Wednesday, Sep 17th, Pretoria, South Africa

Greetings!

Today, we left after breakfast at the hotel (great buffet with excellent scrambled eggs, orange juice, and sausage) for a day in Sowetto and downtown Johannesburg.  About an hour's drive from our hotel, we found a street with the homes of two Nobel prize winners - Nelson Mandela and Desmund Tutu.  Our guide (Reuben) led us through the main street that contained the locations where two crucial leaders of the South African political environment lived.

Clearly hosting many tour groups, Sowetto's Vilakazi Street answers the question of what is the current condition of its two million residents.  Reuben's assessment of the upgraded squalor and visitation area gave us a chance to see apartheid's evolution after thirty years.  

Stopping by the home that Nelson and Winnie lived in just after his release in 1990, an excellent young speaker walked us through a complete collection of their photos and documents displayed throughout every foot of the residence.  The story of the journey of father of South Africa and his family lives on in the town's highlight museum.

Two blocks away is the memoralizing plaza of Hector Pieterson honoring the 1976 Sowetto Uprising and Massacre where as many as 600 pupils were killed in the student protest of the introduction of the Afrikaans as the medium of instruction.

Finally, we drove to Kgosi Mampuru Prison to see what is referred to as Pretoria Prison, a number of separate prison buildings, each housing various divisions of prisoners based on racial classification and gender.  This was a national prison and reception centre where many prisoners staarted and ended their sentences.  It was the official site of capital punishment in South Africa.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Wednesday, Sep 17th, Pretoria, South Africa