The Hector Pieterson Museum is a heritage site intrinsically linked to the origins of the Soweto Uprisings and its aftermath. By 10. 30 am on 16 June 1976, thousands of students had gathered in Orlando West around Vilakazi Street and the precinct where the Hector Pieterson Museum is presently located to begin a protest march against the imposition of the Afrikens language as the medium of instruction in Soweto’s schools. More students from the various parts of the sprawling townships were still on their way to Orlando West / Phefeni. Police opened fire, killing Hastings Ndlovu and Hector Pieterson. The shooting sparked off days of unrest and hundreds of deaths. The Soweto uprisings had begun. After 16 and 17 June 1976, nothing in South Africa would be the same again. An old era was past. A new one was beginning. The Hector Pieterson Museum’s Orlando West precinct includes the following important sites: the spots where both Hector Pieterson (Vilakazi Street) and Hastings Ndlovu ...

The Mandela House strives to be a world-class visitor attraction, and a leading centre for the preservation, presentation, and research of the history, heritage and legacy of the great Mandela Family.

Kliptown, a suburb in the heart of Soweto, is the oldest residential district of Soweto and was first laid out in 1891 on land which formed part of Klipspruit (i. e. ‘rocky stream’) . From 1903 the area was home to informal settlements and in the well-known Union Street, the architectural history from this era can still be seen. In 2005 the Johannesburg City Council announced plans for renewal of the Kliptown area, including a large-scale housing project and the area now contains a mixture of purpose-built housing, offices and shops as well as the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication. Kliptown falls within the “Struggle Route” which takes the visitor along the history of the struggle for freedom. On June 26, 1955 the Congress of the People met in Kliptown. Organised by the African National Congress, the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People’s Congress the Congress saw the declaration and adoption of the Freedom Charter, which ...