"My name is George Harrison and I come from the newly discovered goldfields...I have long experience as an Australian gold digger and I think it a payable goldfield."
With these famously understated words, Harrison reported the largest deposit of gold the world has ever known. Located on a continental divide known as the Witwatersrand (White Water Ridge), this gold reef became so vital to South African development that it was adopted as the name of the national currency, the rand. Thousands of people streamed in from around the world and the city of Johannesburg (called Jo’burg or Jozi by its citizens) was born. This "Golden City" has now produced roughly forty-percent of the gold ever mined on Earth.
Johannesburg is located in the province of Gauteng ("Place of Gold") which occupies just 5% of South Africa but generates 40% of its GDP. Although the economic capital of South Africa and a symbol of prosperity, Johannesburg is also a monument to human greed and violence. In many ways it is modern and vibrant; nevertheless, it was built upon the backs of poor black African labour. The downtown core boasts many fine pieces of architecture from the colonial era, such as the famous Standard Bank building. 
The land along Johannesburg’s main traffic artery, the M1 highway, was originally surveyed and cleared as part of Cecil Rhodes’ famous plan to build a railway that would connect Cape Town to Cairo, extending considerably the reach of the British Empire. It requires about three tons of sifted earth to yield one once of gold so mine dumps (such as that visible in the background) are visible throughout the region. As the mines near exhaustion, these heaps of discarded rock have become increasingly valuable: each ton of recycled material produces, on average, one gram of gold as well as one and a half grams of uranium. 
This is a photograph of a well-known statue in Johannesburg that commemorates the toil and trouble of the gold miners. Prior to and during the apartheid era, many Africans were dragged from their villages and forced to work in the mines. Digging and using explosives twenty-four hours per day, six days a week, half a million blacks worked in the mines for a salary one-sixth of what was offered to the whites in the industry. In 1961 their pay for this hard and dangerous work was 42¢ per day.
Until 1991 many of the residential and commercial districts of Johannesburg were reserved for white citizens. Tell-tale signs of the era of racial segregation are still evident. As well as black African labour, thousands of Chinese workers were also originally brought to work in the mines. Sometimes paid in opium and otherwise badly treated, the government deported the entire Chinese community once they had served their purpose. 
Rising crime during the 1980s and 1990s led to a mass exodus of businesses, restaurants and tourists from the downtown core. Hotels such as those shown in this picture were abandoned and remained derelict until recent attempts to improve the security and redevelop the city centre. Visible in the foreground is the top of the Johannesburg High Court, once a much hated symbol of white oppression. 
The Witwatersrand provided large amounts of other lucrative resources, especially diamonds. The most impressive piece of architecture I saw in Johannesburg was Diamond House. A home to mining offices, it was constructed in the form of the fifty-eight facets of a typical diamond. Various nearby buildings can be seen reflected in its glass panels.
Johannesburg has many wealthy neighbourhoods. I hadn’t anticipated that there would be so much greenery and lush vegetation! 
Many of the mansions are located in the northern suburbs. Security is exceedingly highly but unable to prevent not only petty crime but the sort of political intrigues and underworld crime that one finds in other major cities of the world. 
One of the older sections of the city that is in the process of being redeveloped is Newtown. The municipal government is spending a lot of money promoting traditional black values and cultural self-awareness to revitalize the downtown and make it into a safe cultural hot spot. This a mural painted on the side on an otherwise non-descript building in Newtown.
Although the transition from apartheid to democracy was ultimately successful, there was initially a great deal of conflict and violence. Elements of the white population were not anxious to give up their position of power and privilege; many of the down-trodden blacks entertained unrealistic expectations of dramatic overnight changes in their daily lives. During the early 1990s, SOWETO, long a venue for civil unrest, thus became a household name in most parts of the world. SOWETO is an acronym for South West Township, the most notorious of the black communities which linger on the periphery of Johannesburg. SOWETO began in 1904 when the whites blamed the blacks for a bubonic plague epidemic that ravaged the city, and forced them to move out of the inner city.
The tragedy of South Africa, the root cause of most of the violence that occurs there, has been the deterioration of traditional black values, especially the sanctity of the family. Today families are being ripped apart by the AIDS epidemic: the number of orphans is staggering. For a few hundred years, black men (mostly Zulus) who were removed from their villages and brought to work in the mines of Johannesburg often ended up living in hostels such as the one shown below. There were no closets or cupboards; a concrete slab often served as a bed. One visit from a family member was allowed per month. The hostels are still in use as low-end housing units. 
