We were a bit scared being in Joburg but we didn’t experience firsthand any of the crime and violence the locals had warned us against. However, a mall we went to was violently robbed the day after we went there. So, needless to say, when the opportunity came to spend 5 nights in Kruger came up, we took it immediately. So, all we really saw/experienced of Jozi was from the township tour we did where we drove through Soweto. Soweto is the largest township in Joburg and for all the negative publicity the township generates, we thought the area wasn’t so bad a place to live in. During the tour, we also passed by Nelson Mandela’s and Desmond Tutu’s former homes. In addition, we stopped at the Henry Pieterson museum which focused on the events leading up to the deadly riots that were caused during the government’s push for Afrikaans to be taught in school. English had always been the main language in South Africa, but in a drive to segregate whites and blacks even further, the government pushed legislation that all schoolwork in public schools be taught in Afrikaans, a secondary language that few were versed in. The end result would be the failing of many blacks and coloureds thereby depriving them even more of their education. In the end, a quiet protest turned deadly when white policemen, overwhelmed by the numbers, started shooting at the kids who had participated. Henry Pieterson, 12, was one of those who was murdered that day and his death, captured by photo, came to symbolize the injustice that blacks suffered under the policy of apartheid.
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