1970's South Africa 

Amazing how clean it is ... you now go into JHB city centre and you want to vomit from the stench of rubbish lying in the streets.... and it is everyone else's fault

I was 10 years old and used to go into Joburg center with my friend who was 9....we used to go to the movies on Saturday morning. It was such a great bus-ride, and then safely walked to the Coliseum or Majesty movie-houses. After the MORNING-movie we walked to the OK Bazaars and shopped a bit, and then took the 20 minute bus ride back home, Joburg was SO safe...what a great time I had....I wish Joburg could get back to the 70's with NO crime....everyone could then enjoy themselves....wow....

Some people might disagree, but this country must be given back to the Boers. They didn't colonize it, they built it. European civilisation.

I'm black and have to say it was beautiful back then even though we were treated unfairly. at least it was safer compared to now. I'm not saying bring back the apartheid government. I'm saying put white people in power and see things take shape

It showcases how hard the minority worked to make this a first world country. Sadly, it's now reverted to a third world country! :'(

These were days when everyone generally felt and was safe and the streets were clean. Nowadays, my heart bleeds for my country and I prefer to be silent about her present agonies.

This feels like a confusing mix of American West Coast and London.

From a First World country to a third world country in one generation

What a wonderful time it was. I was 16 years old. People loved and respected each other. House windows open. No fences. No malemas or mandelas of this world. Safe to drive and walk in Johannesburg. Cars had no turbos. Arabs tried to kill us with their crude oil embargoe. But there was Sasol 1. We made our own fuel from coal. We survived all the world sanctions. Praise God i got to grow up and live in my country SA during these wonderful times.

Under Apartheid, no taking into accounts its rights and wrongs, you were at least safe to walk the streets. I used to go into Pretoria at night when I was 14 and 15 years old and not once did I ever feel threatened or in any sort of danger. Had it been in the "new" South Africa, I doubt I ever would have made it to town and back unscathed.

A new VW Beetle cost R1500, a new house R8000 and the Rand bought 1.50 USD - everybody had a job. South Africa will never see those good times again!.

Back then there was electricity , no taxis , people was driving slow cared for one another i realy mis these days

As I was a kid in Europe, I heard that SA was Eden on earth. Clean, warm climate and mixed population. I always dreamed to be there. Now SA is much worse than my country Ukraine and we have a war but still is much safer here. Sad...

I would rather go to SA in this time period than now. It’s been crossed off my travel list thanks to the end of apartheid. SA is now just another lost cause in Africa.

Good and rare record. The heyday of South Africa's segregationist regime was in the 1960s and 1970s. And with an economic boom that benefited the whole country, the ENTIRE country, again. However, after the fall of friendly countries such as Mozambique and Rhodesia, in addition to the end of the gold-dollar standard in the international monetary system in 1971, the country's economy was severely affected and did not return to the excellent performance of before, entering a chronic crisis. in the 80s. Not to mention the definitive spike in oil prices, which South Africa has always been dependent on. Therefore, it would no longer be possible to maintain a police state for so long, with defense spending growing exponentially, as well as the weight of international sanctions. In this regard, the end of the USSR in 1991 helped a lot to make the transition to post-apartheid without a civil war possible in the AFR. From the South and beyond, Namibia can be saved by giving it independence without it falling as it was with Angola and Zimbabwe for example. May the Boer country rise again and become a land of prosperity.

I thought blacks and whites didn't mix under apartheid, but here are blacks and whites going about their business and everyone looks healthy, well fed and dressed very well

Thanks for the memories..those WERE the good old days and they ARE GONE forever

Wow! Is any other African country, or Asian country for that matter, so nice and clean and organised? And I thought apartheid South Africa was only violence and bloodshed and repression. Everybody walking around dressed nicely. Everyone looks calm and happy...

I miss old South Africa. And I miss Rhodesia too.

Very 70s....looks like some American cities.....clean....no trash....people biking & cars/buses ....NO RIOTING....NO DESTRUCTION....how nice & peaceful....2/25/18....

while not defending aparthied in anyway i question how a first world country sank to become third world and poised to have a civil war once Ramaphosa starts his land confiscation program.

I sat and watched this in stunned silence. Where are those Days. We have lost our Country. SA seems to be dying a slow sad death.

Civilization. SA will never be the same.

Looks like America. Don't let the same thing happen to USA as it did to South Africa.

South Africa should have just said no to the pressure from the rest of the world. Kept the homelands and protected what they had built. No one was capable or willing to overthrow the government by force.

Wish South Africa was still like that

What a beautiful sight .... no shit for brains taxi drivers on the road, truly a beautiful sight👍👍

Its amazing how clean the streets were back then. Its not exactly rocket science to sweep a street but yet the ANC can't even manage that.

