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Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships.Pirie, G.H. Letters, words, worlds: the naming of Soweto. African Studies, 43 (1984), 43–51. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and is one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.
Within a decade of the discovery of gold in Johannesburg, 100,000 people flocked to this part of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek in search of riches. They were of many races and nationalities.Cammack,D., The Rand at War, University of Natal Press, 1990, p. 1. In October 1887, the government of the South African Republic (ZAR) bought the south-eastern portion of the farm Braamfontein. There were large quantities of clay, suitable for brickmaking, along the stream. The government decided that more money was to be made from issuing brick maker's licences at five shillings per month.E.L.P. Stals (editor), Afrikaners in die Goudstad, Hollandsche Afrikaansche Uitgevers, Pretoria, 1978, p. 51 The result was that many landless Dutch-speaking Dutch Burghers (citizens) of the ZAR settled on the property and started making bricks. They also erected their shacks there. Soon, the area was known either Brickfields or Veldschoendorp.Stals, supra, p. 52. Soon other working poor, Coloureds, Indians and Africans also settled there. The government, who sought to differentiate the white working class from the black, laid out new suburbs for the Burghers (Whites), (Indians), Malays (Coloureds) and Black Africans (Africans), but the whole area simply stayed multiracial.Cammack, supra, p. 9. Terms used then are now regarded as offensive.
Soweto was created in the 1930s, when the White government started separating Blacks from Whites, to create black "townships". Blacks were moved away from Johannesburg, to an area separated from White suburbs by a so-called cordon sanitaire (or sanitary corridor) which was usually a river, railway track, industrial area or highway. This was carried out using the infamous Pass laws of 1923.
William Carr, chair of non-European affairs, initiated the naming of Soweto in 1949. He called for a competition to give a collective name to townships dotted around the South-west of Johannesburg. People responded to this competition with great enthusiasm. Among the names suggested to the city council was KwaMpanza, meaning Mpanza's place, invoking the name of Mpanza and his role in bringing the plight of Orlando sub tenants to the attention of the city council. The city council settled for the acronym SOWETO (South West Townships). The name Soweto was first used in 1963 and within a short period of time, following the 1976 uprising of students in the township, the name became internationally known.
Soweto became the largest Black city in South Africa, but until 1976, its population could have status only as temporary residents, serving as a workforce for Johannesburg. It experienced civil unrest during the Apartheid regime. There were serious riots in 1976, sparked by a ruling that Afrikaans be used in African schools there; the riots were violently suppressed, with 176 striking students killed and more than 1,000 injured. Reforms followed, but riots flared up again in 1985 and continued until the first non-racial elections were held in April 1994. In 2010, South Africa's oldest township hosted the FIFA World Cup Final and the attention of more than a billion soccer spectators from all over the world was focused on Soweto.
In the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek and the subsequent Transvaal Colony, it was lawful for people of colour to own fixed property.Tshewu v Registrar of Deeds, 1905 T.S. 130. Consequently, the township of Sophiatown was laid out in 1903 and Blacks were encouraged to buy property there. For the same reasons, Alexandra, Gauteng was planned for Black ownership in 1912. The subsequent Natives Land Act of 1913 did not change the situation because it did not apply to land situated within municipal boundaries.Natives Land Act, No. 27 of 1913, section 8(1)(g) & (i).
