South-eastern Suburbs and Soweto
Soweto and the south-eastern suburbs, located in Region 6 and Region 10, border the city's mining belt in the north. The area is mostly composed of old "matchbox" houses, or four-room houses built by the government, that were built to provide cheap accommodation for black workers during apartheid.
Soweto is an abbreviation, standing for "South Western Townships". Street after street in this area is lined with matchboxes; however, there are a few smaller areas where prosperous Sowetans have built houses that are more similar in stature with those in more affluent suburbs. Many people who still live in matchbox houses have improved and expanded their homes, and the City Council has enabled the planting of more trees and the improving of parks and green spaces in the area.
Hostels are another prominent physical feature of Soweto. Originally built to house male migrant workers, many have been improved as dwellings for couples and families. The N1 Western Bypass skirts the eastern boundary of Soweto. The suburb was not historically allowed to create employment centres within the area, so almost all of its residents are commuters to other parts of the city. There is efficient road access for many parts of the region along busy highways to the CBD and Roodepoort, but commuters are largely reliant on trains and taxis.
Read more about this topic: Suburbs Of Johannesburg
Famous quotes containing the words suburbs and/or soweto:
“Slums may well be breeding-grounds of crime, but middle-class suburbs are incubators of apathy and delirium.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Women are the people who are going to relieve us from all this oppression and depression. The rent boycott that is happening in Soweto now is alive because of the women. It is the women who are on the street committees educating the people to stand up and protect each other.”
—Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu (b. 1919)