Soweto

I

Introduction

Soweto, urban area in northeastern South Africa, in Gauteng Province, located 24 km (15 mi) southwest of Johannesburg. Soweto, a sprawling conglomeration of townships, developed in the 1940s to house black workers for the region’s gold mines. Most of the black population of the Johannesburg metropolitan area live in Soweto. The name Soweto is an acronym for South-Western Townships.

Soweto’s location and size helped bring it to the forefront of black resistance against apartheid, the South African government’s rigid policy of racial segregation that was in effect from 1948 to the early 1990s. Soweto became a major focus of international attention, especially after riots that occurred there in 1976.

II

Description

Soweto covers an area of 65 sq km (25 sq mi), extending about 16 km (10 mi) from east to west. Because it was developed as a temporary residential area, Soweto has few major civic buildings. The Regina Mundi cathedral and a sports stadium act as meeting places. Apartheid restrictions precluded the development of large shopping centers or businesses in Soweto, but thousands of tiny, street corner stands scattered around the township handle residents’ everyday needs.

Most township housing consists of rows of identical, single-story matchbox houses, producing a monotonous urban landscape with few trees, gardens, parks, or playgrounds. These dwellings typically have running water, internal showers and external toilets, and house 12 to 15 people. Other formal housing includes hostels for unmarried or migrant workers and small middle-class and upper-class housing areas largely developed since 1980; one such area is known as Beverley Hills. Informal housing includes extensive backyard squatting and squatter settlements, such as Mshenguville, that have developed on areas of previously open land. Houses and squatters obtain water from small water towers found throughout Soweto that each serve 200 or more people. Open fires are widely used for heating and cooking, producing a serious air pollution problem. Soweto has a relatively advanced electricity network by South African township standards. A majority of Soweto’s formal houses have electricity, and electrification has progressed since the end of apartheid.

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III

Population

The 2001 population of Soweto was 858,649. Apartheid policies sought to minimize the black population in and around South African cities and regarded blacks as only temporary urban residents. This led to deliberate reductions in Soweto’s housing construction rates in the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in today’s acute housing shortages and overcrowding.

The government also attempted to segregate blacks of different ethnic groups from one another through zoning. With the lifting of apartheid, nearly all segregation ended, except in hostels. Today Soweto has one of the most ethnically mixed populations in South Africa, with large numbers of Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, and Sotho people, as well as smaller numbers of many other black ethnic groups. Most Sowetans speak some English and Afrikaans as well as their home languages and often one or more other African languages. English is widely used at major gatherings. Many residents are Christians or practice a combination of Christian denominations and traditional African religions.

Soweto, like other black townships, suffered from the inferior “Bantu education” offered blacks under apartheid. School boycotts in Soweto played a significant part in the struggle against apartheid but have left a generation of blacks lacking a secondary education. High schools are overcrowded and often in poor physical condition; few have science laboratories, libraries, or playing fields. There is also a shortage of textbooks, and many teachers are poorly qualified. Since the dismantling of apartheid a small number of black children have been bussed to formerly all-white schools outside of Soweto. Soweto has the largest of the ten Vista University campuses, a township university system founded in the early 1980s.

Poverty, high unemployment, and lack of education have contributed to high rates of crime and violence in Soweto. During the apartheid years the police tended to pursue only crimes that concerned whites, leaving Soweto poorly policed most of the time.

Soweto has made important contributions to the development of new styles of South African jazz, dance, and pop music. In what are called township songs, traditional Zulu and Sotho music meshes with African American rhythm and blues, jazz, and blues to produce distinctive styles. Many of these songs are protest songs against the former system of apartheid.

IV

Economy and Government

The kombi (minibus) taxi industry is the largest commercial activity in Soweto. Informal shops and services make up the bulk of other economic activities. Most Sowetans with jobs commute to Johannesburg by bus, train, or taxi. Soweto depends on Johannesburg for most of its communications outlets, including the popular Sowetan newspaper.

In 1973 administrative control of Soweto was transferred from the Johannesburg City Council to the underfinanced West Rand Administration Board and subsequently the Soweto City Council. In 1995 Soweto and hundreds of smaller townships and suburbs were integrated into the city of Johannesburg, and the entire metropolitan area is now governed by the single City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Council. The reintegration of Soweto and Johannesburg has allowed Soweto to share tax revenues from commercial and industrial businesses in the Greater Johannesburg area.

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