Mandela House, Soweto


Page created : 13th March 2014
Page updated : 24th August 2024


Explore the REAL Johannesburg

” . . . few original items on display. Learnt nothing about Nelson Mandela’s life here! “

” . . . is a must see to learn about a bit of history of the country. ”

“ A visit to the Apartheid Museum is more befitting the memory of Mandela than visiting this tourist trap. ”


The racially segregated entrance turnstiles to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg

MANDELA HOUSE, SOWETO

If you hope to learn something about Nelson Mandela’s life during his time here, you really will need a guide as there is nothing of significance that helps you understand this period of his life!

My first visit to 8115 Vilakazi Street, was in 1998.
I was in Soweto, heading to a shebeen, to watch Bafana Bafana (the name of the South African national soccer team) play Saudi Arabia in the FIFA World Cup.

I was the only visitor in his home, and the experience was warm and intimate.
I felt honoured to be there – like being an invited guest.
This was his home!

Today, the house is cluttered with every knick-knack bearing his name, but nothing to do with his home.

My first visit was also the time when the area still felt like Soweto.
A time before the same tasteless development permeated Vilakazi Street.
Recently constructed buildings – so unsympathetic to their environment, extortionate restaurants, overpriced curios, fake traditional dancers and aggressive ‘car guards’, all add to this tourist-trap.

The home was closed for nearly a year in April 2008, and re-developed at a cost of R9 million (R20 million equivalent in 2024), as The Mandela House.
The home was virtually demolished – the roof was removed and walls knocked down – including one internal wall, which was so much a part of the history of the house – that Winnie Mandela had built as a shield to protect the family from police bullets!

Today, it still retains the brick and mortar structure that Nelson Mandela moved into with his first wife, Evelyn Mase in 1946 – but unfortunately little else!

It has tragically lost all of its soul, and today is no longer the home where Nelson Mandela lived on-and-off for 16 years.
It is sadly a monument to where his home once stood!

Today, Vilakazi Street could be any street, in any town, in any country – anywhere in the world, if it wasn’t for the fact that both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who were both recipients of the Noble Peace Prize, lived in the same street!.

INFORMATION CORRECT
August 2024

MANDELA HOUSE ENTRANCE FEES :
South African and African Union
Adults : R100.00
Pensioners : R50.00
Children : 7-18 Years R40.00
Students : R40.00
Under 7 : Free

International
Adults : R180.00
Pensioners : R180.00
Children : 7-18 Years R70.00
Students : R70.00
Under 7 : Free

MANDELA HOUSE OPENING TIMES :
Monday – Sunday : 09h00 – 16h45 (9.00am – 4.45pm)
Closed on Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day

MANDELA HOUSE ADDRESS :
8115 Vilakazi Street
Orlando West
1804
Soweto

MANDELA HOUSE GPS Co-ordinates (hddd.dddddd)
S26.23862° E027.90860°

MANDELA HOUSE CONTACT :
Telephone : +27 (0)11 936-7754
Fax : +27 (0)11 936-4244
Email: info@mandelahouse.com

NELSON MANDELA’S EARLY DAYS IN JOHANNESBURG

Nelson Mandela, world leader and citizen of Johannesburg, was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election.
He was the President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

He first came to Johannesburg in April 1941, after fleeing an arranged marriage, at his birthplace, in what is now the Eastern Cape – then the Transkei in the Union of South Africa.
He was 22 years old.

NELSON MANDELA’S FIRST MARRIAGE

In his early days in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela lived in Alexandra township, but after meeting Evelyn Ntoko Mase, a nurse, and marrying her 1944, he moved into House 8115, Vilakazi Street, Orlando, Soweto in 1946.
Three of their 4 children were born in the house.

Evelyn Mase, a converted Jehovah’s Witness, was a homebody and had no interest in politics.
She made a demand in 1955, that her husband of 11 years, either gave up politics, or she would leave him.
They separated in 1956.
He and Evelyn Mase were divorced in March 1958.

NELSON MANDELA’S SECOND MARRIAGE

Nelson Mandela then married Nomzamo Winifred ‘Winnie’ Zanyiwe Madikizela, a qualified social worker, in June 1958.
He had two daughters with her in the house.

After he left the house in 1961 to go into hiding, Winnie Mandela became a symbol of resistance against apartheid.
She endured harassment and trauma at the hands of the police, and the house itself became a hub for activists and a symbol of the ongoing fight for freedom.

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others" - one of Nelson Mandela's well know quotes, on a wall at the entrance to the Apartheid Museum

TREASON TRIAL

On 5th December 1956, Nelson Mandela – along with 155 others were arrested, and charged with high treason.
They had all been leaders at the Congress of the People in June 1955 in Kliptown, where they had all adopted the Freedom Charter.
The trial dragged on for four-and-a-half years, and became known as the “Treason Trial”, before Mandela and his co-defendants were found not guilty, and acquitted on 29 March 1961.

RIVONIA TRIAL

In 1961, Nelson Mandela, In the face of government repression, left the house and went ‘underground’ for a life as a political activist.
He was arrested at a roadblock near Howick, KwaZulu-Natal on 5 August 1962, and on 7 November 1962 sentenced to 5 years in prison.
It was whilst serving this sentence that he became one of the accused with 10 others at the Palace of Justice in Pretoria in what became known as the ‘Rivonia Trial’.
He, with 7 of the other accused, were found guilty, and on 12 June 1964, sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island

Once through the entrance turnstiles, you share the ramp leading to the entrance of the Apartheid Museum, with life size photos of some of the residents of Johannesburg, with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

RELEASE FROM PRISON

In ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’, Nelson Mandela describes returning to the house in 1990 after being released from 27 years in prison.

“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.”

In 1990, he instituted divorce proceedings against Winnie and the divorce was finalised in March 1996.

The view of the city of Johannesburg, from the top of the ramp, before descending the stairway to the "temporary" Nelson Mandela exhibition on your left and the permanent museum display on your right.
Sticks, each colour representing a different speech by Nelson Mandela, chosen by visitors according to which speech they particularly liked
Rear view of 'World on its Hind Legs', a fractured sculpture by William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx, which was previously on display in the gardens of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. The museum building is in the background
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