See Jozi sights with Rea Vaya

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The inner city circular route is an easy way to go sightseeing in Joburg. Hop on and off at will, or simply watch the unfolding parade from your seat.

 

FANCY some stress-free sightseeing in the inner city and Soweto but dread driving yourself? Rea Vaya, Joburg’s Bus Rapid Transit system, not only offers fast and reliable transport for Joburg residents and visitors, but has added another dimension to the City of Gold.

 

Taking in some of the City’s magnificent heritage sites, getting a taste of apartheid history or a culture fix at the Johannesburg Art Gallery is now just a hop-on-hop-off away because Rea Vaya goes to all these places. And the beauty of this plan is, you can do it at your own pace and stop whenever you want to.

 

Please note that eating and drinking is not allowed on buses or in stations, and stations have no ablution facilities. So, let’s climb into one of the bright blue and red buses and go.

WHERE TO BEGIN?

Truth is you can start from almost anywhere as there are several bus stations and stops strategically placed around the inner city. There are two options to choose from should you wish to do a little bit of sightseeing: the inner city circular route - C3; and the Ellis Park to Soweto route - T1.

The inner city sightseeing route at a glance:

Constitution Hill

• Famous for: the old Fort, three prisons and the location of South Africa’s highest court, the Constitutional Court;
• Nearest station: Constitution Hill Station in Joubert Street.

Johannesburg Art Gallery

• Famous for: having the biggest art collection on the sub-continent, including an extensive collection of contemporary art;
• Nearest station: Johannesburg Art Gallery Station in Twist Street.

Origins Centre

• Famous for: tracing back humanity’s earliest beginnings;
• Nearest station: there are no formal stations in this area; look out for the Rea Vaya bus stop signs in Jorissen or De Korte streets.

Planetarium

• Famous for: following the wonders of the planetary world;
• Nearest station: there are no formal stations in this area; look out for the Rea Vaya bus stop signs in Jorissen or De Korte streets.

World of Beer

• Famous for: taking a look at beer’s earliest origins – and the refreshments afterwards;
• Nearest station: Chancellor House Eastbound Station in Market Street.

Museum Africa

• Famous for: giving a slice of South African history, through the ages;
• Nearest station: Chancellor House Eastbound Station in Market Street.

Sci-Bono Discover Centre

• Famous for: getting a close-up view of the intricacies of maths, science and technology in a fun, hands-on way;
• Nearest station: Chancellor House Eastbound Station in Market Street.

Looking back at Joburg’s early beginnings on the inner city route, a central point to begin your sightseeing tour is undoubtedly Constitution Hill. There is ample and safe parking available to leave your car and historically, the site is not only steeped in Joburg’s earliest history but is also the seat of the highest court in the country.

CONHILL ATTRACTIONS

Created in 1893 as a high-security prison on the Braamfontein ridge, it was later a fort, and later still it became an infamous site in the apartheid history of the city. Constitution Hill today stands tall, a symbol of hope, courage and creativity for a new nation.

Hundreds of thousands of people were jailed there - including famous figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela. Stroll around the sites of the Old Fort, where white inmates were kept; Section Four and Section Five, the natives’ jail, built in 1902; and the women's jail added in 1909, or walk along the Old Fort ramparts to get an elevated perspective of the Joburg inner city.

All of these historical buildings and sites have been restored. The Constitutional Court itself is newly built and holds some spectacular architectural features and art work. Bricks used in its construction were preserved from the old prison.

Conhill is open daily, except for Sundays, and offers guided tours. Get more information from the Conhill website. There is a public toilet in this area, on the corner of Kotze and Hospital streets.

JOBURG ART GALLERY

From Conhill make your way to the Constitution Hill Station next to the Joburg Metro Centre in Braamfontein to catch the Rea Vaya bus to your next destination, the Joburg Art Gallery and Joubert Park. The station is in Joubert Street and a circular route ticket will cost you only R3,50. You can also buy a ticket for your return journey/s at this time as you will need more than one ticket if you visit all the sites on this list.

A circular route ticket, coloured green, is only valid for two hours after it has been stamped. But you can hop on or off as often as you want during this period.

It is just a short bus trip to the Joburg Art Gallery but you will be able to see a little bit of Joburg, a modern, cosmopolitan city flavoured with the trappings of the African diaspora as you travel along Edith Cavell Road. There is the unique Hillbrow bath house, a structure offering basic laundry and washing facilities to the many homeless and less fortunate living in Joburg’s most populated area.

Get off at the Joburg Art Gallery Station in Twist Street and walk into Joubert Park, a green haven and favourite hang-out for South Africans and nationals from as far as Senegal and Ethiopia alike. Also to be found here is the once notorious Hillbrow flatlands, a place which many African migrants now call home. It is a concrete jungle of sorts but with security guards stationed throughout, the walk through the park is scenic and entertaining for its odd mix of characters and people. You will see the art gallery and entrance at the southern end of the park.

It is the biggest gallery on the sub-continent, with a collection larger than that of the South African National Art Gallery in Cape Town. Completed in 1915, the building is a national heritage site. The Johannesburg Art Gallery is on the corner of Klein and King George streets; it can be contacted on 011 725 3130. The gallery visit should take about two hours.