When people think about SOWETO, the image that comes to the minds is often the scores of ramshackle ghettos. These continue to exist; however, I have learned that a wide range of living standards now prevail here. SOWETO even has millionaires! Security has improved to the point where the neighbourhoods are considered to be safer than those in parts of downtown Johannesburg. Still, the standards of living are low. The population of 1 700 000 has just one hospital, although there are approximately fifty clinics in operation. 
An enduring symbol of the social injustice associated with apartheid era is the smoke stacks which are visible from almost anywhere in the township. A coal-fired power plant created a tremendous amount of pollution in SOWETO but all of the electricity was delivered to the white neighbourhoods in Johannesburg. They were eventually closed down when the use of coal began unsustainable. 
The SOWETO Uprising of June 16, 1976 is a famous episode from the apartheid era. I can remember the moment in history well - it was one day after my nineteenth birthday, just as I was finishing high school. The conditions in the SOWETO schools were terrible. Many schools had no furniture, not even a desk for the teacher. Textbooks, which were free in white schools, had to be paid for by the families of black students. On average, a white school received five times as much funding as a black school. When the nationalist government announced that all instruction in school was henceforth to be conducted in the Afrikaans language, the students decided they'd had enough.
When people think about SOWETO, the image that comes to the minds is often the scores of ramshackle ghettos. These continue to exist; however, I have learned that a wide range of living standards now prevail here. SOWETO even has millionaires! Security has improved to the point where the neighbourhoods are considered to be safer than those in parts of downtown Johannesburg. Still, the standards of living are low. The population of 1 700 000 has just one hospital, although there are approximately fifty clinics in operation. An enduring symbol of the social injustice associated with apartheid era is the smoke stacks which are visible from almost anywhere in the township. A coal-fired power plant created a tremendous amount of pollution in SOWETO but all of the electricity was delivered to the white neighbourhoods in Johannesburg. They were eventually closed down when the use of coal began unsustainable. The SOWETO Uprising of June 16, 1976 is a famous episode from the apartheid era. I can remember the moment in history well - it was one day after my nineteenth birthday, just as I was finishing high school. The conditions in the SOWETO schools were terrible. Many schools had no furniture, not even a desk for the teacher. Textbooks, which were free in white schools, had to be paid for by the families of black students. On average, a white school received five times as much funding as a black school. When the nationalist government announced that all instruction in school was henceforth to be conducted in the Afrikaans language, the students decided they'd had enough.
A protest march was planned from the school to a government office within the community. When the students failed to disperse, some of the police officers began to fire upon the crowd of young defenceless students. This famous picture is of Mbuyisa Makhubo's unsuccessful attempt to save 13-year-old Hector Peterson. They are accompanied by Peterson`s sister, Antoinette. The image sent shock waves around the world. Subsequently, Mbuyisa had to flee for his life to a foreign country to avoid the wrath of the apartheid government.
A well-conceived memorial marks the events of the uprising. It is built on the location where the police gathered to stage their attack . The water flowing over the granite represents the tears that were shed during and since the time of the attack. Leading up to the monument is a collection of pebbles which symbolize the stones that were thrown by some of the 30 000 students who marched that day. Unfortunately, I was unable to fit them into the photograph. June 16 has become National youth day in South Africa in honour of all the young people who lost their lives in the struggle against apartheid. 
As part of my tour of SOWETO, I had a chance to visit Vilizazi Street. Many of the most familiar names in South Africa have lived in this area. The photo below shows the home that Nelson Mandela lived in prior to being sent to prison. A short walk away is the long-time home of Bishop Desmond Tutu. We also drove past Winnie Mandela's current domicile.
My last morning in Johannesburg was spent visiting the highly-acclaimed Apartheid Museum.
This exhibit of 121 nooses represents the number of political prisoners who were hung during the apartheid era.
The museum is very educational and sobering - considered a "must" for anyone who visits the city. An interesting fact is that it is situated next door to Johannesburg's Gold City Reef Casino. Companies that were in competition to build the casino were obliged to include a proposal for a socially responsible project, and this was what the winning tender submitted in its bid. At first, the fact that these two venues sit so close to each other seemed like a cruel joke to me. After thinking about it for some time, however, I realized that it was perfect... for Johannesburg is nothing if not a city of extreme contrasts.
