Johannesburg and Soweto Tour in South Africa

Exciting combination tours of Johannesburg and Soweto tours

Johannesburg tours itinerary

The suburban drive will include affluent suburbs contrasting with the “bronx” like Hillbrow, followed by an orientation tour of downtown Johannesburg. Stop at a traditional healers “muti” shop in downtown Johannesburg. We shall drive through affluent suburbs. Compare the different houses: matchbox houses, elephant houses and informal settlements. On route to our first stop, view structures reminiscent of South Africa’s Apartheid past. Stop at the old mine compounds. Join your guide for a short guided tour of the Baragwanath taxi ranks and markets. Experience general urban life and culture in a black township. Some of the things you may see include: colourful markets, ladies carrying goods on their head, the local barber shop, “spaza” or informal shops, ladies doing their washing, donkey carts carrying coal, local home made beer brewing, traditional restaurants, traditional medicine and traditional healers, taxi commuters using local sign language to communicate with the driver, etc. You will get a chance to meet the people of Soweto. Your guide will stop at Motswaledi or Kliptown informal settlements. We shall then take a drive to the suburb of Orlando. You will be able to view famous black activists’ houses during the apartheid years. See the houses of Winnie Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Then on to our famous previous president, we shall go on a guided tour of the house where Mr Nelson Mandela lived before he was imprisoned in 1964. Your guide will point out sites of the student uprisings that started in 1976.

Our last stop. A guided tour of the Hector Petersen Memorial Square and Museum. The Hector Pieterson memorial and museum has been established to preserve the history and memory of all those who were involved in the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976. The museum is named after 13 year old Hector Pieterson, who was among the first student victims to die from police shootings. The memorial to Hector Pieterson is situated a few hundred meters from where he was shot. The museum houses photographic and audio-visual displays of the struggle of the youth against the injustices of apartheid.

Popular attractions in Johannesburg & Soweto
* Only visited when requested for private group or individual tours.
You will get a sobering reminder of our savage past when you visit Constitution Hill. Three prisons dating from the Boer era and a dramatic art collection can be viewed at the new Constitutional Court. The prisons include the Old Fort (built by ZAR President Paul Kruger ) and a prison where white prisoners were held. A notable exception is the fact that Nelson Mandela was held here in confinement when he was arrested in 1962.
Inmates of the female prison have included pass offenders and the notorious serial poisoner Daisy de Melker, whose ghost reputedly still stalks the cells. Political activists Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Ellen Kuzwayo and Helen Joseph were also held here.
At the notorious Number Four prison the Boer war freedom fighters, including General Christiaan de Wet, were held. Other inmates included Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Sobukwe. An average of 2 000 prisoners were held at the Number Four Prison. These prisoners had to share 12 toilets and eight showers. The tiny, gloomy isolation cells in all the prisons give a chilling reminder of what many had to endure. Some prisoners were confined to cramped, dark quarters for a year or more. Visitors to the prisons can enjoy the vivid quality of an interactive experience using an audio visual system that displays workshops with former political and criminal prisoners. Former convicts have recreated blanket and soap sculptures.

Ferreira mine stope
Johannesburg grew and flourished around its mines, but fear of subsidence hampered building development along the line of the mined-out workings. The Standard Bank had to find a means of overcoming the problem of undermining during the planning of its new administration building. The technique pioneered by the bank’s engineers and contractors involved caulking the top of the stopes to stabilise the ground. The No. 1 level (30 meters) of the old mine workings (which reached a depth of 1 000 metres) was filled with concrete and cement grout.

In view of its importance, the bank decided to preserve the stope and an area of about 70 square metres around it, as a museum. The museum depicts the Ferreira diggings of the 1880s and 1890s. The pick marks on the tunnel walls are clearly visible and the original look had, as far as possible, been retained.

Rand Club was started in 1887, only a year after Johannesburg was founded. It is situated in the heart of the financial district of Johannesburg, where the major banks, insurance companies and mining houses have their head offices. The historic club has an elegance to it and presents an atmosphere of old-world intimacy.

Drive over the Nelson Mandela bridge.

Museum Africa, Newtown, Market Theater and the Workers museum
Learn more about the “treason trial” (when Nelson Mandela and 155 other co-accused were charged for treason). Visit a typical “hostel” at the workers museum and learn about the migration labour system in South Africa.

City drive.
Drive past the De Beers building, previous Stock Exchange Building, Library, City Hall, General Post Office, Corner house, Standard Bank building, Angolo American HQ Building, Supreme court, Markham’s building, Cuthberts Building and the Gauteng Legislature.

Traditional African healers' herbal market
Visit the traditional “Kwa Mai Mai” market or the Muti shop (medicine shop) in Diagonal street. Learn more about this ancient tradition in African medicine.

Top of Africa
View the surroundings of Johannesburg from the tallest building in Africa. The view is spectacular.

Hillbrow
Experience African life and suburban culture in this Bronx like suburb of Jo’burg.

Parktown and Westcliff
Visit the "old money" part of Johannesburg’s suburbs. You will see garden suburbs and historically significant mansions. These suburbs re-create the park-like settings of stately English homes. It was here that the mining magnates, the Randlords, established themselves at the turn of the century. This is where the economic direction of the country was first determined.

