Sights in Gauteng
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Apartheid Museum
The Apartheid Museum, which illustrates the rise and fall of South Africa’s era of segregation and oppression, is an absolute must-see. With plenty of attention to detail and an unsparing emphasis on the inhuman philosophy of apartheid – visitors are handed a card stating their race when they arrive and are required to enter the exhibit through their allotted gate – this remains one of South Africa’s most evocative museums. The museum uses film, text, audio and live accounts to provide a chilling insight into the architecture and implementation of the apartheid system, as well as inspiring accounts of the struggle towards democracy, and is invaluable in understanding the …
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Liliesleaf Farm
Liliesleaf Farm, the secret headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC) during the 1960s, reopened as a museum in June 2008. It tells the story of South Africa’s liberation struggle through a series of high-tech, interactive exhibits.
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Museum Africa
Situated at the heart of the cultural precinct, Museum Africa is housed in the impressive old Bree St fruit market, next to the Market Theatre complex. The most interesting exhibition details the Treason Trials of 1956–61, which featured most of the important figures in the ‘new’ South Africa. The Sophiatown display is also outstanding, containing a mock up of a shebeen (unlicensed bar) as well as audio and music snippets. Other exhibits tell the story of Jo’burg from the Stone Age onwards, the development of South African music and the history of housing in the city. On the same site is the Bensusan Museum of Photography.
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Union Buildings
These sweeping sandstone buildings are the headquarters of government and home to the presidential offices. They sit in an elevated position, surveying beautiful terraced gardens planted with indigenous trees and the city beyond. The gardens are often used for public celebrations and Mandela’s inauguration took place here back in 1994. Statues of a few former prime ministers inhabit the grounds, including an impressive General Louis Botha on horseback. There’s also a WWI memorial here, and a memorial to the South African police. The buildings, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, are about a 2km walk from the city centre; alternatively, catch just about any bus heading east on…
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Voortrekker Monument & Nature Reserve
A visit to the striking Voortrekker Monument is a near spiritual experience for many Afrikaners. It was constructed between 1938 and 1949 – a time of great Afrikaner nationalism – to honour the journey of the Voortrekkers, who trekked north over the coastal mountains of the Cape into the heart of the African veld. It pays tribute in particular to the Battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838, during which 470 Boers, under the command of Andries Pretorius, defeated approximately 12,000 Zulus, killing many of them.
A visit to the striking Voortrekker Monument is a near spiritual experience for many Afrikaners. It was constructed between 1938 and 1949 – a time of great A…
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Turbine Hall
Much of the area around Mary Fitzgerald Sq was once taken up by a giant power station. The huge Turbine Hall, next to SAB World of Beer, is one of the city’s more impressive buildings. The north boiler house was imploded in 2005 and now houses the impressive headquarters of AngloGold Ashanti, beautifully developed to blend in with existing architecture. The south boiler house remains empty but is used for some wonderfully creative events. The area is now known as Turbine Sq.
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Telkom Tower
Dominated by the 269m Telkom Tower, Hillbrow was once among the liveliest and most interesting suburbs in the city and was the nation’s first ‘Grey Area’ – a zone where blacks and whites could live side by side. These days, however, it also has a reputation for very real lawlessness and a trip into its guts, without an extremely savvy guide, is not recommended.
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Johannesburg Zoo
The Johannesburg Zoo has a good selection of fierce and furry critters. The Animal Mythbuster tour (R45) is good fun; take it at night (R70) and it includes snacks and fireside marshmallow-toasting.
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Church Square
At the heart of Pretoria, imposing public buildings surround Church Sq. These include the Palace of Justice, where the Rivonia Trial that sentenced Nelson Mandela to life imprisonment was held, on the northern side; the Ou Raadsaal (Old Government) building on the southern side; the Old Capitol Theatre in the northwestern corner; First National Bank in the northeast; the Old Nederlandsche Bank building, which adjoins the Café Riche and houses the Tourist Information Centre; and the main post office at the western side. Look for the clock, surrounded by nude figures by Anton van Wouw, above the Church Sq entrance to the post office.
‘Old Lion’, Paul Kruger takes pride o…
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s-Complex
Off Rte 563 and on the way to Hekpoort, s is perhaps the best-known attraction here and is a good place to start. Housed in a building that looks like a giant grassy mound on one side and shiny modern steel on the other (apparently representing man’s journey through the ages), it’s an all-in-one information centre, visitor attraction, entertainment complex and boutique hotel. Its name is Tswana for ‘returning to your origin’, and the exhibits here show how the human race has progressed since its very beginnings. There are market stalls, active fossil sites, restaurants, a curio shop and a 5000-seat amphitheatre for outdoor events. There’s also a pretty cool boat ride …
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University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, more commonly known as Wits (pronounced vits) University, dominates the quiet suburb of Braamfontein. Wits University is the largest English-language university in the country, with more than 20,000 students. Worth a look here are the Gertrude Posel Gallery; Jan Smuts House to see Smuts’ study; and the Planetarium, which you can look around for free, or attend shows on Friday (8pm), Saturday (3pm) and Sunday (4pm).
