“SOWETO - no more the ‘ghetto’ ...”

 

 

Soweto - estimated population - some 4 million people.

One time apartheid “ghetto” serving the labour requirements of Johannesburg & the goldfields - today, a vibrant urban fusion of indigenous African subcultures.

Washed by the tides of Western cultural influence - Soweto nevertheless maintains its own identity - and with it - an ingrained sense of community - witnessed in the celebration of life’s traditional rituals of birth, marriage and death.

In life as in death - Soweto is a city of contrasts and contradictions; here, the past sits comfortably alongside the future.

While Zionists worship and baptize on the banks of the Klipspruit River as they have done for decades - nearby, men and machines grapple with the transformation of Soweto from yesterday’s ghetto township to tomorrow’s model city.

After decades of deliberate neglect - reconstruction is an enormous task - bringing - for the first time - the basic infrastructure of tarred roads, traffic lights, storm water drainage, kerbing and footpaving, telephones and electricity - whilst upgrading existing inadequate sewerage and running water systems.

Inheriting an enormous backlog in service provision, the challenge facing the new local government - in the face of high unemployment in Soweto - has been to break the cycle in the culture of non-payment caused by a history of non-delivery of services by local authorities in the townships. With 33 informal settlements and some 120 000 backyard dwellings in Soweto - the provision of formal housing is a further challenge.

 

In the past - in township shops - black entrepreneurs were restricted to selling 24 items .

These were commodities such as matches, bread & milk - which were classified by the authorities as daily necessities. Today, with the changing Soweto, traditional family businesses such as “coal merchants” find their business under threat & are grappling with the need to diversify in order to survive. All over Soweto, there is evidence of energetic personal initiatives in the informal, micro and small-business sector.

Alongside an unemployment rate of some 40%. - there are an estimated twenty-three self-made millionaires living in Soweto.

 

For many, life in Soweto begins after dark - especially over the week-ends - when on the “shebeen route” the doors open on Friday afternoon & don’t close until Sunday evening.

As the drinks flow, local & international patrons soak up the Soweto atmosphere - with an estimated 1 000 international tourists visiting Soweto on an average day.

Ever vibrant, ever cosmopolitan - the face of Soweto - no more the ‘ghetto’ - is constantly changing - as immigrants from Africa move into informal settlement areas and members from South Africa’s traditional “white community” find refuge in the spirit and hospitality of the Sowetan community.

 

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