ABOVE: Paul Kruger, affectionately called ‘Oom Paul’, presides over Church Square in Pretoria.
Surrounded by Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West Province, Gauteng may be South Africa’s smallest province, but it is the country’s economic powerhouse. It is broken by the ridges of the Witwatersrand, which form the watershed between the Indian Ocean in the east and the Atlantic in the west. Below its surface lie magnificent treasures, from the largest diamonds ever found to reefs of ore containing the world’s greatest gold deposits.
But Gauteng is not just about mineral wealth, as it is here, more than three million years ago, that pre-human Australopithecines or southern apemen roamed southern Africa. Now the search for the roots of human existence is focused on the cave system beneath the Sterkfontein Valley, which is part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg.
It is also in Gauteng that apartheid took form and the struggle against it was rooted. That is now in the past; today, Gauteng is characterised by a fantastic urban vibe, cultural routes and ecotourism opportunities.
Gauteng has a temperate climate, making it a year-round destination. It enjoys summer rainfall with frequent spectacular thunderstorms. It rarely receives snow, but winter frost is common.
Gauteng has very little open space with most of the land being covered by urban sprawl. Bankenveld vegetation, which is typical of Highveld grasslands, is well conserved in the Cradle of Humankind. Most of the province’s endemic plant species are conserved in the botanical gardens in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Kloofendal. There are 27 animal species in the province, many of them threatened.
The Apartheid Museum
The policy of apartheid led to growing resistance, which brought greater oppression and a reign of terror by the security establishment. The struggle for freedom is the focus of the Apartheid Museum at Gold Reef City, between Johannesburg and Soweto. Set in 7 ha of superbly landscaped grounds, it has 22 exhibition areas designed by a team of curators, filmmakers and historians. Film footage, text panels and artefacts are arranged in such a way as to recreate the experience of what it was like to live under apartheid. There are conference facilities, a shop and coffee shop while next door is a fun theme park and Gold Reef City, a recreation of early Johannesburg.
ABOVE: The world-class Apartheid Museum, just across the way from Gold Reef City.
Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication
By the advent of democracy in April 1994, much of Kliptown had become derelict. Due to the national significance of the signing of the Freedom Charter, an urban regeneration and business tourism project, known as The Greater Kliptown Regeneration Development, was initiated to transform the township and establish it as a major national and international heritage site. Its showpiece is the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, a site symbolising the right to freedom. As a place of the people, it incorporates informal traders, shops, art galleries and a luxury hotel. Holiday Inn Soweto Freedom Square, decorated with embroidery by local artists and photographs by Alf Kumalo, offers 46 rooms, 2 suites, boardrooms and a jazzy restaurant.
ABOVE: Walter Sisulu Square in the heart of Kliptown where the Freedom Charter was signed in 1955.
Sharpeville Human Rights Precinct
The Sharpeville Human Rights Precinct in the Vereeniging township of Sharpeville is a memorial to victims of the 21 March 1960 massacre in which 69 protesters were shot dead and at least 180 wounded when police opened fire on anti-pass protesters.
Liliesleaf Farm
Liliesleaf Farm was, for many years, a meeting place and hideout for top ANC and South African Communist Party members. It is widely regarded as the birthplace of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), and was the site of the infamous police raid that resulted in the Rivonia Trials and eventual incarceration of many senior ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela (who was not arrested in the raid), Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Raymond Mhlaba and Walter Sisulu.
Hector Peterson Museum
The Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976 is remembered at the Hector Peterson Museum, the premier heritage site in Soweto. Situated in Orlando West on Khumalo Street, a short distance from where the shootings took place, it is a double-storey red-brick building with a memorial to Hector Peterson in the same grounds. From here it is a short walk along a tree-lined avenue to the fine restaurants and Mandela House in Vilakazi Street.
ABOVE: Johannesburg is rich in Struggle history and there are a number of attractions that should not be missed, including the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto.
Constitution Hill
Constitution Hill, between Braamfontein and Hillbrow in Johannesburg, is a human rights precinct and world-class heritage tourist attraction incorporating cultural, historical, artistic, educational and recreational spaces that celebrate South Africa’s ability to negotiate a peaceful transition to democracy. It is also the home of the South African Constitutional Court, which was opened on 21 March 2004. The complex includes a coffee shop, bookshop, tourist office and exhibition spaces.
