Soweto Day Tour

The standard tour is a full day tour with pickup around 09H15 and drop off around 15H30.

Private tours can also be booked where price will be dependant on number of guests. We have put together many specialised tours where clients have been interested in art, music, business, team building or sometimes just want a quick tour and some lunch and dinner.

Our guides have an intimate knowledge of Soweto and it's diversity and all it has to offer. If you have a particular interest, let us know and we will try and incorporate it into a tour for you.

Pick up by your SATSA accredited tour guide at your hotel, bed & breakfast, guest lodge or other venue between 9h00 to 9h30.

Enter Soweto via the up-market area called Diepkloof Ext where some of the houses can cost in the millions. Visit a large worker hostel near this area.

Into the Baragwanath area and stop at the huge taxi rank for a walk about. Soak up the sites, sounds and "smells" of Africa at close quarters - informal open-air butcher shop, herbalists, barbers and market etc. Meet ordinary locals at the local Shebeens (drinking places).

We pass Baragwanath Hospital , the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere. The tour continues with a drive through the various suburbs including the early suburbs of Orlando where many of the political giants lived and the Kliptown area where the freedom charter was signed, now being developed as the Walter Sisulu square of dedication.

Then a visit to the fascinating Hector Pieterson memorial and museum. The state of the art multi media centre depicts scenes leading up to the student uprising of June 16th 1976. This is a very informative and moving experience not to be missed.

Round the corner we go to visit the Nelson Mandela house museum and Vilakazi Street, which is the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace prize winners lived. We also view Winnie Mandela's house in the same area.

A highlight of a visit to Soweto is a delicious lunch at one of the well run restaurants patronised by both tourists and locals alike, offering typical "township" fare including dombolo (steamed bread), moroga (spinach), Umqhusho (Khosa samp and beans-Nelson Mandela's favourite dish), Mogodu (tripe-not for the faint hearted!) and a variety of meats, salads and vegetables.

We stop off at the nearby Mshenguville squatter camp and meet some of the locals who are happy to show you around their basic home structures. We view the Siyakhuliswa crèche which is a shipping container transformed into a functional "edutainer ", this initiative provides much needed pre-school education for the local community. During school hours we meet Lilian, the local teacher who will introduce you to the little children in her class who will perform some songs for the group.

Football Boot Appeal

Mshenguville has four local soccer teams ranging from Under 10's to adults. The teams are in desperate need of football boots and/or track shoes, and any assistance in this regard will be much appreciated by our future Bafana stars!

Then it's on to Regina Mundi Church - the focal point of much of the struggle in the 70's and 80's and home to the famous Black Madonna and child painting. We will visit more suburbs plus housing types and styles before reluctantly leaving Soweto with a feeling of hope for the future. All of our clients, both South Africans and from elsewhere, comment on how welcomed and safe they felt and how friendly the Sowetans are.

Clients are dropped of at their venue of choice at approximately 15h30.

Added Extra

For an additional R50.00 per person we can offer the following live music experience:

We visit the home of Duduzile who is a jazz singer from Soweto (dependent on at least 5 people being on the tour). Duduzile will entertain us to some well known compositions of typical jazz music while we take the opportunity to tell a story about the origins of Soweto in the era of discrimination and apartheid, reinforced by songs which complement the message.