In about 1934, James Mpanza moved to 957 Pheele Street, Orlando, and lived there for the rest of his life.French, supra, p. 37. A year after his arrival in Orlando, he formed his own political party, the Sofasonke Party. He also became very active in the affairs of the Advisory Board for Orlando.French, supra, p. 45. Towards the end of World War II, there was an acute shortage of housing for Blacks in Johannesburg. By the end of 1943, the Sofasonke Party advised its members to put up their own squatters' shacks on municipal property.French, supra, p.67. On Saturday 25 March 1944, the squat began. Hundreds of homeless people from Orlando and elsewhere joined Mpanza in marching to a vacant lot in Orlando West and starting a squatters camp.French, supra, p. 78. The city council's resistance crumbled. After feverish consultations with the relevant government department, it was agreed that an emergency camp, which could house 991 families, be erected. It was to be called Central Western Jabavu. The next wave of land invasions took place in September 1946. Some 30,000 squatters congregated west of Orlando. Early the next year, the city council proclaimed a new emergency camp. It was called Moroka. 10,000 sites were made available immediately.Bonner, Philip & Segal, Lauren, Soweto – A History, Maskew Miller Longman, 1998, p.27. Moroka became Johannesburg's worst slum area. Residents erected their shanties on plots measuring six metres by six metres. There were only communal bucket-system toilets and very few taps. The camps were meant to be used for a maximum of five years, but when they were eventually demolished in 1955, Moroka and Jabavu housed 89,000 people.Bonner & Segal, supra, p. 27.
The city council's pride and joy was its economic scheme known as Dube Village. It was intended "primarily for the thoroughly urbanised and economically advanced Native". Stands, varying in size from fifty by hundred feet to forty by 70 feet, were made available on a thirty-year leasehold tenure. Tenants could erect their own dwellings in conformity with approved plans.
In June 1955, Kliptown was the home of an unprecedented Congress of the People, which adopted the Freedom Charter.
From the onset, the Apartheid government purposed Soweto to house the bulk of the labour force which was needed by Johannesburg (1998:58). Africans used to live in areas surrounding the city, so the authorities felt it would be more expedient to concentrate black workers in one district that could be easily controlled (1998:58).
The new sub-economic townships took off in 1956, when Tladi, Zondi, Dhlamini, Chiawelo and Senoane were laid out providing 28,888 people with accommodation. Jabulani, Phiri and Naledi followed the next year. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer arranged a loan of £3 million from the mining industry, which allowed an additional 14,000 houses to be built.Bonner & Segal, supra, p. 29. It was decided to divide Soweto into various language groups. Naledi, Mapetla, Tladi, Moletsane and Phiri were for Sotho- and Tswana-speaking people. Chiawelo for Tsonga and Venda. Dlamini Senaoane, Zola, Zondi, Jabulani, Emdeni and White City were for Zulus and Xhosas.Bonner & Segal, supra, p. 41.
The central government was busy with its own agenda. The presence of Blacks with freehold title to land among Johannesburg's White suburbs irked them. In 1954, Parliament passed the Native Resettlement Act, which permitted the government to remove Blacks from suburbs like Sophiatown, Martindale, Newclare and Western Native Township. Between 1956 and 1960, they built 23,695 houses in Meadowlands and Diepkloof to accommodate the evicted persons. By 1960, the removals were more-or-less complete.Bonner & Segal, supra, p.30.
In 1959, the city council launched a competition to find a collective name for all the townships south-west of the city's centre. It was only in 1963 that the city council decided to adopt the name Soweto as the collective name. The name Soweto was officially endorsed by the municipalities' authorities only in 1963 after a special committee had considered various names. The apartheid government's intention was for Soweto to house black people who were working for Johannesburg.Bonner & Segal, supra, p. 31. Other names considered included "apartheid Townships" and "Verwoerdstad" (Gorodnov 1998:58).
In 1971, Parliament passed the Black Affairs Administration Act, No. 45 of 1971. In terms of this Act, the central government appointed the West Rand Administration Board to take over the powers and obligations of the Johannesburg City Council in respect of Soweto.Mngomezulu & Others v City Council of Soweto, (1988) ZASCA 163. As chairman of the board it appointed Manie Mulder, a political appointment of a person who had no experience of the administration of native affairs. Manie Mulder's most famous quote was given to the Rand Daily Mail in May 1976: "The broad masses of Soweto are perfectly content, perfectly happy. Black-White relationships at present are as healthy as can be. There is no danger whatever of a blow-up in Soweto."Bonner & Segal, supra, p. 56.
The impact of the Soweto protests reverberated through the country and across the world. In their aftermath, economic and cultural sanctions were introduced from abroad. Political activists left the country to train for guerrilla resistance. Soweto and other townships became the stage for violent state repression. Since 1991, this date and the schoolchildren have been commemorated by the International Day of the African Child.
