Experience: Exploring "The Other Side" Of Johannesburg
Intro
When I visit different places around the world, I tend to explore the locations that few people explore. While some have leaned towards the saying of "poverty porn", that's not the way that I like to look at it. When most people head on vacation, they see exactly what the tourism board wants them to see, but not what 90% of a country entails (for better or worse).
So, when the taxi driver from the night before offered to show me the real side of Johannesburg the next morning, there was no saying no.
The Experience
Waking up dreary-eyed at 5 am after a 3-hour sleep, the taxi driver was waiting outside, raring to go. Considering I had a flight at 10:00 am, this was going to have to be a quick tour. No coffee, no breakfast, just a blatant hangover.
Getting in the taxi, I had no idea where we were going. The only thing I knew was that he wanted to show me the real side of Johannesburg and how most people live.
We headed out of the airport to a place that I had no idea existed in Johannesburg. My gosh, it was the opposite of what I had ever experienced in South Africa. Of course, I have done safaris in Kruger and stayed at some of the top hotels in South Africa, but never once have I seen this side.
Most people in this community live in small shacks that are built from cheap materials and that are easy to acquire. Forget about toilets; forget about the rubbish truck coming to pick up your rubbish; this is life for a lot of people in SA. As a number for you, 55.5% of the population of South Africa (30-odd million people) live in poverty. In addition, 25% of the population lives in food poverty.
Unfortunately, due to the timing of our visit, there weren't too many people awake.
Moving on, we had one more place to visit this morning: downtown. From the outskirts of town to the main downtown area, it was around 25 odd minutes, with morning traffic included. Once arriving downtown, the first aspect that I noticed was the lack of Caucasian individuals. Seeing is believing, and seeing what the segregation is like firsthand is something that blew me out of the water.
The taxi driver told me that the place we were visiting used to be where all of the Caucasian people lived until they left it abandoned, and it has now turned into a place where there are almost no caucasian people. See, I am the opposite of most people, in fact the people from all over Africa are THE KINDEST SOULS on the planet. However, there is a stereotype that is entirely inaccurate that you will get robbed or killed (don't lie to yourself; there is). Maybe I'm wrong; this is just my observation.
Parking up right in downtown, we spent the next hour exploring parts of downtown, and talking with locals about their way of life. They mentioned that it is difficult living in South Africa and how much it has changed over the years.
The group of us (me and 2 mates) headed down to where some people were playing rugby, and they even offered to let us join in. To me, this is the kindness that has been shown to me across the entire continent (okay, minus a moment in Somalia, but that's just stupidity on my part).
However, I will say that it wasn't all bells and whistles; we got a lot of stares from people that resembled, "What the f**k are you doing here 😂 (surprised)."
To me, Africa will never just be about the natural beauty and the safaris; it's about the spots that have rarely been explored (for example, South Sudan).
To each their own, of course, but if you are looking to do something like this in Jo'burg, feel free to reach out to me, and I'll be happy to set it up 🙂.
Final Thoughts
Exploring the lesser visited locations in Johannesburg was one of the most exhilarating parts of South Africa, and felt truly authentic. To each their own, and I know I'll probably get judged for this, but this is Africa to me. With such a high poverty rate in the country it's something that needs more attention, and the first step is awareness.
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