Word: soweto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Soweto, a few miles from central Johannesburg, is one of South Africa's most notorious townships--the congested, occasionally chaotic home to millions of the country's poorest citizens. A tour is now practically mandatory for anyone visiting South Africa, to see how much the country has changed and how far it still has to go. Both Jimmy's Face to Face Tours (www.face2face.co.za) and Max Maximum Tours www.backpackafrica.com offer quality guided visits. Nearby is the Apartheid Museum www.apartheidmuseum.org) at which visitors are randomly assigned a racial classification and then enter the raw concrete-and-steel structure through...
Maponya himself says that, while others fought the system, he simply worked it - to make it work for him, and Soweto. "Nelson and the others, they sacrificed themselves, their jobs and their lives for our freedom. My contribution was small. I wasn't locked up. But I was undermining the regime. I was exposing them. I was making the statement that, given a chance, a black man could become as successful as a white...
...Maponya, who set up his own tailor and sold clothing on credit. The authorities closed that business - despite the best efforts of South Africa's first black law firm, established by Mandela and Oliver Tambo - but not before Maponya had built enough capital to set up a dairy in Soweto...
Since there was no electricity or refrigerators to keep perishables fresh, Maponya opened a distribution system with 100 bicycle delivery boys, who hauled milk to the families of Soweto exactly when they needed it. The dairy grew to a general provisions shop and, despite police raids and a constant battle to win licenses - for example, he needed a special license to sell soap on Sundays - a small conglomerate bloomed. By the mid-1970s, Maponya's businesses included a chain of general stores, a butcher shop, a restaurant, a Coca-Cola plant, filling stations and a GM and BMW car dealership...
That mission - upsetting the status quo - continues. "The new mall is about saying that a mall in Soweto can be as 21st century as anywhere in the world." As does his enthusiasm for getting up people's noses. After his win with Another Color, Maponya went on to become a breeder, at one time owning the biggest stable in South Africa. And the name of his stud? Maponya laughs. "Black Charger...