ABOVE: Constitution Hill, home of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
‘I come from the newly discovered goldfields at Kliprivier, especially from a farm owned by a certain Gert Oosthuizen,’ declared George Harrison on 24 July 1886 in an affidavit to the Pretoria Mines Department. ‘I have long experience as an Australian gold digger, and I think it is a payable goldfield.’
Within months of this discovery the landscape was strewn with wagons and tents organised in camps along streams and interconnected by a trail that would later become Commissioner Street. In its first few years, the place was more of an Eldorado – a temporary mining camp where you got rich quickly before the gold petered out, as it had done everywhere else. In 1889 it was found that the character of the ore at a depth of about 100 m changed and traditional forms of gold recovery were no longer effective. Thanks mainly to the effectiveness of the MacArthur Forrest process of cyanide extraction and advances in technology to permit deep-level mining, Johannesburg was able to bounce back. This required even more financing, and the pioneers of yore were quickly replaced by engineers and other professionals, giving the fledgling city a more settled character.
No city on earth grew faster, but not everyone benefited. With the fortune seekers came black people in search of work. Matters for them were complicated; the discovery of diamonds and gold in the last three decades of the 19th century wrought overwhelming changes. Prior to 1870 most black South Africans lived in independent chiefdoms, but as tribal lands were absorbed by British colonisers and Boer settlers, so black people lost their freedom and the ability to support themselves independently. The only way to prevent starvation was to provide cheap labour to white farmers and industrialists.
ABOVE: Gold Reef City, a theme park based on Johannesburg’s gold rush days, is one of the city’s most popular attractions.
ABOVE: Founded upon the discovery of gold, Johannesburg soon developed from a makeshift shantytown into a bustling metropolis.
Not all employers were able to house their workers on the premises; some moved into servants’ quarters in the backyards of their white employers while others found accommodation in the teeming, rat-infested inner-city slums. The most notorious of these was the multiracial Brickfields, adjacent to the busy brick manufacturing works along the Fordsburg Spruit, in the western quadrant of the city. An outbreak of bubonic plague in 1904 presented the Johannesburg City Council with the opportunity to clear this ‘den’ and move the 1 358 black residents 13 km from Johannesburg to Klipspruit, which would later become Pimville and eventually Soweto.
Brickfields was burnt to the ground and the district renamed Newtown. A produce and livestock market, a mill, an abattoir and a power station were erected in what soon became the trading hub of the city.
Soweto became a symbol of oppression during apartheid because of its history, size and struggles. By law, no black people were permitted to live in Johannesburg after the founding of Soweto, situated in the bowl of the municipal sewage works (cynically chosen because it was the one piece of land that would be of no interest to whites). Life for black people became more complex and more ferocious when the National Party came to power in 1948, driven by a political vision that marginalised black people as the providers of cheap manual labour.
This provided fertile ground for the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), which appealed to the hundreds of thousands of educated urban black youths. To counter white repression, it advocated a plan of action that included boycotts, passive resistance, strikes, civil disobedience and work stayaways. As the campaign escalated, so repressive measures intensified.
It was through this campaign of resistance that the leaders of the ANC Youth League changed the direction of the ANC to a mass-based movement intent on liberation. On 25 and 26 June 1955 thousands of delegates from the ANC, South African Indian Congress, Coloured People’s Organisation and the mainly white Congress of Democrats met on a dusty field in Kliptown, a multiracial, freehold area originally intended as a buffer between Soweto and Johannesburg. Its cosmopolitan aspect allowed a certain degree of freedom and mobility, even after the advent of apartheid, and it was for this reason that it was chosen as the site for the convention. Described by ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli as ‘a people’s parliament’, the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter, which is now the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights and the South African Constitution. The Freedom Charter declared that ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people’.