South Africa and Rhodesia should have gone to war with the west. They could have held fast, threatened using nukes if necessary. South Africa is a lesson for the whole Western world.

It is unfortunate that South Africa is no- longer a safe and clean town. BEAUTIFUL facilities that once stood are now rundown or abandoned. To cope with crime houses have fortified themselves and look like jails now. Ongoing strikes have recently plagued South Africa have effected all kinds of things such as transportation to water, sewers, and trash pickup. Infrastructures are no longer being maintained, so they are now corroding.

Johannesburg circa 1972 - good times! A ray of ancient sunlight captured on this excellent video - thanks for posting!!

Now SA it's a dump site

First thing I noticed is how clean the city is. Today no matter what day or time you venture to a major CBD all you see is streets filled with rubble for it's believed "littering creates jobs". People use to receive quality and speedy municipal or government services, whereas today when you enter any municipal or government department you are firstly greeted with over crowded rooms, nobody that can guide you to the correct counter as signs are non existing, rows of people waiting to be helped at" snail pace by two clerks" instead of ten, as eight work stations are closed due to lack of staff. If the government and council department place people at all these empty service windows, desks, offices, as it was 30 years ago , thousands of people will have jobs, and the public won't have to sit in queues all day waiting.

I was born in Newcastle Kwazulu-Natal back in 1977. Such a crazy but utterly wonderful country. Although I now live in the UK, my heart belongs there. I wish I was my age now, living in the 70s there... great video

Look how orderly and clean was so beautiful. ...invite anyone to come and see now

orderly society

Was the best country in the world to grow up in

Glory days.

What a wonderful place it was!

But according to some, “…There’s an ugly reality that we can’t just sweep under the rug: apartheid benefitted white South Africans at the cost of all others.” O really? Whose reality is that ? Are you a planet Zuma inhabitant or a Hanson fan? Let us put it to the test. Let us see who benefited from Apartheid . Since 1970 the budget for black education was raised by about 30% per year every year. More than any other government department. In the period 1955 -1984 the amount of black school students increased 31 times from 35,000 to 1,096 000. 65% of black South African children were at school compared to Egypt 64%, Nigeria 57%, Ghana52%, Tanzania50% and Ethiopia 29%. Amongst the adults of South Africa, 71% could read and write (80% between the ages 12 and 22). Compare this to Kenya 47%, Egypt 38%, Nigeria 34% and Mozambique at 26%. In South Africa, the whites built 15 new classrooms for blacks every working day, every year. At 40 children per class it meant space for an additional 600 black students every day! In 1985 there were 42,000 Blacks at 5 universities in South Africa, about the same amount at the universities of the homelands (another 40,000 at another five). In an article called “Die Afrikaner” 11 Feb 1987, the quarterly magazine called “Vox Africana Nr 29 4/87 stated that, South Africa had 4,8 million whites and 18,2 million blacks in 1987. The whites paid 77% of the taxes and the blacks only 15%...despite this...56% of the government budget was spent on blacks. During the time of Dr. Verwoerd. the living standards of Blacks were rising at 5,4% per year against that of the whites at 3,9% per year. In 1965 the economic growth of South Africa was the second highest in the world at 7,9%. The rate of inflation was a mere 2% per annum and the prime interest rate only 3% per annum. Domestic savings were so great that South Africa needed no foreign loans for normal economic expansion. Even Lord Deedes admitted, “White South Africa grew to become the economic giant of the continent, the other members of the Commonwealth virtually sank into poverty.” At the height of Apartheid in 1978 Soweto had 115 football fields, 3 Rugby fields, 4 athletic tracks, 11 Cricket fields, 2 Golf courses, 47 Tennis courts, 7 swimming pools built to Olympic standards, 5 Bowling alleys, 81 Netball fields, 39 children play parks, and countless civic halls, movie houses and clubhouses. In addition to this, Soweto had 300 churches, 365 schools, 2 Technical Colleges, 8 clinics, 63 child day care centres, 11 Post Offices, and its own fruit and vegetable market. There were 2300 registered companies that belonged to black businessmen, about 1000 private taxi companies. 3% of the 50,000 vehicle owners in 1978 were Mercedes Benz owners. Soweto alone had more cars, taxis, schools, churches and sport facilities than most independent countries in Africa. The Blacks of South Africa had more private vehicles than the entire white population of the USSR at the time. Today Soweto has modern shopping malls like, Dobsonville Shopping Centre. In 2005 the Protea Gardens Mall opened. This was followed by the Baramall Shopping Centre and the Jabulani Shopping complex and the Maponya Mall. Experts say that Soweto has as much as 25% oversupply of retail space. The biggest hospital in the world, Baragwanath with 3200 beds and at its peak during Apartheid with almost 8000 staff, had 23 operation theatres fitted out with the most modern medical equipment that existed in the world. Blacks were treated here, operated on...at full state costs to the white-taxpayers for unlimited periods. The budget of this hospital was and is higher than the yearly budget of most small member states of the United Nations. Next door to Baragwanath is the St. John’s Eye Clinic. The clinic was world famous for the treatment of Glaucoma, Cataracts, traumatic eye injuries and rare tropical diseases. Baragwanath in 1978 employed 450 medical doctors in full-time service. It treated 112 000 in-patients and 1.62 million out-patients per year. The children and infant death rate with 34.8 per 1000 was lower than Harlem in New York. In 1982 alone, this hospital performed 898 heart operations of world quality. Ironically...90% of the blood donors for this hospital were whites, who donated blood free of charge, totally voluntarily...to save black lives. (Quoted from The Citizen, 2 April 1987). Whites have already given blacks their blood. What more do they want?

