• FNB Stadium - The distinctive architecture of FNB Stadium is celebrated worldwide, often affectionately called the “Calabash” or “African Pot” following its R3.3 billion renovation for the inaugural African World Cup in 2010.

Originally known as Soccer City, this stadium has been the backdrop for significant historical events, beginning with former President Nelson Mandela’s first speech in 1990, shortly after his release from 27 years of imprisonment.

This venue has hosted the most significant sports and music events in the nation, including the opening and closing ceremonies and the final match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final was also held here.

With a seating capacity of 87,436, it stands as the largest venue in South Africa and a source of national pride.

International rugby test matches and performances by global music icons like U2, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber have drawn record crowds here.

FNB Stadium continues to be a premier location for major events in the country, including the 1993 funeral of political activist Chris Hani and the 2013 memorial service for Mandela.

• Diepkloof Park - Known as “Rich Man’s Acre” by locals, this area features larger plots intended for a more exclusive community.

Some refer to it as DK.

Diepkloof Extensions were developed for middle to upper-class Black professionals, many employed by the state or in private sectors, who were offered full loans for the land and construction under a government housing scheme.

• Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital - As the third-largest hospital globally, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital spans approximately 173 acres (0.70 km2), with around 3,200 beds and about 6,760 staff members.

The hospital comprises 429 buildings with a total area of 233,795 m2.

About 70% of admissions are emergencies, including roughly 160 gunshot wound victims monthly.

The accident, emergency, and ambulance services are the busiest, with over 350 patients daily. Annually, around 150,000 inpatient and 500,000 outpatient cases are recorded.

The Department of Ophthalmology, the St John Eye Hospital, has 111 beds and serves about 50,000 patients annually.

Approximately 60,000 patients are treated each year in the Maternity Hospital.

Located in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, the hospital is one of 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals, funded and managed by the Gauteng Provincial Health Authorities.

It serves as a teaching hospital for the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, alongside the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Helen Joseph Hospital, and Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital.

The site aims to make Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital easily accessible and provide essential information (not government-managed).

The hospital’s mission is to:

Achieve the highest standard of patient care based on scientific principles, delivered with empathy and understanding.

Train staff to be well-equipped and motivated to care for the sick and injured.

Uphold truth, integrity, and justice for all, benefiting patients, staff, and the community.

CEO of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital: Dr. Sandile Mfenyana

History of Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

The hospital’s history began shortly after gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand.

John Albert Baragwanath, a young Cornishman, arrived at the gold fields seeking fortune. His surname “Baragwanath” comes from the Welsh words “Bara” (bread) and “gwanath” (wheat).

After various ventures, John Albert established a refreshment post a day’s journey by ox wagon from Johannesburg, where the road to Kimberly met the road from Vereeniging. With good grazing and water, he soon opened a small hostel, “The Wayside Inn,” known to transport drivers and stagecoach passengers as “Baragwanath’s Place” or simply Baragwanath.

World War II brought significant changes. As the global conflict unfolded, the UK and Commonwealth shifted from appeasement to war efforts. In South Africa, the war led to political upheaval, a change in government, and the establishment of Baragwanath Hospital.

In 1939, Britain and the Empire faced service backlogs, including healthcare for military personnel.

By September 1940, with escalating hostilities and urgent need for hospital facilities, the Secretary of State in London requested the South African Government to provide healthcare for Imperial troops of Middle East Command. The British War Office proposed building two hospitals of 1,200 beds each in South Africa, along with a 2,000-bed convalescent depot. One hospital was designated for Johannesburg. Construction began in November 1941 on land purchased from the Corner House mining group, near the old Wayside Inn.

The British Government ultimately paid £328,000 for a 1,544-bed hospital.

After considering various names, it was decided to name the hospital “The Imperial Military Hospital, Baragwanath.”

In 1941 and 1942, the international situation looked bleak for the Allies, creating urgency to build the hospital quickly. Remarkably, the first patients were admitted within six months, in May 1942.

• Orlando Towers - These two cooling towers are a notable landmark in Soweto. Built in 1951 to enhance the spray pond cooling system, they were the first in South Africa to use sewage effluent from the Klipspruit Sewage Works as a coolant.

Both towers are painted, with one serving as an advertising billboard and the other featuring the largest mural in South Africa. The towers are also popular for bungee and BASE jumping from a platform between them, as well as a bungee swing into one of the towers.

The towers were featured in a Fast Forward task on the seventh season of The Amazing Race, where teams, including Ray & Deana, had to walk across a suspension bridge 9 meters (30 ft) above the ground between the towers. In the movie Chappie, the power station serves as the protagonists’ headquarters, with the towers and main building adorned with Die Antwoord artwork.

