Lisa Call

Housing in Soweto

Yesterday I mentioned we went through Soweto and the only photo I took was of the shantytown. While a large population does live in these conditions the majority of that area is houses. Most are smaller houses with 4 rooms but there are also very wealthy areas with homes costing over a million Rand.

There are also some smaller multi family homes called elephant houses that were very interesting and usually quite beautiful. On each end was a 2 room living space and in the center is a 3 room apartment. Most often each of the 3 families painted their section of the house a different color, resulting in some beautiful homes. I haven’t seen these anywhere except in Soweto so far. (Here’s someone else’s photo)

There are also buildings that look very much like condos in the US (although much more interesting colors) and single gender hostels (long desolate buildings with single rooms that aren’t as inviting and often without electricity – a photo).

Housing Shortage

Our local tour guide gave an interesting talk about the housing situation in South Africa and the gist of the situation is they cannot build them fast enough. They have programs to give government homes to those that have no income and prorated mortgages for others. There are just not enough houses as of yet.

Since the first democratic election in 1994 the government has build over 2 million homes but they estimate an addition 5 – 7 million backlog. They have large numbers of immigrants from neighboring countries that adds to the housing crisis.

Houses

I find the 4 room houses interesting. I love the simple lines and have taken a zillion photos of them – mostly from the bus as it goes down the highway so they aren’t the best quality.

I suspect I’ll be taking many more house photos as the weeks go by and occasionally I’ll post a group of photos of them.

Constitution Hill

On Monday, the arts and crafts tour of South Africa started out in Johannesburg with some history. First stop was a tour of Constitution Hill and the new home for the Constitutional Court.

This site was originally a prison with a rather unpleasant past. From the official website:

Constitution Hill is the new home of the Constitutional Court, the protector of our basic rights and freedoms. Constitution Hill is also the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the dawn of democracy in 1994. Many of South Africa’s leading political activists, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, were detained here.

It’s quite interesting that they chose this spot for the home of the Constitutional Court. They’ve reused the bricks from one of the old cell blocks for one wall of the court.

With a “those that forget their past are doomed to repeat it” theme. I think it’s really quite brilliant and the architecture ingeniously ties the past to the new future for South Africa.

The tour resulted were some excellent opportunities for photos of walls, the inspiration behind my Structures Series. Looking forward to using these photos in my new African Impressions Project.

Old Prison Wall

Court room wall rebuilt from old bricks as a reminder of what the past held. The opposite side of the room symbolizes the future.

Wall in the courtyard in Number 4.

Newtown Cultural Project

Next stop was an artist’s proof studio in a revitalized area in downtown Joburg called the Newtown Cultural Project.

They relocated to this new location after a fire. Very cool how they’ve used the plates salvaaged from that fire in the stairwell.

Soweto

We spent the afternoon on a bus tour through Soweto, a collection of African townships south west of Johannesburg.

High lights were a traditional African lunch (salad and rice for this vegetarian – they eat a lot of meat in South Africa), a tour of Nelson Mandela’s house, a stop by the Hector Pieterson Memorial and a lengthy drive around the area.

It doesn’t all look like photo above, in fact, most of Soweta is not like this, but I wasn’t taking photos and instead enjoying the experience. Now I want to go back and photograph because the houses were mostly simple but the colors were amazing.