Talk:Soweto

Image(s)

The first actual photo you see in this article is of a bunch of shacks. While this certainly exists, I don't think this gives a representative image of Soweto, as in reality Soweto consists almost entirely of actual urban housing (mostly low-cost/poor, but still actual brick houses on often or even usually tarred roads etc.) and has very few shacks like this. A fly-over in Google Maps/Earth confirms this - it's difficult to even find areas with shacks! If I knew nothing about Soweto I would get the impression that most of Soweto looks like this. I think this also isn't really in line with the way articles on other major urban areas in the world are presented (e.g. the London article's first photo isn't of the poorest spot in London, and even other world cities with actual worse slums aren't portrayed in as distorted a way). Soweto may be very poor compared to say what used to be the 'white suburbs', but not compared to the more hardcore townships and overwhelmingly looks nothing like the impression one gets if one looks at this image. There are townships that are mostly shacks, but that's not Soweto. User:David Joffe 11 June 2007

Part of the city of Johannesburg or separate?

It's not clear to me, from reading the article, whether or not Soweto is a part of Johannesburg. The "Demographics" section suggests that it is separate, but other sections suggest otherwise. Funnyhat 04:20, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

• Soweto is today part of the City of Johannesburg. Its townships ("suburbs") have been divided into Region 6 and Region 10, administrative areas of Johannesburg. Since 1903 it was administered by the Johannesburg city council, then by the state. In 1983 Soweto was granted its own municipal status.

DocDee 17:38, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

• • Here is a clearer answer to the question put, and it comes from the Government of Johannesburg itself. Although Soweto was granted its own municipal status in 1983, it was re-integrated into Johannesburg after the end of the apartheid era as part of the new "unicity" of Johannesburg, along with seven other former suburbs of Johannesburg. The population of Soweto itself is just under 900,000. That number is included in Johannesburg's total population of 3.2 million.

http://www.joburg.org.za/unicity/overview1.stm At a glance The Unicity The municipal area covers 1 644 sq kilometres, with an average density of 1 962 persons per square kilometre. It is the densest urban area in South Africa. The unicity has merged into Johannesburg such previously independent satellite towns as Soweto, Alexandra, Randburg, Sandton, Roodepoort, Kyalami, Midrand and Ivory Park.

=

I removed:

It is a troubled, spirited, exhilarating landscape of activity and regeneration, the child of incarceration, the mother of a new breed of liberty, the shame and pride of South Africa.

because that doesn't read like encyclopaeida material to me. Robin Johnson 15:39, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Population

Soweto's population should be given. I read once that it was 5 million, but that seems overly high. Anyone know what it is?

Can someone please clarify: "Today's Soweto, incorporating Orlando, Dobsonville, Diepkloof and Dube, remains an overwhelmingly black-dominated city with over three million people.". The entire population of Johannesburg is listed as 3.2 million. How does the count work? --62.90.162.101 09:34, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure where whoever wrote this got the list of townships in Soweto from. "Gauteng" is the name of the province where Johannesburg (and hence Soweto) are located. It is not a township. For more a list of Soweto's townships, the official site might be a good place to start http://www.joburg.org.za/soweto/overview.stm

• Note that the list at the above link is incomplete, as it omits "extensions" and "zones" to Soweto townships, as well as leaving out others that are usually included (e.g. Noordgesig, Race Course). DocDee 22:03, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I am looking for the name of the first youth killed in the Soweto riots of, I guess, 1976. He has the same last name as a hero of the community on Lake Nicaragua in Nicaragua as I recall. Thanks. Bruce Graves

Hastings Ndlovu was the first youth killed in the Soweto riots in June 1976, but the photo of Hector Pieterson who died about the sametime became the iconic image that spread across world. --Jcw69 06:56, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Removed paragraph without context

I removed the paragraph "After the riots the question "So Where To from now?" was asked in a drama staged by students at the University of Stellenbosch. See History of South Africa. " as its relevance and significance seems unclear.

For example:

a. The author does not clarify the nature of the drama in the context of the Soweto uprisings. Did it question the nature or causes of the events? Did it support or belittle what happened? The weight of this response seems far less than is necessary in a discussion of the death and destruction of those events. The line of discourse is unbalanced by its inclusion, as in: people who bore the brunt of 28 years of repression protested, many children were killed by the police, some protestors rampaged and killed others - and at Stellenbosch they produced a drama?

b. The rationale for including one particular Afrikaner response to the uprisings is unclear. Why is the response by this group more relevant than those by other ethnic groups, or by other Afrikaners?

c. The author fails to indicate why this particular action should be considered more important than others which are not mentioned, such as the works of Athol Fugard.

d. I could also not locate the reference to this event after following the link (See History of South Africa. ")

DocDee 20:06, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

source of info to enhance page

http://www.soweto.co.za/html/i_research_doc1.htm 71.236.158.138 05:43, 7 December 2006 (UTC)Clare Strawn

So Where To

I have never heard of the "so where to" name, and I think it's just a joke that might or might not have had currency at one time. I'm sure it's not worth putting in the lead paragraph! --Slashme (talk) 12:10, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

issue with numbers

I haven't done any fact checking; however, this page describes the number dead at a peaceful protest to be five hundred something; however, the South Africa under apartheid page describes the number dead at 23.