But Soweto is best known for the children’s revolt that changed the course of history. Soon after coming to power the National Party introduced Bantu Education, which was placed under Hendrik Verwoerd’s Ministry of Native Affairs. This schooling was appallingly sub-standard – designed only to provide the most basic numeracy and literacy skills necessary for the increasingly technical demands of modern industry. For black children the school system provided an opportunity for solidarity and the sharing of ideas for liberation, fanned by the authorities’ misguided attempts to make Afrikaans the compulsory teaching medium in black schools after Grade 3 – a decree that was to mobilise decisive resistance.
On the frosty morning of Wednesday, 16 June 1976, scholars assembled in school grounds to sing Nkosi Sikelel i’Afrika before beginning their march to Orlando Stadium, where a protest against Afrikaans was to be held. On the way, at a rocky knoll not far from Phefeni Junior Secondary School, schoolboy Hector Peterson joined several thousand scholars led by Hastings Ndlovu. Facing them was a police patrol consisting of 48 policemen, 4 police cars, 3 anti-riot vehicles and 2 vans carrying dogs. The standoff ended with the police opening fire on the scholars, killing Ndlovu and Peterson.
It took a dumbfounded moment for the enormity of the brutal police action to sink in – then all hell broke loose, unleashing the Soweto Uprising. It was the single most important moment in South African history as it mortally wounded the apartheid beast. The uprising inspired black people countrywide, motivated workers, boosted liberation movements, forever changed the perception of white South Africa and sowed panic in National Party ranks.
For over 150 years Pretoria was at the heart of South Africa’s torment. As the executive capital, between 1948 and 1994, it earned notoriety as the symbol of Grand Apartheid.
ABOVE: A 6-m-high statue of Nelson Mandela greets visitors to Sandton’s Nelson Mandela Square shopping centre.
ABOVE: Sidewalk hawkers offer their wares in Newtown Precinct.
ABOVE: The Market Theatre in Newtown is at the heart of Jozi’s cultural epicentre.
When the first white people arrived in 1829, the region where Pretoria now stands was occupied by Mzilikazi, a breakaway Zulu chief who founded the Matabele nation. Between then and 1854, Boers settled the area that was to become Irene. That year Commandant-General Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, the son of the Hero of Blood River, Andries Pretorius, purchased land at Elandspoort for a kerkplaas (‘church farm’) to serve the central Boer Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, or Transvaal Republic. Within a year a town had begun developing round the church square and it was christened Pretoria Philadelphia, later shortened to Pretoria.
Pretoria would have remained a small town had gold not been discovered 80 km to the south on the Witwatersrand in 1886, heralding the greatest gold rush ever. While the pious Boers in the capital looked on in horror as a veritable Gomorrah mushroomed on their doorstep, the wealth generated allowed them to transform Pretoria into the elegant city it is today.
But the new wealth brought with it turbulence and insecurity as imperial Britain cast its rapacious eye on the goldfields. Soon, the region was engulfed in the cataclysmic second Anglo-Boer War (also known as the South African War), the first phase culminating in Field Marshal Lord Roberts entering Pretoria at two o’clock in the afternoon of 5 June 1900. However, the fall of the city did not herald the end of the war, but the start of a guerrilla phase that would continue for another two years.
Pretoria would once again rise to prominence in 1910 when it was selected as the executive or administrative capital of the new union. In mark of this honour, the streets were planted with avenues of alien jacarandas, and Herbert Baker, the celebrated architect, was commissioned to find a suitable site and design and build a grand edifice.
He eventually settled on Meintjieskop, where he constructed the Union Buildings, a semicircular colonnaded acropolis that incorporates a natural amphitheatre.
ABOVE: Today the Union Buildings are regarded as an architectural triumph, but when built they were criticised as ‘ponderous and stony’.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRIUMPHS
On 24 November 1924, two boxes were mailed by the Northern Lime Company at Taung in the present North West Province to Professor Raymond Dart, head of the University of the Witwatersrand’s (WITS) Department of Anatomy. From the second box emerged ‘a face which would look out onto the world after an age-long sleep of nearly a million years’. It was that of a child with a full set of milk teeth and its first molars just erupting. Its unique mixture of ape and human characteristics convinced Dart that this creature had to be somewhere between humans and the rest of the anthropoid apes on the evolutionary family tree. He named the fossil Australopithecus africanus, meaning southern ape of Africa; the skull is more commonly known as the Taung Child.