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Planetarium
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Gertrude Posel Gallery
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Paul Kruger House Museum
A short walk west from Church Sq is the former residence of Paul Kruger, now the Paul Kruger House Museum. The house, built in 1884, would have been grand at the time, but today seems lost on the busy street. Guarded by two stone lions, the house contains period furniture and a random collection of personal knick-knacks belonging to Kruger and his wife Gezina, from which it’s hard to conjure up an image of their lives there. There are some interesting bits of memorabilia though, including the knife that Kruger used to amputate his thumb after a shooting accident. The Dutch Reformed Church, where he worshipped and preached, is just across the road.
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Transvaal Museum
Opposite City Hall, this grand museum is a good place to go if you’re interested in natural history. Outside the building are the museum’s most impressive exhibits – giant replica skeletons of an enormous whale and a dinosaur. Inside you’ll find a series of fascinating exhibits including menacing reptile displays, the reconstructed jaws of a giant extinct shark, plenty of life-size mammal statues, and a rather creepy hall full of stuffed birds. The Insect Hall includes live displays of weed-eating grasshoppers and giant hissing cockroaches, and there’s a geological section with a collection of precious and semiprecious stones.
There’s plenty of interesting info …
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Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve
Near the Swartkop Mountains is the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve. For those who don’t have time to head out for a full-on safari experience, this is a good way to get up close to lions, buffalo, rhinos and other beasties. Lovers of fluffy cuteness can hug baby lions and tigers at the animal crèche. There are three four-person chalets (R855) and wildlife drives (R180) are offered. Within the reserve is Wonder Cave, where you can gaze up at stalactites in an eerily beautiful interior. If you’re planning to do both the reserve and the cave, ask at the gate about the combined ticket that gives a 20% discount.
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Freedom Park
One of the most exciting undertakings in Gauteng is Freedom Park. The site chosen for this massive project, on a kopje facing the Voortrekker Monument, provoked an outcry from those who saw this as politically motivated, but this is hardly a self-important ode to nationalism. Rather, it’s a sombre memorial to those people, local and international, who have sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom. At the time of writing you could only visit Hlapho, where the names of heroes have been inscribed, and the peaceful Isivivane Garden of Remembrance. It was scheduled to be completed sometime in 2009.
Visitor numbers to the park are strictly controlled, so calling beforeha…
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SAB World of Beer
The SAB World of Beer offers a ridiculously good-value 90-minute jaunt through the history of beer, as narrated on video by hokey characters including a Bavarian brew master, an Egyptian explorer and Charles Glass, the founder of Castle breweries. On your journey through the beer-making process you’ll wander through a fake Egyptian temple, taste chibuku in a mock African village and sample a cheeky half pint at a re-created Victorian pub. If that weren’t enough your ticket also includes two pints in the bar afterwards.
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Montecasino
Jo’burg’s answer to Las Vegas, Montecasino, a shopping and entertainment centre based around (surprise) a large casino, is cheese personified. It includes a recreated Tuscan village complete with an artificial early-evening sky, fake trees, cobbled pavements, hilltop towers and even a vintage Fiat. It also includes the Pieter Toerien Theatre and the earthy Montecasino Bird Gardens, where you can get a blast of country air in the heart of the city.
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Smuts’ House Museum
Once known as Doornkloof, Smut’s home for over 40 years has been turned into an interesting museum. If you’re travelling to/from Pretoria by car, it’s worth dropping in for a look. The wood-and-iron building was a British officers’ mess at Middelburg, but Smuts bought it and re-erected it on his 1600-hectare property at Irene, 16km south of Pretoria. Surrounded by a wide verandah and shaded by trees, it has a family atmosphere and gives a vivid insight into Smuts’ life.
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Heroes’ Acre Cemetery
Around 1.5km west of Church Sq you’ll find this cemetery, the burial place of a number of historical figures including Andries Pretorius, Paul Kruger and Hendrik Verwoerd. Henry H ‘Breaker’ Morant, the Australian Boer War antihero executed by the British for war crimes, is also buried here – look for the low sign pointing to the gravestone from one of the north–south avenues. If you miss this, you’ll never find it.
To get here by bus, take the West Park 2 or Danville service from Church Sq.
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Hector Pieterson Memorial
North of Vilakazi St is Soweto's showcase, Hector Pieterson Sq. Named after the 13-year-old who was shot dead in the run-up to the Soweto uprising , the square now features the poignant Hector Pieterson Memorial and the excellent Hector Pieterson Museum, which offers an insight into Sowetan life and the history of the independence struggle. From the square, a line of shrubs leads up Moema St to the site where he was shot outside the school.
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Sammy Marks’ Museum
This handsome Victorian mansion was built in 1884 for English industrial, mining and agricultural magnate Sammy Marks. Now it’s a museum. There are regular tours of the mansion and its outbuildings, a Victorian tea garden, and beautiful gardens in which you can picnic and imagine the old days of croquet and sandwiches on the lawn. To get to the museum, follow signposting off Rte 104, 20km east of Pretoria.
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Johannesburg Art Gallery
On the Noord St side of Joubert Park (itself a no-go area) is the Johannesburg Art Gallery. This place has a reputable collection of European and South African landscape and figurative paintings, as well as a significant contemporary South African collection with more adventurous work such as multimedia installations. It also hosts large-scale, dynamic exhibitions and retrospectives of black artists.
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National Cultural History Museum
Concentrating on the cultural history of South Africa, the National Cultural History Museum is dedicated to preserving the country’s cultural heritage. It features exhibitions on San rock art, Iron Age figurines from Limpopo and a small gallery of contemporary South African works, among others. At the time of writing the museum was developing new exhibits, including an exhibition on Tshwane.
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