Black African councilors were not provided by the apartheid state with the finances to address housing and infrastructural problems. Township residents opposed the black councilors as puppet collaborators who personally benefited financially from an oppressive regime. Resistance was spurred by the exclusion of blacks from the newly formed tricameral Parliament (which did include Whites, Indians and Coloreds). Municipal elections in black, coloured, and Indian areas were subsequently widely boycotted, returning extremely low voting figures for years. Popular resistance to state structures dates back to the Advisory Boards (1950) that co-opted black residents to advise whites who managed the townships.
In 1995, Soweto became part of the Southern Metropolitan Transitional Local Council, and in 2002, was incorporated into the City of Johannesburg. A series of bombings occurred in 2002. The right-wing extremist group, Boeremag claimed responsibility for the attacks that damaged buildings, , and killed one person. In 2022, 15 people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar.
| Female | 640,588 | 50.38 |
| Male | 631,040 | 49.62 |
| Black | 1,253,037 | 98.54 |
| White | 1,421 | 0.11 |
| Coloureds | 13,079 | 1.03 |
| Asian | 1,418 | 0.11 |
| Other | 2,674 | 0.21 |
| Zulu language | 350,940 | 40.87 |
| Xhosa language | 88,474 | 10.3 |
| Afrikaans | 5,639 | 0.66 |
| Sesotho sa Leboa | 41,179 | 4.8 |
| Tswana language | 106,419 | 12.39 |
| English | 3,047 | 0.35 |
| Sesotho language | 157,263 | 18.32 |
| Tsonga language | 62,157 | 7.24 |
| Swazi language | 8,696 | 1.01 |
| Venda language | 29,498 | 3.44 |
| isiNdebele | 2,801 | 0.33 |
| Other | 2,531 | 0.29 |
| Female | 437,268 | 50.93 |
| Male | 421,376 | 49.07 |
| Black | 852,649 | 99.3 |
| White | 325 | 0.04 |
| Coloureds | 5,472 | 0.64 |
| Asian | 198 | 0.02 |
| Zulu language | 469,873 | 37.07 |
| Xhosa language | 109,977 | 8.68 |
| Afrikaans | 16,567 | 1.31 |
| Sepedi | 65,215 | 5.14 |
| Tswana language | 163,083 | 12.87 |
| English | 29,602 | 2.34 |
| Sesotho language | 196,816 | 15.53 |
| Tsonga language | 112,346 | 8.86 |
| Swazi language | 9,292 | 0.73 |
| Venda language | 29,498 | 3.44 |
| IsiNdebele | 56,737 | 4.48 |
| Other | 14,334 | 1.13 |
The N12 (named the Moroka Bypass) forms the southern border of Soweto, separating it from Lenasia.
A new section of the N17 has been built, connecting Soweto with Nasrec as a four-lane dual carriageway.
The M70, also known as the Soweto Highway, links Soweto with central Johannesburg via Nasrec and Booysens. This road is multi lane, passes next to Soccer City in Nasrec and has dedicated taxiway lanes from Soweto eastwards to Booysens and Johannesburg Central.
The M68, also known as the Old Potchefstroom Road, links Soweto with Johannesburg South.
A major thoroughfare through the south-eastern part of Soweto (Eldorado Park) is the R553 Golden Highway. It provides access to the N1, N12 and M1 highways.
are a popular form of transport. In 2000 it was estimated that around 2000 minibus taxis operated from the Baragwanath taxi rank alone.
A Bus rapid transit system, Rea Vaya, provides transport for around 16 000 commuters daily.
PUTCO has for many years provided bus commuter services to Soweto residents.
are another prominent physical feature of Soweto.da Silva, M & Pirie, G.H. Hostels for African migrants in greater Johannesburg. GeoJournal, 12 (1986), 173–182. Originally built to house male migrant workers, many have been improved as dwellings for couples and families.