One of the few scientists who supported Dart, Dr Robert Broom, made some enquiries about the limestone mines and caves in the vicinity of Pretoria and Johannesburg, which had been mined for decades. Within a week he found fragmentary fossil evidence of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein. But it was not until 18 April 1947 that he would find an almost perfect adult ape-man skull – a discovery nicknamed Mrs Ples that would rank alongside the Taung Child.
ABOVE: A progression of skulls illustrates human evolution.
Australopithecus was an immensely strong, dark-skinned creature with a skeleton shorter but remarkably similar to ours. It had an apelike face with jutting jaw, human-like teeth, heavy brow, flaring cheeks, and a brain a third the size of ours.
As the Australopithecus evolved so did the Sterkfontein Caves, which were slowly opening to the surface as the dolomite was dissolved by water. It is believed the caves first opened 3,5 million years ago, and rather than provide shelter they seem to have been death traps for creatures, including the Australopithecus dubbed Little Foot who fell into the Silberberg Grotto.
Over thousands of years Little Foot was buried under debris that fell or was washed into the grotto. Then came the find by Dr Ron Clarke of the WITS Palaeoanthropology Research Group. By chance, in 1994, he found foot bones among a box of sundry fossils at WITS. These were a revelation in that they represented the oldest hominid fossils found at Sterkfontein.
In June 1997, Clarke announced his discovery and stated his belief that the rest of the skeleton was encased in the breccia of Silberberg Grotto. At the end of that month he gave a cast of the foot to two fossil preparatories, Nkwane Molefe and Stephen Motsumi, and asked them to search the cave for the exact embedded match. What they found was a virtually complete skeleton of a 3,33-million-year-old Australopithecus hominid.
ABOVE: Little Foot, a relatively complete fossil hominid skeleton, is said to be 3,3 million years old, which makes it a candidate for the ancestor of humanity.
EXPERIENCE STERKFONTEIN
Sterkfontein Caves
A complex near the entrance to the Sterkfontein Caves includes a virtual reality auditorium, exhibition spaces, lecture theatre, restaurant and shop. From here tours are conducted through the iconic caves – revealing the unfolding journey of humankind in a mesmerising setting.
Maropeng Visitor Centre
The Maropeng Visitor Centre exhibition facility at Mohale’s Gate is a world-class flagship initiative within the Cradle of Humankind. Maropeng, a Setswana word meaning ‘return to the place of origin’, is 10 minutes from the Sterkfontein Caves. At its heart is a circular tumulus, a grassed-over, state-of-the-art visitor’s centre designed to resemble an ancient burial ground and symbolising the voyage of humankind from its beginnings into an uncertain future. One of its features is the Diversity Ramp, which leads to a human-made lake and a boat ride from the dawn of time to a look at what is to come. Amid the extraordinary exhibits are an education resource centre, conference facilities and a restaurant. In the grounds are a shopping area, amphitheatre, scientific activities and a luxury boutique hotel.
The magnificently appointed five-star Forum Homini boutique hotel offers dramatic views across the Cradle of Humankind. The decor incorporates images related to the cultural evolution of humans, including rock art, ancient totems and sculptures. For the ultimate culinary experience, book a table at the award-winning Roots restaurant.
In 2005, Maropeng won the British Guild of Travel Writers award for the best new tourism project worldwide. It has subsequently won the Sustainable Tourism Investment of the Year Award at the Africa Investor Tourism Awards.
ABOVE: A model of Homo heidelbergensis, an extinct Homo species as discovered in Germany, links the human race across continents.
ABOVE: South African and international casts of fossil discoveries are displayed.
Highlights of the Sterkfontein Valley
• Kromdraai, the second site discovered in the area, contains specimens of Paranthropus robustus, a hominid that existed one to two million years ago.
• Coopers Cave has yielded a molar tooth and the skull of a P. robustus.
• Godolin also has P. robustus remains and an astonishing array of a further 90 000 fossil specimens.
• At Swartkrans scientists have collected more than 200 hominid specimens, mostly P. robustus. It was the first site in Africa to produce remains of Homo ergaster, and burnt bones point to the earliest controlled use of fire at least one million years ago.
