of the house, he said: "It brings those good-bad memories back. This is where we used to hibernate, it was a safe haven."

First National Bank Stadium (FNB Stadium or Soccer City)

Located in Johannesburg next to the South African Football Association headquarters (SAFA House) where both the FIFA offices and the Local Organizing Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is housed. A football-specific stadium, the FNB Stadium currently seats 78,000 people in plastic bucket seats. The stadium has the third largest capacity in Africa. Most of the largest football events in South Africa are played at this stadium.

2010 World Cup

The stadium will hold the opening match, four more first-round matches, one second-round match, one quarter-final, and the final. The Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg is undergoing a major upgrade for the 2010 tournament, with a new design inspired by traditional African pottery. The upper tier will be extended around the stadium to increase the capacity to 94,700 with an extra 99 Executive suites, an encircling roof will be constructed, new changing room facilities will be developed and new floodlights will be installed. The number of suites in this stadium is being increased to 195. The R1.5 billion tender to upgrade the stadium was won by Grinaker-LTA. Soccer City is scheduled for completion in 2009.

Mzimhlope Hostel:

Hostels were created during the Apartheid era to accommodate single sex migrant workers. We expose you to the difficult conditions of how mine workers were separated from their families and the society and under what circumstances they were living. These circumstances resulted in the”Black-on-Black” violence that spread in the townships in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Today families are living together in peace, although still under poor conditions. Our local site guide will invite you to some of the homes, take you to a local shebeen to taste the home made traditional beer and meet the local people.

Meadowlands:

This vibrant area is known for its influence of jazz and kwaito-music. Meadowlands is the home of the former residents of the vibrant and culturally mixed Sophiatown. Sophitown was demolished in 1956 and Africans were forced removed to Meadowlands. People were divided according to racial lines that resulted into geographical zones.

Collection Points (between 8:30 and 09:15am):

• The Palazzo Hotel - Montecasino

• The Michelangelo Hotel - Sandton

• The Hyatt Regency Hotel - JHB

If you require collection from a different location please contact us regarding times and prices. Please note there is no extra cost to be collected from any hotel in the Sandton area.