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Heritage Sites

Soweto’s Rich Heritage and The African Bank Soweto Marathon

Table of Contents

Last Updated: November 25, 2025

About Soweto’s Rich Heritage and The African Bank Soweto Marathon

Heritage Sites & Soweto Icons

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History

The township’s history is written in music and dance. It’s also written in fashion and style. Yes, there was a bloody past, with government brutality ending lives aplenty, scattering families and displacing entire communities. However, there never was a time when ikasi lama-kasi, as locals say, asserting theirs as the mother of all townships, lost its spark or groove or bragging rights. No other place has, for decades, been home to at least two of the subcontinent’s football behemoths. Heita Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates! The close-knit community is teeming with musical talent: from Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse and Yvonne Chaka Chaka to, more recently, Samthing Soweto. Robert Sobukwe, an intellectual, answered to Soweto for the majority of his activism career. The community is revered in dollops. Fun also comes in dollops.
From the sounds of marabi and Shangaan disco to Afrobeats and Amapiano also in the mix,
Soweto, like its story, is steeped in music.

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Photo courtesy: Kabelo Mokoena (Sunday Times)

Explore Joburg

A culmination of research gathered over many years, the Online Johannesburg Heritage Register is being launched on Nelson Mandela Day 18 July 2025.

Among the many heritage sites featured is Chancellor House, the downtown offices of Mandela and Tambo Attorneys in the 1950s. After having been vacant and shuttered for more than a decade, this iconic building is being revived and brought to life once again as offices for the Community Development Department, which oversees the City’s Arts, Culture & Heritage Services.

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