TIA

Saturday was another travel day, maybe 5 hours to get from Hazyview to Johanisburg. Marshall, our guide was much more considerate and we had several stops along the route. He also spent a good deal of time discussing various social issues; education, politics past & future, justice, property rights, health care as well as a good deal of geological history and agricultural. A fourth generation South African, we enjoyed and appreciated his thoughtful perspective on so many topics. TIA - This is Africa & Marshall helped us get a better feel for what's going on.

TIA is an expression used when you observe someone doing something that you just have to shake your head at, or witness an event that just seems odd. Then, with a shrug of the shoulders you would exclaim TIA, with the inflection in the voice used to register a particular reaction, such as surprise, wonderment, disgust, bewilderment, etc. There seems to be lots of opportunities to use this expression and have quickly adopted it.

We proceeded to Soweto, the infamous township where in June 1976 police opened fire on an estimated 20,000 student marchers, killing dozens of children. This event, known as the Soweto Uprising was the beginning of the end of the apartheid era as the brutality of the event ignited international outrage, then trade sanctions.

We stood on the streets where it all happened and toured the Hector Pieterson Memorial. Hector was a 13 year old boy killed that day who became a symbol of the event. A photograph of him and his anguished sister 'went viral' (via 1976 media) and helped the cause immensely. Some of us recall an awareness of these events, some of us do not.


After spending some sobering time at the Memorial we then proceeded to the Sakhumzi Restaurant. Located in Soweto it has been in operation since 1895. Up until recently whites did not go to Soweto but this has changed and the Township is now an important tourist destination. The Memorial, Nelson Mandela's home and this restaurant are all within a few blocks of one another. Ours was not the only tourist bus lumbering along. Our buffet dinner featured several traditional foods and was pretty tasty. The restaurant itself wasn't anything special but was clearly doing very well. After an early dinner we sauntered up the street to Mandela's house, fending off those seeking money for nothing.


The real fun began just as we were passing by the restaurant on the way back to the bus. All the young lions started parading up the road in their souped up, high end cars. Slowly passing by the restaurant each in turn would rev their engine to screaming intensity, allowing everyone to appreciate the throaty roar of their after market exhaust systems. These flashy cars were all about. The restaurant bar was already completely full and the street was starting to fill with revellers and those there to assist them, be it shining the cars to spotless glory or perhaps selling a bit of weed maybe as the odour was unmistakable in the air. TIA


A police car followed not long after. Bridgette has a bit of video footage of the armed & armoured police wading into the crowd, AK47 casually in hand. It was quite a scene, clearly repeated time and time again. I have to say I did not mind climbing back on the bus for the ride to our our hotel.


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Location:Johanisburg