Art Gallery
Visit the Johannesburg Art Gallery with its extensive collections of Southern African and international art. Impressive examples of painting, sculpture, prints and lace, as well as challenging temporary exhibitions, make a visit to the Gallery a rewarding experience.

Traditional healer shops and markets
We shall visit a traditional healers shop or a traditional healers market.

The Oppenheimer Tower
The Oppenheimer Tower is a popular tourist site since one can see most of Soweto from this vantage point. It is located just outside the Morris Isaacson school where the 1976 student uprising started.

Kliptown
Established in 1904, Kliptown is the oldest and one of the first urban settlements in the Johannesburg area to accommodate people of all races. The historic Congress of the People was held in Kliptown on June 26th, 1955. It was during this congress that the Freedom Charter was adopted.
At the time, thousands of people gathered at the square in Kliptown to formulate an alternative vision to the repressive policies of the apartheid state. The police broke up the gathering on the second day, but not before the charter was adopted as a guiding document that was to remain the cornerstone of African National Congress policy for the next half century.
Today Kliptown is a sprawling colourful collection of settlements with a thriving informal business sector. The informal business ranges from fresh market stalls exploding with different hues of green, iridescent orange and bright red; to street vendors vibrantly selling their wares; to shops of every kind.

Freedom Square
Freedom Square is the site where the Congress of the People was held and attended by more than 2884 delegates and 7000 spectators on 26 June in 1955. Prior to this, hundreds of volunteers had approached groups throughout South Africa to formulate their demands for a free and democratic South Africa. Their demands were incorporated into the Freedom Charter, which was adopted at the congress and became the underlying principles of the African National Congress.

Avalon Cemetery
The resting place of political activists including Helen Joseph, Joe Slovo, Lilian Ngoyi and others.

Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital
The biggest hospital in the southern hemisphere. It used to be a military hospital and became a community hospital with some of the most advanced medical facilities in the world.

Vista University
Offers tuition for students from Soweto and from neighbouring areas.

Regina Mundi
A Catholic church that was used mainly for political meetings and gatherings during the apartheid era. The church used to be a safe haven for children escaping police brutality. Funeral services of many political victims were held here, hence its historical importance.

Hostels in the old mining compounds
African men used to enter into short-term contracts to work at the mines, leaving their families in rural areas, to live in single-sex barracks on the mining property. Learn more about this system of migration labour and how this lead to the breaking up of many African families.

Markets and taxi ranks
Take a walk with your guide to the local taxi-rank and market. If you are brave you may taste some of the local brew or join us for a traditional quarter or bunny chow!

Informal settlement at Motswaledi
Visit a home or an informal settlement: This will be an opportunity for you to meet the people of Soweto. This visit is regarded by many tourists as the highlight of their visit.

Nelson Mandela's house: a guided tour of his previous home.
The famous house in Vilikazi street in Soweto was built in 1945. Nelson Mandela lived there from 1946. The Mandela house museum houses a collection of gifts to Mandela from leaders such as Muammar Qaddafi of Libya, Mandela’s prison shoes and his graduation robe.

Hector Petersen Memorial and museum
The Hector Pieterson memorial and museum has been established to preserve the history and memory of all those who were involved in the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976. The museum is named after 13 year old Hector Pieterson, who was among the first student victims to die from police shootings. The memorial to Hector Pieterson is situated a few hundred meters from where he was shot. The museum houses photographic and audio-visual displays of the struggle of the youth against the injustices of apartheid.
The Hector Petersen Memorial, close to the Mandela home was dedicated by US President Bill Clinton on his visit to Soweto in March 1998. The memorial is flanked by a museum, a library, an art gallery, a photographic and video exhibition and a theatre. Join us for a guided tour of the Museum. Learn more about the ’76 uprisings in Soweto, the struggle against apartheid, the black consciousness movement and the daily and ordinary lives of the people in Soweto.

Sites of the 1976 uprisings
Drive past the Phefeni (Orlando West) Junior Secondary School where the uprisings started where the young Hector Petersen was shot and killed by the police on 16 June 1976.

Winnie Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu's home in Orlando West

Shebeen (An African restaurant)
Visit a shebeen (“unlicenced pub”). Most tourists retire to a shebeen for some refreshment and gossip. Shebeens were born during the period when the apartheid government denied African people the right to consume liquor unless they could prove that they had passed 10 years of schooling. They might then apply for a permit for no more than six bottles of beer and a bottle of spirits a month. This action saw shebeens formed by professional bootleggers. In 1988, shebeens were licensed and are now run as taverns and nightclubs.

Tour Duration

(6-7 Hours)
Depart: 8:00am - 9.00am
Return: 3:30pm - 4.00pm

Book this tour

Price includes ALL entrance fees. Prices are subject to change without notice. Please confirm via email or cellphone for a formal quotation. We provide transport to other locations as well, eg. Limpopo, Namibia, Botswana, Maputo and other destinations in SA. Call/Email for Quotations. ALL QUANTUMS ARE FITTED WITH LATEST NAVIGATION AND TRACKING TECHNOLOGY AS WELL AS STATE OF THE ART ENTERTAINMENT