Soweto

No cats on these hot tin roofs. (Rooves?)

Yes it does look like this - in parts. Soweto's name comes from the abbreviation of South West Township and originally it was mostly a disorganised slum-like township where migrant workers lived. Several miles out of the centre of Johannesburg, it's grown somewhat and now contains around a million and a half people, not all living in shanty towns like this. In fact we saw some quite upmarket homes and there are some very wealthy people living there. Our party of six in a minibus were taken on a five hour tour to see some unforgettable sights. As we entered the township we were driven past the largest hospital in the Southern hemisphere - this is the Chris Hani Bardgwanath Hospital which has 3,500 beds, our driver drily noted that they are experts at treating gunshot wounds! (We also drove past what must be the biggest taxi rank in the world which was opposite the hospital.) But back to the poverty, we were taken into Kliptown, an area where 45,000 people live in tin shacks with no sewerage system, no pavements, no infrastructure to talk about. Despite this the inhabitants try their best and we were taken to a pre-school where the infants, all in uniform, crowded around us to say hell and click their thumbs with us. We were glad we were there in Joburg's winter - in summer it must be diabolical - think flies and smells! However less than a mile away is a huge shopping mall with supermarkets, upmarket clothes stores and restaurants.

The decommissioned Soweto power station - full of beer now!

Lunch time beckoned and our driver took us to a brewery - another surprise, the Soweto Brewery, billed as a craft brewery which employs female brewers (in the African tradition) the place we went to was the Ubuntu Kraal brewery styled as an African village/wedding venue/etc. The 'craft' beers, an IPA, a stout plus others flavoured with cherry, ginger are brewed on site but one of the employees quietly told me that the flagship lager Soweto Gold is brewed by Heineken who now own the whole shebang. In any case we had nice 'Braai' barbecue and a taster of the ales.

Soweto is full of contrasts but it also epitomises the confusion and concerns about the future of South Africa. It's still a violent place and although the majority of killings are black on black an increasing number of white farmers are being murdered and are having their land taken away from them al la Zimbabwe. Corruption, crime and general misrule is the norm. Here's a picture is of a power supply being pirated - we saw a lot of this on Soweto, the electricity supplier ESKOM is bankrupt and this isn't helping. So Soweto is worth a visit - it's eyeopening in fact and there's even a parkrun although I'm not sure how we'd manage it!