In 1996, the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality awarded tenders to Conrad Penny and his company Penny Brothers Brokers & Valuers (Pty) Ltd. for the valuation of the whole of Soweto (which at the time consisted of over 325,000 properties) for rating and taxing purpose. This was the single largest valuation ever undertaken in Africa.[2]
Early Career
The experiences of other developing nations were examined at the Soweto entrepreneurship conference, which looked for ways to help turn the economic tide in townships. SOWETO'S entrepreneurs gathered at the University of Johannesburg Soweto Campus on 13 and 14 April to engage with experts from all over the globe about how to enhance skills and value-add in township economies. The restrictions on economic activities were lifted in 1977, spurring the growth of the taxi industry as an alternative to Soweto's inadequate bus and train transport systems. In 1994 Sowetans earned on average almost six and a half times less than their counterparts in wealthier areas of Johannesburg (1994 estimates). Sowetans contribute less than 2% to Johannesburg's rates Some Sowetans remain impoverished, and others live in shanty towns with little or no services. About 85% of Kliptown comprises informal housing. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee argues that Soweto's poor are unable to pay for electricity. The committee believes that the South African government's privatization drives will worsen the situation. Research showed that 62% of residents in Orlando East and Pimville were unemployed or pensioners. There have been signs recently indicating economic improvement. The Johannesburg City Council began to provide more street lights and to pave roads. Private initiatives to tap Sowetans' combined spending power of R4.3 billion were also planned, including the construction of Protea Mall, Jabulani Mall, and the development of Maponya Mall, an upmarket hotel in Kliptown, and the Orlando Ekhaya entertainment center. Soweto has also become a Centre for nightlife and culture.
Well-known artists from Soweto, besides those mentioned above, include:
Soweto Pride, an annual pride parade, is held in Soweto every year, on the last Saturday of September. The inaugural Pride was in 2004. The parade aims to celebrate black lesbian, queer and trans women plus non-binary people, and offer them space to voice issues affecting them.
Estimates of how many residential areas make up Soweto itself vary widely. Some counts say that Soweto comprises 29 townships, whilst others find 34. The differences may be due to confusion arising from the merger of adjoining townships (such as Lenasia and Eldorado Park) with those of Soweto into Regions 6 and 10. The total number also depends on whether the various "extensions" and "zones" are counted separately, or as part of one main suburb. The 2003 Regional Spatial Development Framework arrived at 87 names by counting various extensions (e.g. Chiawelo's 5) and zones (e.g. Pimville's 7) separately. The City of Johannesburg's website groups the zones and extensions together to arrive at 32, but omits Noordgesig and Mmesi Park.
The list below provides the dates when some of Soweto's townships were established, along with the probable origins or meanings of their names, where available:
The economic development of Soweto was severely curtailed by the apartheid state, which provided very limited infrastructure and prevented residents from creating their own businesses. Roads remained unpaved, and many residents had to share one tap between four houses, for example. Soweto was meant to exist only as a dormitory town for black Africans who worked in white houses, factories, and industries. The 1957 Natives (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act and its predecessors restricted residents between 1923 and 1976 to seven self-employment categories in Soweto itself. Sowetans could operate general shops, butcheries, eating houses, sell milk or vegetables, or hawk goods. The overall number of such enterprises at any time were strictly controlled. As a result, informal trading developed outside the legally-recognized activities.
By 1976, Soweto had only two cinemas and two hotels, and 83% of houses had electricity. Up to 93% of residents had no running water. Using fire for cooking and heating resulted in respiratory problems that contributed to high infant mortality rates (54 per 1,000 compared to 18 for whites, 1976 figures.
The restrictions on economic activities were lifted in 1977, spurring the growth of the taxi industry as an alternative to Soweto's inadequate bus and train transport systems. In 1994, Sowetans earned on average almost six and a half times less than their counterparts in wealthier areas of Johannesburg (1994 estimates). Sowetans contribute less than 2% to Johannesburg's rates. Some Sowetans remain impoverished, and others live in with little or no services. About 85% of Kliptown comprises informal housing. The Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee argues that Soweto's poor are unable to pay for electricity. The committee believes that the South African government's privatization drives will worsen the situation. Research showed that 62% of residents in Orlando East and Pimville were unemployed or pensioners.
