Below is more information on each of the above points.
1) Workers Museum
The Newtown Compound is one of the last surviving examples of
municipal compounds for black male workers. The City Council built
the compound in 1913 to house migrant workers who worked first for
the Sanitary Department and then at the nearby power station. The
men who lived in this compound were some of the many thousands of
migrant workers who were recruited through informal and formal
channels from throughout Southern Africa to work on the mines and
in towns and factories. They left their wives and children hundreds
of miles away in the rural areas and each night they returned to
their dormitories where they slept side-by-side in double-storey
concrete bunks with nine workers per level. There was no privacy
and the Compound Manager exercised total control over their
lives.
On the north side of the compound, a row of houses was built for
skilled white workers with tiny quarters in the yards for black
domestic workers. The sharp contrast between the living conditions
for white and black workers shows the racial segregation that
characterized the lives of these two groups. The working class was
divided on colour lines, with black migrants subjected to
slave-like conditions in compounds.
Today, the compound and the houses stand as a poignant reminder
of the migrant labour system. Elsewhere, many of the old compounds
are disappearing, and more and more hostels are being converted
into family accommodation. In 2010, around seventy government
compounds and hostels were still operation in Gauteng.
2) Wooden Heads
The 560 carved wooden heads dotted on plinths throughout the
Newtown precinct reflect a sea of faces from Africa. The artists,
Simon Guambe, Petrus Matsolo, Dan Guambe and Joe Matola, intended
these heads to reflect African diversity. They symbolise how for
the better part of the last century, Newtown was home to thousands
of migrants from throughout Africa and the world.
3) Banner of Hope
The Bannner of Hope steel sculpture of the South African flag
stands approximately three storeys high and 7 meters wide on a
concrete plinth in front of the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre. The
facets of the flag have been twisted and creatively re-arranged.
The sculpture was a gift from the people of the Netherlands and was
unveiled on the occasion of the opening of Radio Freedom at the
Institute of Broadcast Journalism on 22 September 1995. Radio
Freedom was the African National Congress’s radio station
that was banned throughout the apartheid years. Activists in the
townships used to huddle around their radios to tune into the
station and listen to the voices of their leaders in exile. The
sculpture was intended to honour of the ‘right to freedom of
expression that had, at the time, just been enshrined in the
interim Constitution of South Africa.
4) The Electric Workshop
This building was initially the First President Street Power
Station, commissioned in 1906 to power the new electric tram
system. It was the shortest-lived of the three power stations built
in Newtown owing to an explosion in the boiler house in March
1907.
The Second President Street Power Station was hurriedly opened
on the site that is now the SAB World of Beer. This building became
the Electric Workshop, used to repair machines and electrical
parts.
During Newtown’s years of decline as an industrial centre
in the mid-1970s, the building stood derelict. In the 1990s, the
building was often used as a music venue particularly after the
elections of 1994. The space was also occasionally used for
cultural events, most notably for the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale in
1997.
In 2004, the Gauteng Department of Education and the private
sector initiated plans to develop a major interactive science
centre here. The new Sci-Bono Discovery Centre was one of the
City's most ambitious urban regeneration projects and was to become
the largest science centre in Southern Africa. Two new wings were
added in 2009 to house a conference and education centre, and the
BHP Billiton Career Guidance Centre.
Sci-Bono's purpose is to improve public engagement with science
and technology and build South Africa’s science, engineering
and technological capacity. The name comes from an abbreviation of
‘Science’ and ‘Bono’, the TshiVenda word
for ‘vision’, reflecting a mission to inspire insight
into all aspects of modern science and technology.
Sci-Bono plays an important role in training teachers, offering
career education to scholars and supporting classroom learning in
mathematics, science, technology and information and computer
technology.
Sci-Bono is open seven days a week and is a fun-filled
destination for schools, families, tourists and the general
public.
5) Sci-Bono
Sci-Bono is the largest science centre in Southern Africa. Its
major goal is to stimulate interest in, enjoyment of and engagement
with the wide world of science and technology. Sci-Bono is located
in the old Electric Workshop in Newtown, the cultural precinct in
the heart of the Johannesburg.
The name Sci-Bono comes from an abbreviation of
‘Science” and ‘Bono’, the TshiVenda word
for ‘vision’, a reflection of the Centre’s
mission to inspire insight into all aspect of modern science and
technology.
Initiated by Gauteng Department of Education and Private sector
representatives, Sci-Bono aims to support education in mathematics,
science and technology to improve public engagement with science,
engineering and technology and to promote career education in these
critical areas of economy.