An Africa Neophyte's Impressions of Johannesburg

As soon as the plane door is flung open at the Johannesburg airport, you immediately know you're no longer in Kansas. A scent that says "Africa" practically colors the air, a distinctive mix of red dust, rich spices, and of a people struggling to overcome the legacy of South Africa's conflicted history.

Though only in the city for a couple of days on the front and back of a trip to the South African bush, Jo'burg left us with vivid impressions. From afar, South Africa's business capital with its soaring skyscrapers looks rich and powerful but up close, it's obvious most of its 3.2 million residents are poor and lack opportunity.

Women with babies in their laps beg on corners not far from exclusive, walled neighborhoods bristling with signs touting their security. "Bakkies" stuffed with working people on their way back home to one of the former townships where blacks were forced to live under apartheid hurtle past the luxurious Sandton mall.

At our hotel near the zoo, polite staff cautioned us not to walk around downtown because of crime. Decades of minority oppression followed by frustration with the slowness of change since apartheid ended in the early '90s have fed desperation and violence here.

However, thanks to new security measures, some say the problem is starting to level off. And there's much to see and experience here before taking off for Kruger or maybe South Africa's exotic Wild Coast.

If history is your thing, take a guided tour of nearby Soweto, once Jo'burg's largest black township. Here you can visit the modest former home of Nelson Mandela. Or stop by Gold Reef City outside Jozi, where the metal was discovered in 1886 and thousands of men have since died extracting it from the earth.

Back in the city itself, visit Mai Mai, its oldest market, where you'll see plenty of healers selling traditional herbs and remedies. Colorful, meticulously made bead and wirework is also sold on the roads and at intersections. For many crafters, their only income is from sales of this work.

At night, taxi to the Rivonia area for posh clubbing. We enjoyed sampling Cape Malay cuisine and a complex South African chardonnay in one of the city's many great restaurants. A city of contradictions, particularly between rich and poor, Jo'burg remains sharply etched in our minds.

Quick Tips:

Not to belabor the point but please don't wander the streets of downtown Johannesburg by yourself as this is unsafe. That said, a guided tour of the former all-black township of Soweto is well worth your time. Day long tours, including lunch of such "township fare" as dombolo (steamed bread) and Umqhusho (Khosa samp and beans-Nelson Mandela's favourite dish), cost approximately person and include visits to Nelson Mandela's former home in Soweto along with that of Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Located six kilometers outside Johannesburg, Gold Reef City Theme Park is was created around an authentic 19th Century gold mine. Today, the park offers adventures rides, restaurants, history, site seeing and tours, including a chance to go down into an underground gold mine.

The park is open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30am to 5pm, and admission starts at per person.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxi and/or chauffeured car. Because of crime, walking is not recommended in much of the city nor are the public buses.

What a perfect place to crash after the 15+ hour flight from the U.S. to Jo'burg! The Westcliff is truly a hotel where the comfort is equalled only by the service. And considering its quality, the approximately $200 price for a huge, immaculate double room was a bargain.

Ten minutes away from Johannesburg's northern suburbs, this lush Mediterranean-style hotel sits on three acres of landscaped grounds overlooking the city. Its 115 individually furnished rooms and suites, featuring fully-appointed splendid en-suite bathrooms, are designed to accommodate every need. Standard features include satellite TV and VCR, two phone lines, data port, and digital safe, individually controlled air-conditioning units, and mini bar fridge. We particularly appreciated the firm beds and the quiet of the Westcliff. Since we stayed there, the hotel has also opened its own spa.

At lunch, we sampled South African prawns at its La Belle Terasse poolside restaurant, which we shared with the entire UK national rugby team, who were in Jo'burg for a match against the Springboks. That evening, we had dinner at the more formal Loggia, which featured spectacular views of the city and an entrée (can't recall what it was now) that featured tiny flecks of real South African gold!

The Westcliff Hotel is located within a fully walled estate, with 24 hour a day security patrols. Enclosed parking, private room safes, large item and firearm storage are available upon request. In addition, it offers airport transfers (all of ours went flawlessly) and shuttle bus service to such sites as the posh Sandton mall. (We stayed at the Westcliff for two nights each on the front and back side of a trip into the South African bush in 2000.)

All service at this hotel was utterly impeccable. Every staff member we had contact with was both polished and responsive. And when we got ready to check out, this process was accomplished quickly and with no hitches.

We cannot recommend this hotel highly enough.

Sometimes called "Africa’s richest square mile", Sandton City is also among Africa’s largest shopping centers with over 300 stores. Much of Johannesburg's business tourism is centered on Sandton, which is home to a string of 5-star hotels. However, even if you’re not staying at the Sandton Sun, Intercontinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers, the Garden Court Sandton City or the Michaelangelo Hotel, Sandton City is still well worth a look as it is here where you will everything from fine African art to camera supplies for that upcoming jaunt into the bush.

As we were staying at the Westcliff hotel up the road and were only stopping over briefly in Jo’burg before leaving for Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve, Sandton seemed to be worth a quick look. All better local hotels provide chauffeured transportation to and from Sandton so despite the city’s well-earned reputation for crime you should be plenty safe going there. And once you arrive, there’s plenty to see.

I particularly enjoyed shopping for colorful Zulu beadwork in Indaba Lifestyle while my husband ducked off to get a haircut at Franco International. He later remarked that his haircutter was originally from Ivory Coast, a reminder that since the long overdue end of apartheid, South Africa has become a magnet for Africans from poorer and less stable nations. Sadly though, because unemployment is still very high throughout the country, immigrants often receive a hostile reception here as many South Africans just barely hanging on are afraid these outsiders will take their jobs and strain resources.

