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The name given in 1963 to the collection of townships to the southwest of Johannesburg. It's an abbrevation of
SOuth-WEsternTOwnships. A competition for a name launched in 1959
received thousands of entries. Many were turned down because they were felt to favour a particular ethnic
group or were too complicated. Examples include Dumuzweni ('famous the world round'), Thinavhuyo ('we have
nowhere to go'), Thari' Ntshu ('the black nation'), Khethollo ('segregation'), Oppenheimerville (after Sir
Ernest Oppenheimer of the Anglo-American Corportion, who loaned the city council R6 million to build houses),
Vergenoeg ('far enough'), Coon's Kraal, Black Birds Bunk, Creamland, Darkiesuburban, Darkest Africa, Partheid
Townships. After four years of deliberations, the naming committee took the safe option, Soweto.
Related Resources:
16 June 1976 Student Uprising
When high-school students in Soweto started protesting for better education 25 years ago, police responded
with teargas and live bullets.
Apartheid laws
What makes South Africa's apartheid era different to segregation and racial hatred that have occurred in other
countries is the systematic way in which the National Party, which came into power in 1948, formalised it
through the law.
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