Soshanguve


Soshanguve formerly known as Mabopane East, is a township situated about 30 km north of Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.
The name Soshanguve is an
acronym for SOtho, SHAngaan,
NGUni and VEnda, thus showing
the multi-ethnic composition of
the population. The major African
languages of South Africa are
heard in Soshanguve.
The acronym divided the Soshanguve
residents according to their tribe when
they were resettled from Mamelodi and
Atteridgeville in 1974. While this was to
make admin easy for the apartheid
government, it left a community divided
and suspicious of each other.
More than 20 years later, there are still
remnants of the past but there is
integration of cultures. The people of
Soshanguve arguably are the most multilingual of South Africans.
Tswaing, meaning Place of Salt in
Setswana, is a 2000-hectare heritage
site, some 40 km north-west of Central
Pretoria, surrounded by settlements
inhabited by more than a million people,
such as Winterveld, Soshanguve, Mabopane
and Eersterus, near Hammanskraal.

Places of interest