History

Planning for Orlando’s construction began in 1935, as Johannesburg’s electricity demand outpaced the existing City Generating Station. The site was chosen for its proximity to water and railway lines for coal delivery. Construction started in 1939 with Merz & McLellan as consulting engineers, but was delayed by World War II. The final construction phase was completed in 1955. Until 1990, two Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST steam engines (Nos. 7805 Elizabeth and 7398 George) moved coal trains through a wagon tipper at the power plant. The station was decommissioned in 1998 after 56 years of service. In 2006, work began to transform the site into an entertainment and business center.

On June 25, 2014, the decommissioned power plant collapsed, resulting in one fatality and trapping five others in the debris.

• Vilakazi Street - Vilakazi Street is home to two Nobel Peace Prize laureates: South Africa’s first democratically elected president, the late Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. It is the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Laureates.

Named after Dr. Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, a renowned writer and educator who published the first Zulu poetry book, Vilakazi Street is a celebrated location in Soweto.

• Mandela House - Located in Orlando West, Soweto, at the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets, is the humble home where Nelson Mandela and his family lived from 1946 to the 1990s. Mandela resided here with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, and later with his second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, after his divorce.

Mandela spent limited time at the Vilakazi Street home due to his increasing involvement in the anti-apartheid movement, which led to his going underground before his 1962 arrest. Madikizela-Mandela continued living in the house with their daughters, Zenani and Zindzi, until her banishment to Brandfort in 1977.

Upon his 1990 release from prison, Mandela returned to the house for 11 days before relocating to a larger, more secure residence in Houghton, Johannesburg.

The Mandela family’s four-roomed Soweto home is now a museum, showcasing memorabilia, artworks, awards, honorary doctorates, and family photographs from the 1950s. It is a major tourist attraction in South Africa, rich in history and connections to Madiba’s life before his presidency.

• Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial - On June 16, 1976, Soweto high school students staged a peaceful protest against the compulsory use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black secondary schools. The students planned to gather at Orlando Stadium before marching to the Department of Bantu Education’s regional offices to voice their concerns.

They carried signs reading, “Away with Afrikaans,” “Amandla awethu” (“Power to the people”), and “Free Azania” (“Free South Africa”), and sang the hymn Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (God Bless Africa), which is now part of South Africa’s national anthem.

• Constitution Hill Human Rights Precinct - Constitution Hill is a living museum that narrates South Africa’s journey to democracy. The site, a former prison and military fort, reflects the country’s turbulent past and is now home to the Constitutional Court, which upholds the rights of all citizens.

• Braamfontein - Situated in Johannesburg, Braamfontein is a lively neighborhood brimming with creativity. Its streets are adorned with impressive public art installations and vibrant graffiti murals.

• Nelson Mandela Bridge - Just as Paris has the Eiffel Tower, New York the Statue of Liberty, and Sydney the Harbour Bridge, Johannesburg boasts the largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa, named after Nelson Mandela, the leader who guided South Africa through the apartheid era.

The 284-meter-long bridge spans 42 operational railway lines, connecting Braamfontein and northern Johannesburg to Newtown in the city’s central business district.

• Sci-Bono Discovery Centre - Sci-Bono is a premier science center that supports education in mathematics, science, and technology, offering innovative and dynamic learning experiences that help build South Africa’s capacity in science, engineering, and technology.

• Johannesburg - Constructed between 1927 and 1934, Turbine Hall was originally the largest of Johannesburg’s three steam-driven power stations. It is an iconic building located in the heart of Newtown’s art and culture precinct.

• Greater Johannesburg - The brass plate on the door of the attorneys’ modest offices in downtown Johannesburg read “Mandela and Tambo.” It was late 1952, four years after the National Party’s victory, and the two young partners of South Africa’s first black-owned law firm were hard at work.

• Standard Bank Ferreira Mine Stope - In the basement of the Standard Bank headquarters in downtown Johannesburg lies Ferreira’s mine stope, one of the city’s earliest gold prospecting sites. Discovered during the 1980s construction of the Standard Bank building, the long-forgotten mine entrance has been preserved as a small museum. The stope is named after Ignatius Phillip Ferreira, a farmer, soldier, and later a gold prospector, who also has a city district named after him.

• Private transportation
• Bottled water
• In-vehicle air conditioning
• All fees and/or taxes

• Lunch
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Carbonated beverages

Johannesburg, often referred to as the “City of Gold,” was shaped by a gold rush and has evolved into a key economic center in Africa, offering a blend of diverse cultures, lively nightlife, and distinctive wildlife experiences.

Rich History and Cultural Significance
Located in the heart of Johannesburg, South Africa, Soweto is a symbol of the resilient spirit of its people and their steadfast resistance against apartheid. Once a township marked by hardship, it has now become an intriguing destination that attracts tourists from across the globe. Soweto’s charm lies not only in its rich historical importance but also in its vibrant culture, genuine experiences, and deep community involvement.

Vilakazi Street: Nelson Mandela’s Legacy
Vilakazi Street is a symbol of Soweto’s importance in world history, being the only street to have been home to two Nobel Prize laureates. The modest residence of Nelson Mandela

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