Yes,, This is a great piece of film of the time when my family went out to live in South Africa. Yes It doesn't show the other side of White rule I agree, but I do know a lot of Black and coloured South African people who are old enough to would love to go back to white rule where safety was there and they could put food on the table everyday. Today's South Africa is a very unfair society. Wealth has come to a lot of Black families but extreme poverty has arisen since Black rule to many Races especially whites. Voting is not fair and people are threatened by there own kind. Yes, this was a rime when there was control but there were no illegal aliens from front-line states brining in Unemployment like there is now. There was border control. I really hope that this beautiful country does not go like Rhodesia did. That would be a crying shame especially for the people of this country.

Jislaaik, it looked so much nicer

I was born in da 70s south Africa as a country was more advanced in da 70s than now we seem to be going backwards not forward

this is the Joburg I was born in, grew up in and loved. RIP

Clean, orderly, graffiti free, crime free. Looks like it was a great place. What happened?

look how beautyful it was at this time!!!! wow so sad now

I agree, it doesn't show that side, the side where there was enormous assistance by the then current government for: Free Housing for the poor Free medical for the poor Free education in all rural area, the poor Basic services actually existed everywhere Jobs were abundant Protests were not riots with looting and destruction of property But hey,THE GOVERNMENT WAS NOT CORRUPT, just strict, and safety for all was paramount

Yep, south africa once was a great place to live, I can't speak for the 70s as I wasn't born then but the 80s what a time to be alive, maybe I was too young to understand the politics but still never did I hear my parents or grandparents moan and groan about things being bad. Even upto now they keep saying those where the good old days. Plenty jobs, no crime, less stress. I'm just glad I got to grow up during that Era. And why is it the ones that play the racist card is the ones who where born after 94. Yet you will never see an actual older person who grew throw that period cry about it.

I work in Jhb central. Doesn't look like this any more...Quite sad really

It's like the person behind the camera new that he/she was taping important evidence. This video is golden.

Reminds me of Detroit, MI...once was a beautiful city and now in shambles after 50 years of democrat rule. SA looked beautiful then...the whole situation is so sad. God bless the people who are struggling their now. Love from Texas, USA

Beautiful city ... what happened ????..

Wow!! Every colour & creed looks so well presented. Seems really hard to believe that this was Apartheid times. Really weird.

Friday nights in Hillbrow and then sat shopping and the flicks. Sunday was like sport , braai and spending days with family and friends . Just an amazing place was Joburg .

Very interesting to "compare and contrast" as to how it all went so wrong!

It doesn't matter what anyone says. The history and statistics of South-Africa have been recorded and cannot be undone...And it concludes that South-Africa was a richer and safer place for all citizens

Showed my father this video, his reminiscences of how Joburg used to be so clean in those times.🥺

Oh what a time, safe clean streets. A white person would not dare walk on these streets today.

When the only country in Africa was civilised, advanced, progressive, safe, competent and competed with the the best of them, now it’s like a blocked toilet.

The good old days

back when things were running smoothly in our economy, and not one black soul in this video is being miss-treated.

The Strydom tower, in Hillbrow, with a beautiful revolving restaurant way at the top, was quite something! I laughed seeing the bench outside Truworths on Eloff St, I used to work there, in accounts; I loved the rainy afternoons, on the way home after work, the heavens would open up and the rain would come down in bucket loads; It was hot and everything was fresh. I can still recall that heavenly African rain, the smell; it had a magical feel to it; Cape Town Foreshore is well developed since those days;

i miss that old south africa.

OMG! What happened to our beautiful country!? Cant recognize it anymore. I wish I lived in the 70's to have experienced this...

Beautiful! The streets were clean, the rand stronger than the dollar, and there were trains too!!!

