Johannesburg, Soweto & Origins Center Museum Tour

The mining camp which grew into Africa's dynamic and vibrant City of Gold combined with a visit to the highly recommended Origins Museum in Johannesburg. The museum has an outstanding collection of rock paintings, engravings and artifiacts, but more importantly, the history of South Africa is told, through the art of the San people.

Johannesburg, Soweto & Origins Center Museum Tour itinerary

Our tourguide may do the Soweto & Johannesburg tour or Origins Centre Museum first. You will have an opportunity to have lunch before your afternoon tour starts.

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.

We shall then proceed to the impressive Origins Centre Museum.

Join your guide for a two and a half hour guided tour of this fascinating museum.

A visit to the newly opened Origins Centre is an absolute must for every tourist visiting South Africa . Not only does the museum have an outstanding, and fascinating, collection of rock paintings, engravings and artifiacts, but more importantly, the history of South Africa is told, through the art of the San people.

If we want to understand the culture, the spiritual beliefs, and the very essence of the Zulu and Xhosa people as they are today, and even the reasons for the development of Soweto and other townships - we need to take a step back a few hundred years, and follow the path that the rock art stories can tell us.

Tour Duration

(8 Hours)
Depart: 8:00am - 9.00am
Return: 5:00pm - 5.30pmm

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