ORIGINS CENTRE AND PLANETARIUM

Return to the Joburg Art Gallery Station. As a rule, you should wait no longer than 20 minutes for the C3 circular route buses. Next stop is the Origins Centre and Planetarium at the University of the Witwatersrand. Once in the bus, you will see ordinary Joburgers going about their business in one of the busiest intersections of Joburg, the corner of Twist and Noord streets.

Here, the large 18m Rea Vaya buses often have to make way for informal traders selling their fare on lopsided tables and carton boxes; informal recyclers pulling along overloaded trolleys filled with plastic bottles and cardboard; pedestrians of all ages; delivery vehicles and ordinary traffic, all scuffling to squeeze through this one, average-sized street corner – an ant’s nest kicked-over frenzy of activity in Joburg mixed with the sound of an occasional lone vuvuzela and the hoot of many taxis.

Enjoy the quirky names of the businesses in this area: Siesta Butchery where the meat is “too nice”, Multiple Nappies, Genesis Supermarket and Time for Change Mini Butchery.

 

The bus makes a short detour through this area before retracing its route past the art gallery, the Hillbrow bathhouse and ConHill, and then continuing down De Korte Street into Braamfontein. This is one of Joburg’s finest inner city precincts, consisting of mixed-use office and retail spaces as well as plenty of accommodation, mostly catering for its large student population. As a result, you will find a lot of nightclubs and take-away hangouts.

If you fancy a bite to eat, you can get off in De Korte Street, crossing De Beer Street to have lunch at Narina Trogon Restaurant, an interesting place that emulates the eateries of New York City in both décor and gastronomic experience.

If not, continue in the bus until you reach Wits’s Yale Road entrance, on the corner of Jorissen Street, where you will disembark. The Origins Centre is inside the university grounds, immediately to the left as you enter. The museum uses the latest technology to illustrate the earliest origins of humanity in Africa, and has spectacular artwork from our earliest times on display.

The Origins Centre also has the largest collection of rock art in the world. For more information, visit the centre’s website.

 

Just a short stroll further down the road, but still on the Wits East Campus, is the Joburg Planetarium. Its doors have been open to the public since 1960, when it became the first full-sized planetarium in Africa, and the second in the southern hemisphere. The planetarium offers various shows and courses. For more information, visit the website.

NEWTOWN AND THE INNER CITY

Afterwards, retrace your steps back to Jorissen Street in Braamfontein. You can catch a bus in Jorissen Street for your next stop – Newtown precinct and the CBD. Both areas offer a wealth of things to do and see. The bus now travels over Riebeeck Bridge, built in 1952, and into downtown Joburg.

If you look to your right you will see Nelson Mandela Bridge, completed in 2003 with the aim to link up the two main business areas of Braamfontein and Newtown as well as to rejuvenate and modernise the inner city. The bridge is the largest cable-stayed bridge in southern Africa and is 284 metres long.

Following Harrison Street in a southerly direction, you will now travel past some of Joburg’s oldest architectural treasures – the Gauteng provincial government buildings on your left completed in 1915, and the beautiful Joburg Library opened in 1930 on the right, both Edwardian. The library has almost two million books in its collection and has a number of specialist sections, including the Michaelis Art

Library.

 

The bus takes a left turn into Commissioner Street until it reaches Miriam Makeba Road - this is where you will get out for this part of the tour. There is much to do here: walking down Miriam Makeba Road, appreciate the striking light green colouring of the indigenous fever trees planted along the route.

You will see the World of Beer on the corner of Miriam Makeba Road and President Street, a museum dedicated exclusively to the origins of beer making, a journey which will take you back some 6 000 years. But you will have to book a tour in advance, with several sessions offered each day. A tour takes 90 minutes. For more information, visit the World of Beer website.

MUSEUM AFRICA

Situated in the heart of the Newtown cultural precinct, Museum Africa is Johannesburg’s premier history museum. It is housed in what was once the city's first fruit and vegetable market, purpose built in 1913. Museum Africa tells the story of South Africa. It is here you’ll find a slice of South African life through the ages. Entrance to the museum is free. For more information, visit the City of Johannesburg arts, culture and heritage website.

SCI-BONO DISCOVERY CENTRE

Sci-Bono is the largest science centre in Africa and consists of exhibition spaces, an auditorium, classrooms and laboratories, all geared to promote maths, science and technology among young people. It also has restaurants, shops and ample parking. For more information, visit the website.

 

Other Newtown attractions include the Market Theatre, Mary Fitzgerald Square and Metro Mall, to name a few. There are also a

number of coffee shops and restaurants to choose from, among them the famous Gramadoelas, situated next to the theatre and offering traditional dishes such as bobotie and mopanie worms. For more information on Newtown, visit the Joburg City website.

 

There are public ablution facilities on Mary Fitzgerald Square, on the corner of Bree and Henry Nxumalo roads. And then you can return to Chancellor House Eastbound Station in Market Street to catch a Rea Vaya bus back to your point of departure, knowing a whole lot more about this fascinating city.