As a young black man, I wish Johannesburg CBD could be like this today and people of my race had equal opportunities with every other race and not get inhumane treatment like they were treated in the 70’s this clean beautiful CBD some of us never got to see, today honestly Hillbrow is disgusting.

Not much of this is left now, its all gone. Very sad. Glad it is on video. Thanks.

Lovely!!! Clean & civilized...

AHHHH the good old days pity you did not have a follow on as to what this looks like now, it is a filthy hovel!

Precious. Nobody seemed to be dragged around with chains around ther necks. Everyone in this video seems quite happy. Even the opressed. And the city looks so clean.... Can't we have some of that back, minus all the political mistakes that were made? Thanks for sharing!!!

Its amazing how clean the streets were back then.

I agree with Clitmint. We white people advanced Africa.....oh but hey we can always tear down what we built and return the country to what it was.....oh please! I just wish there was NO racism in the world....it would be a better place! So hou jou bek!

I'm so glad I was born white, thank you god thank you

I can say one thing for sure: The sidewalks and streets looked very clean.

Things were good under Nelson Mandela. It was after him the nation went downhill.

if it wasn't for separation, this would've been a great nation. BUT DUE TO GREED AND SATANIC FLAWS ,the other "GROUP" will always benefit. SMH

Looks like anywhere in Australia today.

Those "workers hostels" talked about in the editorial description, are still in operation today after 25 years of independence.....! However, the Y.M.C.A. hostels for young men coming to find work in the cities, are long gone...! (There was one just out of view around the corner from the Braamfontein Civic Centre at 03;07 in the video). Even today, 45 years after these videos, millions of migrant workers from rural communities and other countries on the continent, still flock to the cities for work. The govt. doesn't provide hostels or housing for them all, but some mining companies still do.....; are they still responsible for "broken families"..? At least they do not require "permits" to work in S.A. and they are not required to carry pass books with them. That's progress...!

Sure brings back the past, recognize many places with vivid memories of my youth.

but I thought South Africa was racially segregated in the 70's.

looks like old movies of iran and afghanistan. Africa and islam are taking the world back into a dark age.

notice how clean everything is -ie the streets and railway lines

Thanks for sharing. Those were the days. You could sit and eat your lunch in the library gardens (now Beyers Naude Square). If I remember correctly, there were roses that actually grew in those gardens. I haven‘t been near the JHB CBD for more than 15 years, but according to google maps there’s not much left of the “gardens”. It’s mostly paving. I noticed graffiti on the walls and the front facade of library is cordoned off with fencing.

Just amazing how clean the sidewalks were ...

Lost South Africa. Very pity that we'll never more see it so.

all these white people feeling nostalgic. Perhaps you should make a video on the side of South Africa which was marked by poverty and exclusion. Ive spent time with white people, even went to a white school. Some are good people but almost all feel entitled. The country may be in turmoil but its a world wide phenomenon, the whole world is messed up. U whites have no clue of the struggles of black people. Even now no one is talking about how they excluded blacks in almost everything, and worse Afrikaans people call themselves Christians yet the church was silent while your leaders adopted a system that is so horrible. Be happy we didn't start a civil war in retribution. We chose to forgive you guys and we trying to make it work. So stop saying it was better in the oldne days. It was not. You destroyed and hurt people. It wasnt a good time.

Gee there's many different opinions on here. I don't really want to get involved in an argument. I live in Australia and have a friend who grew up in South Africa, he left in 2002. He told me what many on here are saying, that under apartheid crime was much lower than it is now. One of the reasons he left south africa was because of the crime, he told me his house was broken into and cleared out 3 times in 6 months. He also told me he believes the current government is corrupt.

Aww I loved going to Joburg when I was little. We would dress up and shop at Gratermans and it was a treat.

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This is such a valuable video! Certainly a part of our heritage. Thank you for posting. I was born in the '60s and remember so much of these scenes.

its like the perfect model city, where all races live together peacefully.

Look how clean it is.

Botswana has the second highest GDP in Africa and its under black rule. I have hope for South Africa.

The whole world has changed since these times , people don't see that

What a pleasure it was to go to Cape Town from the suburbs, by bus. It was safe, it was clean and people treated each other with respect. It can be like that again. ❤

Showed this to my dad's friend (he's an Afrikaner) and I could see how nostalgic he was. Also I must say this country was super clean and things seemed to go well but the only problem is the racism and discrimination against South Africans of colour..

The nation seemed more civilised and tame. They really threw the baby out with the bath water when they got rid of apartheid.

The world's on its way out now anyway. So jesus is our only hope

After the end of Apartheid South African becomes more like an African nation. It's only fair. More Nairobi or Lagos and less Zurich or Frankfurt.

Jesus...the roundabout at the bottom of Adderley Street! Full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes! Anyone else here who grew up in Cape Town in the 60s?