Full Day Soweto & Johannesburg City Tour

Situated in the heart of Johannesburg, Constitution Hill is a living museum that tells the story of South Africa’s transition from colonialism and apartheid to democracy, with all the pain, pathos and catharsis that such a journey entails.

The site served as a prison and briefly as a military fort for 100 years, incarcerating men, women and even children within its walls. Its long-standing history of incarceration and abuse is today laid bare for all to see (which you can do with a personal guide). The sites of these museums – the Old Fort, the Women's Jail and Number Four – are juxtaposed against profound symbols of human rights, democracy and constitutionalism, making the site a place of remembrance and redemption.

The most powerful of these is South Africa’s Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land, which can be found within the Constitution Hill precinct and which is open to the public. Constitution Hill also regularly hosts programmes and events on issues relating to constitutionalism in order to make these discussions easily available to South Africa’s citizens and visitors.

‘That night I returned with Winnie to No. 8115 in Orlando West. It was only then that I knew in my heart I had left prison. For me No. 8115 was the centre point of my world, the place marked with an X in my mental geography.’

Nelson Mandela, The Long Walk to Freedom, on his return to 8115 Orlando West after his release from prison in 1990.

The Mandela House at 8115 Orlando West, on the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane Streets, Soweto, was built in 1945, part of a Johannesburg City tender for new houses in Orlando. Nelson Mandela moved here in 1946 with his first wife, Evelyn Ntoko Mase, They divorced in 1957, and from 1958 he was joined in the house by his second wife, Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela (Winnie).

He was to spend little time here in the ensuing years, as his role in struggle activities became all-consuming and he was forced underground (1961), living a life on the run until his arrest and imprisonment in 1962.

Nelson Mandela returned here for a brief 11 days after his release from Robben Island in 1990, before finally moving to his present house in Houghton. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, herself imprisoned several times, lived in the house with her daughters while Nelson Mandela was in jail, until her own exile to Brandfort in 1977, where she remained under house arrest until 1986. The family continued to occupy the house until 1996, when the Mandelas divorced. The house was subsequently turned into a public heritage site, with Nelson Mandela as the Founder Trustee.

‘The house itself was identical to hundreds of others built on postage-stamp-size plots on dirt roads. It had the same standard tin roof, the same cement floor, a narrow kitchen, and a bucket toilet at the back. Although there were street lamps outside we used paraffin lamps as the homes were not yet electrified. The bedroom was so small that a double bed took up almost the entire floor space.’

‘It was the opposite of grand, but it was my first true home of my own and I was mightily proud. A man is not a man until he has a house of his own.

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.

Hector Pieterson, a 12 year old child, who is believed to have been the second school pupil shot by police during the Soweto Student Uprising on 16th June, 1976 - but the first fatality.