• Drimolen, discovered in 1992, has yielded 74 specimens of P. robustus, including a near complete female cranium with articulated mandible, and five of Homo ergaster.
• The visually spectacular Wonder Cave is renowned for its drip stone formations and enormous chamber.
• Bolt’s Farm has yielded the oldest deposits in the Sterkfontein Valley, with some fossil rodents dating back 4,5 million years.
• Gladysvale preserves some of the most extensive time sequences, with sediments dating from 250 000 to 3 million years ago.
• Significant fauna remains as well as animal deposits have been found at Plover’s Lake and Haasgat. The former may have been the site of a leopard lair, while deposits of early forest-dwelling monkeys dating back 1,3 million years have been found at the latter.
• Pienaar’s Cave has not yet been excavated, while diggings at Motsetse began in 2001.
Some love it, others hate it. The only thing on which everyone agrees is that the city has a spirited, swashbuckling character. Johannesburg is the wealthiest city in South Africa, and the hub of the country’s commercial, financial, industrial and mining activities.
For the arty, the biggest gallery on the subcontinent, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, is worth a visit. The gallery is housed in a three-storey building and is a national monument. There are 15 exhibition halls with temporary displays and permanent exhibitions. The notable South African collection boasts names such as Gerard Sekoto, Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae and Alexis Preller.
Zoo Lake, close to the Johannesburg Zoo, is a fun destination for families on weekends. The grounds are extensive and the popular Moyo restaurant is located here. Regular events are held at the lake, including cycling marathons, art-in the-park exhibitions and live jazz concerts.
The Johannesburg Botanic Garden, adjacent to Emmarentia Dam, is a great place for picnics and walks. Canoeists and kayakers enjoy the dam and families visit on weekends to feed the ducks and relax in the sunshine. The Johannesburg Botanic Garden is renowned for its roses and also stages regular musical concerts.
Lion Park, where over 80 lions, including the white lions of Timbavati can be viewed, is situated close to Lanseria Airport and is within easy reach of both Pretoria and Johannesburg. There are also other predators such as brown, spotted and striped hyaena, as well as wild dog and cheetah. Travellers can take a self-drive through the park or go on a guided game drive. Cub World is a real highlight for the children, giving them the opportunity to interact with lion cubs.
Once a dilapidated corner of the Johannesburg inner city, Newtown is today a bustling centre of creativity. In the 1980s the renowned Market Theatre, the first nonracial theatre in Johannesburg, opened in the east wing of what used to be the old market building. It was followed by the Dance Factory and MuseuMAfricA in the same complex. Other developments in the district include the South African Breweries World of Beer and the Workers’ Museum and Library, which features an exhibit of a compound in which black municipal workers were housed.
The rejuvenation of Newtown provided the spark for reviving the inner city. Part of the vision included building the Nelson Mandela Bridge, creating a cultural arc through Braamfontein to Constitution Hill on the border of Hillbrow. The idea was to make Newtown the hub of this link and began with making the area safe by installing closed-circuit cameras and cleaning up the public environment. Mary Fitzgerald Square, situated in the heart of the Cultural Quarter of the precinct, was upgraded. With lighting designed by renowned French designer, Patrick Rimoux, it has been transformed into a well-lit space where public performances, gatherings and concerts are often held. The square is now the key venue for large events, including the Joy of Jazz festival, Arts Alive, Africa Day, the New Year Carnival, Diwali Festival of Lights, concerts and corporate events. Around it are fantastic restaurants, music venues and crafts outlets.
Fifty years ago Sandton was farmland, but since then the area has grown into a significant business, shopping and entertainment district. Sandton City Shopping Centre was built more than 30 years ago and became known as the biggest mall in the Southern Hemisphere. Other developments followed and the mall grew, as did the commercial district around it. It is now home to the expanded Sandton City Mall, Nelson Mandela Square precinct, Village Walk, Sandton Convention Centre, the JSE and hundreds of blue-chip company offices and numerous world-class hotels – not to mention fantastic shopping, dining and entertainment venues.
