Page 25 - Kmdu News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> anthony: this coming from a potential passenger means soweto. also this and this. johannesburg has an elaborate system of hand signals indicating desired routes of travel. so you're looking at the hand signals, and said, "okay, i'm not going there, i'm not going there." >> mdu: yeah, i'm looking at the hand signal. >> anthony: in 1904, soweto came into being as a less benign version of the housing project. it was designed as worker's lodging. a place to put black laborers comfortably removed from white society. a ghetto. by the 1950s, it had become the center of resistance to white rule, sy...

There was this time two guys were following me. they lifted me up and i had probably some few coins in my pocket. and just turned me around. just to shake me. >> anthony: shake you upside down? >> mdu: shake me upside down. i will never forget that moment in my life. i felt stupid, you know? get in, get in, ma. >> woman: how are you? >> mdu: hello. >> anthony: now there is a definite cache to living in soweto. a very real pride at having been at the very center of things back when it was hard dangerous to have an opinion. nelson mandela lived here. desmond tutu. when you're a certain age and y...

In my life. i felt stupid, you know? get in, get in, ma. >> woman: how are you? >> mdu: hello. >> anthony: now there is a definite cache to living in soweto. a very real pride at having been at the very center of things back when it was hard and dangerous to have an opinion. nelson mandela lived here. desmond tutu. when you're a certain age and you say you were born and bred in soweto, it means something. now do most of the people own their homes, or do they rent? >> mdu: uh, most of the people own their homes. >> anthony: they start to make a little more money, things start to get good, can y...

Hand signal. >> anthony: in 1904, soweto came into being as a less benign version of the housing project. it was designed as worker's lodging. a place to put black laborers comfortably removed from white society. a ghetto. by the 1950s, it had become the center of resistance to white rule, synonymous with the struggle against the whole rotten racist system. >> mdu: i remember when the situation was so bad in such a way that my mother had to put me inside a box where we put shoes and hide me there, under the bed. this is where i grew up most of the time. sometimes you would get bullied. there w...

>> anthony: what's in a name? if the name is soweto, you best believe it means plenty. >> mdu: let's go, let's go. >> anthony: this is mdu. for over a decade he's been in what has at times been the very difficult business of driving a taxi. you should probably know that the word taxi in soweto means something a little different then say, new york. >> mdu: 60% of the -- of the population is using a taxi. >> anthony: how many taxis in johannesburg? >> mdu: i would say more than a million. >> anthony: this coming from a potential passenger means soweto. also this and this. johannesburg has an ela...