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Naashon Zalk/Full Frame, for The New York Times
A Symbol of Apartheid Sees Signs of Prosperity
September 9, 2005, By MICHAEL WINES
SOWETO, South Africa, Sept. 6 - They held a wine-tasting festival here this past weekend, the social event of the month in this sprawling township of a million-plus people just west of downtown Johannesburg. Among the 1,500 who showed up, Maureen Makhathini of Diepkloof needed a lift to get there.
"My car's in the shop," she explained. "The BMW, I mean."
If something seems wrong with that picture, well, something is. Soweto, after all, is famous as the hotbed of rebellion in apartheid's dying days - a place of endless poverty, seething anger and, too often, mindless violence by oppressors and oppressed alike. Say "Soweto," and educated palates and Bavarian roadsters do not jump quickly to mind.
That, Mrs. Makhathini says, is what is wrong. "It used to be very, very, very rough," she said. "Now you can see that it's exactly the opposite."
It is possible to gloss over Soweto's - and South Africa's - many problems. The rich-poor divide in this nation remains among the widest on earth, and Soweto, the oldest and biggest township, remains deeply rooted on the poor side of that gap. The racial divide persists, too, and ordinary Sowetans may not have so much made peace with their old white oppressors, as they have rendered them irrelevant to daily life.
But something else is going on here as well. From the ashes of apartheid, Soweto is emerging as a springboard into the black middle and upper classes, an economic hub in its own right and, its proponents say, an example to which other townships can aspire.
"Ten years ago, there was no excitement like there is now," said Mnikelo Mangciphu, a grocery and dry-goods distributor who has sprung into Soweto's burgeoning wine market. "There is a drive by the government and by the people to invest in Soweto. Roads are being tarred, all the infrastructure is being upgraded, and that on its own encourages more investment."
In fact, Soweto no longer looks like an archetypal township, with its ragtag collection of concrete block huts and waterless, powerless shacks, but instead resembles a typical if modest suburb. So-called informal settlements of shanties account for fewer than one in 10 dwellings; most homes now are made of brick, and utilities are a given.
Some neighborhoods, Diepkloof and Pimville among them, are now comparatively high-income areas, with homes and real-estate markets to match. A recent market study pegged the average household's income at about $4,900 a year - above the average for black South Africans, and high by African standards in general, though such statistics can be unreliable.
And while the nation's latest census, from 2001, concluded that the great majority of Sowetans made less than $12,000 a year, it also found that nearly 20,000 of the 300,000 households made more - some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, in fact.
Since then the region has embarked on what looks very much like a development boom.
A $16 million complex that includes offices, shops and a tourist center commemorating South Africa's Freedom Charter opened in June in Kliptown, Soweto's historic heart. Richard Maponya, a self-made millionaire in retailing, broke ground in July on a 650,000-square-foot shopping mall in central Soweto that he says will be aimed squarely at up-market consumers.
Another consortium announced plans last month for an 18-hole golf course near Pimville that is being designed by Gary Player, the legendary South African pro, and will be surrounded by housing. Coincidentally, the announcement follows a warning by President Thabo Mbeki that such golf estates are gobbling up prime land, marginalizing the poor and worsening racial divisions.
Caxton Newspapers, a big South African chain, is rolling out 11 free-distribution weeklies in Soweto neighborhoods, written and published by local residents, to complement the 90 it hands out in white communities.
"They've opened a very large shopping mall in Protea, there's a large mall in Dobsonville, and one opening in the future in Pimville," Kevin Keogh, the chief executive of Caxton's urban newspapers division, said, ticking off Soweto neighborhoods. "That all adds up to advertising dollars."
Local merchants claim to see the changes as well. The Backroom Restaurant in Pimville, open just four months, does a brisk business serving food, blues and jazz to upscale patrons, not just from Soweto, where surveys say 4 in 10 workers are white-collar employees or professionals, but from blacks who have moved out of Soweto to wealthier suburbs north of the city.
"Our target market is middle class to top end," said the owner, Patrick Mrasi (pronounced m-GHA-si). "I wanted to create a networking place, one where guys can come and have their business meetings. A lot of these guys are successful and live in the suburbs, but they still have families in the township, and even in the week, after work, they come here. Soweto's where they spend most of their time."
As a draw, the Backroom has begun offering an extensive list of South African wines, served by stewards trained by the Cape Wine Academy. "Since I opened, there's been a nice, steady growth," Mr. Mrasi said. "Nobody would have thought I could reach these levels."
Some did, actually. Last weekend's wine festival, which showcased the wines of 10 black-owned wineries among the 86 exhibitors, was conceived by Mr. Mangciphu, the distributor, and the Cape Wine Academy's local manager, Lyn Woodward, over a cookout at Mr. Mangciphu's Pretoria home. "I was drinking beer out of a glass from the Soweto Beer Festival" last November, he said, "and so she said, 'Guys, why don't we have a wine festival?' "
Ten months later, the festival was successful enough that some late arrivals on Sunday were turned away and the promoters have decided to make it an annual event. Mr. Mangciphu and Ms. Woodward, with two others, have formed a company to market and distribute fine wine in Soweto and, later, other townships.
Their target is people like Mrs. Makhathini, a 52-year-old entrepreneur who seems to have the fingers of each hand in different pies. A dental nurse at a local hospital, she also runs a dressmaking business from a backyard office, rents still more space to a hair salon and - in her spare time - run a small charity for 100 local orphans.
Her latest plan is to add a second story to a house she owns in Pimville, using the proceeds from rentals to reopen a computer school and begin a videoconferencing center for Sowetans who want to communicate with friends and business contacts abroad.
As for wine, Mrs. Makhathini does not often partake. But the festival may change her mind. "I really had a good time," she said. "Unexpectedly."
Naashon Zalk/Full Frame, for The New York TimesYoung men socialized outside a party in Diepkloof. The nation's latest census concluded that the great majority of Sowetans made less than $12,000 a year, but it also found that nearly 20,000 of the 300,000 households made more - some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
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