Did You Know About Vilakazi Street?

Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu lived here – how many places can claim that two Nobel Prize winners lived in the same street?

The late Archbishop and his wife, Leah, used to stroll the streets and were known to come in unannounced into the Restaurants near their home

Mandela’s house has become a museum. It is called the Mandela House Museum and is open for public tours during the week, while the Archbishop’s home still serves as a family home.

But there is more to Vilakazi Street. A block away from here Hector Peterson was killed by police during the students’ uprising of June 16 1976, today celebrated as Youth Day.

Dr BW Vilakazi, after whom the street is named, was a poet, novelist and intellectual, who wrote in numerous indigenous languages. He was also the first black man to teach at Wits, the University of the Witwatersrand, even if he had to be employed as a ‘language assistant’ because of bureaucracy that did not allow black lecturers. Later, armed with a PhD in literature, he helped develop the written form of both isiZulu and siSwati, and helped put together the isiZulu dictionary