A free lance tour & safari guide from Explore Africa, will meet clients at their Guesthouse. Clients will be transported for the day in a small luxury bus with all the relevant transport permits. The tour will last 7 - 8 hours and prices include entrance to three venues. Standard tours will include the Hector Pieterson Museum , Mandela House Museum , Regina Mundi Church , drive by the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital and a stop at the Orlando Towers for a breathtaking view of Soweto from the top of the towers before we drive back to Pretoria over the Nelson Mandela Bridge .  

Hector Pieterson, age 13, was one the first students to be killed during the 1976 Student Uprising in Soweto . He has since become a symbol of youth resistance to apartheid. This uprising started on 16 June as a peaceful protest march organized by school students in Soweto . One of the main grievances was the introduction of Afrikaans, regarded as the language of the oppressor, as a medium of instruction in all African schools.

A memorial to hector Pieterson was erected in the early 1990s and is situated in Khumalo Street , a few hundred meters from where he was shot. A new museum opened in 2002 and houses photographic and audio-visual displays of the struggle of the youth against the injustices of apartheid.

Nelson Mandela's humble little house in Orlando West, Soweto, now called the Mandela Family Museum, is an interesting stopover for those keen to imbibe a slice of authentic history on the world's most famous former prisoner.

The matchbox home, at 8115 Ngakane Street , was Mandela's first house. He moved there with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, in 1946. After their divorce in 1957, she moved out.

The museum, a house comprising four inter-leading rooms, contains a rather higgledy-piggledy assortment of memorabilia, paintings and photographs of the Mandela family, as well as a collection of honorary doctorates bestowed on Mandela by universities and institutions around the world.

Regina Mundi - whose name in Latin means Queen of the World, or surely Queen of Soweto is Soweto 's largest Catholic Church. Not only has the vast church always been a spiritual haven for thousands of Sowetans, it has also played a pivotal role in the township's history of resistance against apartheid. As such it is a well-circled destination on the tourist map: every day the church opens its doors to streams of visitors keen to witness the scars it still bears from the Soweto uprisings, when police stormed through its doors, firing live ammunition at fleeing students.

When protesting students were fired at by police on their way to Orlando Stadium on June 16 1976, and Hector Peterson and many others were killed, the students fled for sanctuary to Regina Mundi. With buckets of water at the ready, they managed to douse the teargas canisters thrown into the church by police. But then police stormed the church, firing live ammunition. Although no one was killed, many were injured and the church's sacred symbols were damaged. The broken marble alter, the bullet holes in the ceilings and the damaged figure of Christ all bare testimony to the terrible lack of restraint shown by police that day. 

When it was opened in 1948, as a civilian hospital, it had 480 beds. The Hospital has since grown to 3 200 beds. At present though, due to financial constraints, only 2 600 beds are used.

Today it not only provides for Soweto , but also serves as referral hospital for a large part of the country, including surrounding African States.
As a civilian hospital its main contribution has been towards training of health professionals.  Since 1948 doctors graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand benefited significantly from the experience gained here.  Likewise, as a training school for nurses, Bara has contributed widely.  Our graduate nurses not only fulfill an important task at Bara, but also in Africa .  Baragwanath trained staff work in many areas of the world today and, we are proud to say, do so with distinction.
During 1997 a new factor was added to the complexity of the hospital.  After the tragic murder of prominent activist, Chris Hani, his name was coupled to that of Baragwanath, to give the hospital the name “ Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital ”.

Join us for the most exhilarating view of Soweto ever! The Orlando Cooling Towers offers you now one of South Africa 's biggest tourist attractions in South Africa , the only viewing platform 100m from the ground. These two cooling towers are the largest landmarks in historical SOWETO .

The towers were originally built for the Orlando Power Station, the most advanced facility in the Southern hemisphere in its day. Although the facility is no longer in operation, you can still FEEL THE POWER!!!    

For the more adventurous among you, indulge either in the World's first POWER SWING between 2 cooling towers. Orlando Towers offers you the first ever swing between 2 cooling towers, a whopping 100m from the ground. Ride the lift to the top of the towers and swing out towards the Orlando Dam, between the two cooling towers or the World's first INTERNAL SWING into a cooling tower.  You to stand on the rim of a 100m tall tower.... and jump INSIDE on our internal swing cable. You cannot even begin to imagine the adrenaline rush as you contemplate jumping off into the concrete void....!

The largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa , opened by Nelson Mandela on 20 July 2003, cost R38-million and took about two years to construct. The cable-stay bridge is made up of a 66-metre north back span, a 176-metre main span and a 42-metre south back span, giving a total length of 284 meters. The north pylon is 42 meters high and the south pylon 27 meters high, creating a delicate balance and an interesting visual appeal. The bridge is aesthetically positioned between two other major developments in Johannesburg 's "cultural arc" - the Newtown Cultural Precinct and the Constitutional Hill Precinct in Braamfontein - carrying two lanes of traffic, two sidewalks for pedestrians and a lane for bicycles