Sandton is also a good place for international visitors to change money as it’s home to four South African banks featuring ATMS and three currency exchanges. At such institutions as First National and Nedbank, safety is not the concern it might be at another branch in Johannesburg. Most of these banks are open at least half a day on Saturday and the currency exchanges stay open all day.

For a taste of how Jo’burg’s elite shop for food and wine, wander into Checkers Hyper, an upscale grocery store. Here you will find the best biltong (dried meat beloved by South Africans), a wine shop stocking many fabulous local wines renowned around the world, a cheese shop and of course a fruit and vegetable market. Then if all this food has made you hungry, you can stop in at any of the various restaurants and cafes found on Sandton’s upper and lower levels, which range from fast food franchises to Vilamoura, a fancy Mediterranean restaurant.

Sandton is open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays and public South African holidays.

Though the bitter South African government policy of apartheid became history in 1994, if you visit Johannesburg its lingering effects can still be seen almost anywhere you go in the city. Ragged women holding babies in their laps beg on street corners, fences around middle-class homes bristle with signs warning of alarms and guard dogs, and closed-circuit surveillance cameras stare back at you everywhere.

Though apartheid is no longer the law of the land, its legacy is the crime, poverty, and desperation many residents of Jo’burg (a nickname for the city) still face daily. In the early 1990s, the so-called "Group Areas Act" (1950), which had reserved the city center and suburbs for whites, was finally scrapped. Thousands of poor, under-educated, and unemployed native people previously restricted to surrounding black townships like Soweto (home of Nelson Madela) and Alexandra soon flooded into the city, closely followed by urban blight. In addition, because Johannesburg was South Africa’s most northerly big city, it has become a magnet for uncounted immigrants from other African countries fleeing poverty and war.

Crime skyrocketed, especially assault, robbery, and even murder. Landlords abandoned many buildings in the city, particularly in high-density areas such as Hillbrow. Many corporations and institutions, including the country’s principal stock exchange, moved their headquarters away from the city center to relatively secure suburbs like Sandton. By the late 1990s, Johannesburg was ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous cities.

Today, reviving the city center has become is one of the main aims of Jo’burg’s government. Concerned about the effects of crime on the economy, quality of life and tourism, the city has taken drastic measures. In the central business district more than 200 surveillance cameras have been installed; all streets are now monitored around the clock by an army of operators. Cameras can spot "bad guys" and follow them around street blocks. The city’s automatic teller machines (ATM) are also constantly being watched. Though crime is still an issue here, the number of robberies and thefts has considerably decreased since these crime-fighting measures were put in place over the past decade.

Such problems have plagued Jo’burg because of the bitter residue of pain and desperation decades of apartheid rule left behind in South Africa.

In Afrikaans, the language of the Dutch whites who settled in South Africa in the 17th century, the word apartheid means "separateness". It described the rigid racial separation between the governing white minority population and the nonwhite majority population that was the law here from 1948-1994. Though these laws no longer exist, apartheid's social, economic, and political inequalities have left white and black South Africans with a pounding hangover.

Apartheid classified people according to three major racial groups: white, Bantu or black Africans, and colored or people of mixed race. Later Asians were added as a fourth category. Laws dictated where members of each group could live, the jobs they could hold, and the education they could receive. Apartheid also forbade most social contact between races, authorized segregated public facilities, and denied nonwhites representation in the government. South Africans who openly opposed apartheid were tagged Communists and the government passed strict security legislation, essentially turning the country into a police state.

Sadly, even before apartheid became official policy, South Africa had a long history of racial segregation and white supremacy. In 1910, the country’s parliament became all-white and in 1913, it passed legislation limiting black land ownership to 13% of South Africa's total area. Not surprisingly, most native Africans opposed these discriminatory policies, which made it virtually impossible for them to get an education, make a living and live where they wanted.

To fight these policies, the African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912. In the 1950s, after apartheid was made law, the ANC declared that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white," and began working to abolish the system. In March 1960, at least 180 blacks died during bloody riots against apartheid in Sharpeville, S.A., causing the government to ban all black African political groups, including the ANC.

From 1960 to the mid-1970s, the South African government tried to make apartheid a policy of so-called "separate development." Blacks were forced to live in newly established, destitute homelands called Bantustans, intended to eventually become sovereign states. Meanwhile, more than 80% of South African land remained in white hands. Increasing violence, strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations by apartheid opponents, along with the overthrow of colonial rule by native people in Mozambique and Angola, finally forced the government to relax some of its restrictions in the late '70s.

By 1980, as public opinion worldwide turned decisively against the apartheid regime, the government and most white South Africans increasingly began to feel their country was a haven besieged by communism and radical black nationalists. Considerable effort was put into getting around international sanctions and the government even began developing nuclear weapons.

However, by 1990, South Africa's white government had finally begun to see that apartheid not only was depressing its economy but bankrupting its soul. In February, the country's last white President F.W. de Klerk released Nelson Mandela, the revered ANC freedom fighter, from decades of imprisonment, amid jubilation across the land. In 1993, Mandela was elected South Africa's first black president following democratic elections.

Today, majority rule is a fact of life in the country but South Africa's proud people still struggle daily to shake off the bitter legacy of apartheid.