From our idyllic, nature-laden safari in Botswana, we flew to Johannesburg, South Africa. I was hyped up about it and a bit worried about the crime-ridden city our fellow safari companions had told us stories about. We heard about tourists being followed into public bathrooms and having their finger cut off when they couldn’t get their ring off. And more stories in that same vein. And these weren’t just newspaper sensationalism, our safari friends claimed to have known some of the victims. We were told not to use ride sharing, not to venture out at dark, to always be amongst a lot of people, to put all luggage and backpacks in a locked trunk, not to have your car windows open, to keep car doors locked and to make sure we didn’t carry anything of value. So you can see why I was hyped up!
We got to Johannesburg early afternoon and decided to use Uber since there are safety features associated with the app to make sure your rider is vetted and who they say they are. I also sent the ride details to Rick in the USA so he could sound the alarm if we were kidnapped. Everything was uneventful and we were deposited safely to our hotel in the Rosebank area of Johannesburg. During this first ride, we kept the car windows up and the doors locked and all our luggage was in the trunk.
Our Holiday Inn hotel was nice – more upscale than Holiday Inns in the USA. It had a small gym and a pool but the best amenity of all we were to discover and love. The hotel was connected to a shopping mall and that shopping mall led into another large modern mall. As one who detests shopping, I thought this is useless to me, but was I ever wrong. These malls were upscale, had security out the wazoo, were full of restaurants, movie theaters and an arcade with Skee Ball! Tons of people came to the malls to experience mall life – lots of photo taking, laughter, meet-ups and kid-friendly activities. We were there right before Christmas, so there were Christmas decorations all over the place. It was what I sort of remember that malls in the USA used to be like before the advent of online-everything.
We had food, entertainment and safety attached to our hotel! We were emboldened by what we saw and started thinking that the scary stories were one-offs and we just needed to be sensible as we have been all along.
At the mall, we found great restaurants and most of them were outdoors in the midst of all the mall goers – great people watching. We played Skee Ball and we saw the 2nd installment of the Wicked movie. By the way, don’t get popcorn if you go to a movie and love buttered popcorn. They provide salt packets that are butter flavored and it is a really poor substitute for the fake movie butter that is in liquid form.
We were also able to replace a couple of items that have gotten lost over the months – a pair of earrings for me and a small combination lock for luggage. We had also lost our silicone wedding rings that cost about $17 apiece. We found some in the mall but alas, they didn’t have the right sizes/colors and so our ring fingers are still naked.
I bet you’re wondering now, if we just lived a mall-rat life for those 4 days. No we did not! That would have been too much mall-life even for a Jersey-girl like me.
After some asking around we found a running group meet-up that we joined one evening. That was fun although I couldn’t keep up with their pace and only managed to run with them for a mile or so. The route went into the adjoining neighborhoods in Rosebank, which were lovely. Very green lawns and vegetation, large houses, some parks. The roads were residential so we weren’t worried about cars. Of course we’re still in South Africa, so you see security guards, fences around the houses with barbed wire on top and trash along some of the roads. Given this close proximity of places to run safely, we ventured out on our own run and felt perfectly safe doing so.
We assumed Rosebank was the most upscale area of Johannesburg and that is why we were cocooned in safety, but we asked a taxi driver and he said there were about 5 areas of Johannesburg that are even more upscale than Rosebank.
We also ventured out to see some art and historical areas. We used Uber and actually cracked the windows a little bit – but kept the doors locked and our handbags safely secured.
The art museum was disappointing because there was very little art, some of the galleries were closed at the time, the lighting was terrible and the African art that was there was not very interesting – newer stuff without much soul. But I enjoyed one exhibit about local idioms and their meanings.
We left that and went on to Constitution Hill where the constitutional arm of the national government resides. Turns out that South Africa has 3 capitals and Johannesburg isn’t one of them. Pretoria is the Executive capital, Cape Town is the Legislative capital and Bloemfontein is the Judicial capital. But Johannesburg is where Constitutional matters are debated and decided on so it is a very important and historical part of South Africa.
The Constitution Hill area had been the first jail for the country – political prisoners – Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were both incarcerated there, as was Kasturba Gandhi (Gandhi’s wife) who also incited peaceful protests against the oppressive government. It was a prison for anyone who opposed the ruling party and for criminals ranging from murderers to petty criminals. There was lots of biographical information about Gandhi and Mandela. And then the country decided to use that old jail because it was so symbolic for persecuting non-violent political voices, and turn it into their constitutional branch of government. This is the place where the constitution and bill of rights were written and became law for the country. One really gets a sense for the violent past of South Africa which silenced black and brown people and regarded them as inferior people, to the present where they tackled apartheid and wrote equality into their Constitution and Bill of Rights. Here is a photo of the constitutional court and the outside door with all 27 Bill of Rights written in 7 languages.
On the tour, there was a woman from Kenya (which used to be a British commonwealth) who was struck by the violent past of South Africa and remarked on how things are still very sensitive in South Africa right below the surface. Before her remarks I had assumed most of the African countries we had visited had the same playbook, but I realized I was mistaken to have made that broad generalization. Because the system of apartheid gripped South Africa for many decades, it has been much harder, and has involved more violence to attempt to establish equality for all.
Our visit to Johannesburg was a good one and turned out not to be stressful at all due to security/safety concerns. We will return to South Africa later to visit many of the other areas and go on a safari.