There have been signs recently indicating economic improvement. The Johannesburg City Council began to provide more street lights and to pave roads. Private initiatives to tap Sowetans' combined spending power of R4.3 billion were also planned, including the construction of Protea Mall, Jabulani Mall, the development of Maponya Mall, an upmarket hotel in Kliptown, and the Orlando Ekhaya entertainment centre. Soweto has also become a centre for nightlife and culture.
The American film Stander (2003) portrays the story of Andre Stander, a rogue South African police Captain who rebelled against the corruption of South African under apartheid by becoming a bank robber. The Soweto uprising are depicted as Stander's breaking point in the film.
Sara Blecher and Rimi Raphoto's popular documentary, Surfing Soweto (2006), addresses the phenomenon of young kids "Train surfing" on the roofs of Soweto trains and the social problem this represents.
The film District 9 (2009) was shot in Tshiawelo, Soweto. The plot involves a species of aliens who arrive on Earth in a starving and helpless condition, seeking aid. The originally benign attempts to aid them turn increasingly oppressive due to the overwhelming numbers of aliens and the cost of maintaining them, and to increasing xenophobia on the part of humans who treat the intelligent and sophisticated aliens like animals while taking advantage of them for personal and corporate gain. The aliens are housed in shacks in a slum-like concentration camp called "District 9", which is in fact modern-day Soweto; an attempt to relocate the aliens to another camp leads to violence and a wholesale slaughter by South African mercenary security forces (a reference to historical events in "District Six", Cape Town, a mostly Coloured neighborhood subjected to forced segregation during the apartheid years). The parallels to South Africa under apartheid are both deliberate and obvious, but are not explicitly remarked upon in the film.
Films that include Soweto scenes:
Soweto is also mentioned in Sheila Gordon's novel, Waiting for the Rain (1987).
The main protagonist from the Jonas Jonasson novel The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (2013), Nombeko Mayeki was born in 1961 in Soweto. In his first Anthology of Poems titled "In Quiet Realm" South African Soweto Born poet Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu dedicated a poem called "Soweto My Everything" to honour the place of his birth.Lawrence Mduduzi Ndlovu, "In Quiet Realm" South Africa: Write-On Publishing, 2018
Trevor Noah, in his autobiographical comedy Born a Crime (2016), describes his early childhood and growing up in Soweto.
Soweto is mentioned in the song "Burden of Shame" by the British band UB40, on their album Signing Off (1980).
Singer–songwriter Joe Strummer, formerly of the Clash, referenced Soweto in his solo album Streetcore on the song "Arms Aloft", as well as in The Clash's track, "Where You Gonna Go (Soweto)", found on the album London Calling (Legacy Edition).
The UK music duo Mattafix have a song called "Memories Of Soweto" on their album Rhythm & Hymns (2007).
Soweto is mentioned in the anti-apartheid song "Gimme Hope Jo'anna" by Eddy Grant. The line, "While every mother in a black Soweto fears the killing of another son", refers to police brutality during apartheid.
Miriam Makeba has the song: "Soweto Blues".
Dr. Alban's song "Free Up Soweto" was included in the album Look Who's Talking (1994).
The Mexican group Tijuana No! recorded the song "Soweto" for their first album No, in reference to the city and the movements.
"Soweto" is the name of a song by the rap group Hieroglyphics.
The American band Vampire Weekend refers to its own musical style, a blend of indie rock and pop with African influences, as "Upper West Side Soweto", based on the same description of Paul Simon's album Graceland.
"Soweto" is the title of the opening track of the album Joined at the Hip, by Bob James and Kirk Whalum.
Brazilian singer-songwriter Djavan, in his 1987 album Não É Azul, mas É Mar, recorded a song called Soweto. Also this song inspired the naming of Brazilian pagode group Soweto.
The American group the Magnetic Fields mentions Soweto in their song "World Love" on the album 69 Love Songs (1999).
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