Once a small, mixed commercial/residential node of Johannesburg, Rosebank is known for its entertainment, shopping and markets. The Rosebank Rooftop Market, held on Sundays, has been running for years and is still extremely popular with those who enjoy flea markets and bargain hunting, while the Rosebank African Craft Market is a favourite place for African artefacts. Rosebank Mall and the adjacent shopping precinct, The Zone, are known for designer stores, chichi restaurants and relaxed coffee-shop culture.
Soweto is a thriving, iconic part of the greater Johannesburg metropole, and countless tourist buses carry visitors to the many important heritage sites located here. A must-do is to visit the eateries on Vilakazi Street, the popular Wandie’s Restaurant, or those in the Maponya Mall. There is a four-star hotel at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication and numerous B & Bs offer comfortable accommodation.
Pretoria, in the Municipality of Tshwane, is an elegant city and home to most of the local contingent of international embassies. This has led to a profusion of fine restaurants and a cosmopolitan culture. One of the highlights of the city is the National Zoological Gardens, which is ranked in the world’s top five. The Union Buildings are impressive, as is the Voortrekker Monument.
Pretoria’s ambitious Freedom Park, which pays tribute to those who have fallen during South Africa’s turbulent history, is already showing signs that it will become one of the country’s premier heritage sites. The park features an interactive museum, open-air amphitheatre, conference centre, commercial precinct, and the Pan-African library and audio-visual library. Through interactive exhibitions, the museum serves to present and preserve South Africa’s pre-colonial, colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid history.
ABOVE: Freedom Park, situated on Salvokop in Pretoria, is dedicated to heroes of the Struggle as well as those who died in the Anglo–Boer wars, World War I and World War II.
Known for its lively student population, the suburb of Hatfield is something of a party zone in Pretoria. There are a number of pubs, bars, restaurants and live music venues frequented by revellers in search of a good time. Hatfield Plaza has more than 50 shops, stores and restaurants and keeps the commercial hub of the area turning.
Dinokeng, Setswana for ‘place of many waters’, covers 281 000 ha of bushveld and grassland terrain in the northeastern quadrant of Gauteng. This area was once home to a rich variety of wild animals, including the legendary Big Five. However, the mass influx of people to the region following the discovery of gold and diamonds depleted the wildlife, and this corner of Gauteng lagged economically behind other parts of the province. A study on the future of the area, conducted in the late 1990s, recommended that it be developed into a premier tourist destination, showcasing its natural, cultural and historical attractions. This involved establishing traditional African villages where tourists could get to know the cultures of the area (Pedi, Tsonga, Ndebele and Tswana); upgrading sites to highlight the great sweep of the region’s history, from the Stone Age to the present; improving visitor facilities and promoting activities and experiences, including adventures such as hiking and mountain biking and sangoma consultations; and creating a 90 000-ha game reserve, the Dinokeng Big 5 Game Reserve.
The historic Victorian diamond-mining village of Cullinan developed around the Premier Diamond Mine. The mine opened in 1902 and is still operational. The world’s largest rough diamond ever found, the 3 106-carat Cullinan, was recovered here and presented to King Edward VII of England. Two of its biggest polished pieces, known as Cullinan I and Cullinan II (or the Great and the Lesser Star of Africa), form part of the British Crown Jewels. The mine also produced the Golden Jubilee Diamond, which at 545,67 carats is the largest polished diamond in the world.
ABOVE: In Cullinan, be sure to visit the barnyard-cum-theatre at Jan Harmsgat se Agterplaas.
The Cradle of Humankind in the Sterkfontein Valley was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site on 2 December 1999. Ranked alongside such marvels as the Great Wall of China and the Victoria Falls, it comprises a unique band of palaeoanthropological sites across 47 000 ha in the northwestern corner of Gauteng and parts of the North West Province. It has yielded some of the most extensive fossil and artefact finds on earth, particularly for the period between four and one million years ago. The valley provides important information on the early development of humans and the environment in which prehumans and early humans lived. There are 13 explored sites within the World Heritage Site, and probably many more yet to be discovered.
ABOVE: The Sterkfontein Caves have revealed many secrets about the history of humanity.
