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California Ngwenya, Product Owner
 


Ngwenya's B&B

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CALIFORNIA Ngwenya opens the front door himself. “Good morning,” he beams at the newly-arrived guest. “Welcome home.”

The guest has just arrived from Europe at OR Tambo International Airport and been whisked by taxi through Johannesburg, the City of Gold, to Ngwenya’s B&B in a place called Soweto, a township our visitor has heard lots about but which, he suddenly realises, he doesn’t really know at all.

How good it feels to be welcomed by a guesthouse owner who takes his brand of hospitality so seriously that he welcomes guests himself, now nice it is to be welcomed “home” even though right now this place feels very foreign and very far away.

California Ngwenya takes our guest’s bags, all the while enquiring about his flight and reception in Joburg. He shows the guest his room, the room he will call home for the next two or three days. Perhaps the new arrival would like a shower, or maybe a short lie-down? Actually, says the guest, he would like both. He retires to a spacious en-suite room, with plenty of cupboard space, a TV to catch up on the latest news and a kettle with which to brew a soothing cup of coffee before snatching some sleep on a spacious double bed. This does feel like home, a very comfortable, very welcoming kind of home. “I think I’m going to like Soweto,” our guest decides before nodding off.

After refreshing himself, the guest finds that California (“please call me Callie”) is still on hand, to share his home and his world with the now wide-eyed guest.

As many hundreds of visitors from all over the world have done before, you will find Ngwenya’s B&B at 7862 Pitsonyane Street, Orlando West. (Most addresses in Soweto are numbered by section or neighbourhood, not by street, hence the huge numbers attaching to most houses, businesses and B&Bs).

Callie Ngwenya was born in this self-same house, in 1947 (the son of a domestic servant and a policeman), and he is justifiably proud of its location and what it has to offer visitors to the world’s most famous township, the township in which he grew up. 

Ngwenya’s B&B is compact and quickly explored, especially with a guide as enthusiastic as Callie. Downstairs is the reception area, dining room/bar and, if you want to see it, the kitchen where the staff whip up delicious breakfasts or whatever else it is that takes the guest’s fancy. The three downstairs rooms are all en-suite, as are the four upstairs.

It’s the upstairs that Callie is particularly proud of. He opened the B&B in 2003 with just two rooms but always dreamt of building upwards, to exploit the white house’s unique elevation. Up a few steps brings you to a landing which is at the heart of Ngwenya’s B&B. Here guests can hang out, have a drink on an incomparably still and beautiful Highveld summer’s evening, throw a stylish cocktail party or enjoy an uncomplicated braaivleis with new friends, friends like Callie.

From the balcony perched on top of his parents’ once humble home Callie will proudly point out to you the many points of interest that sprawl before you; the Orlando football stadium, specially built in preparation for the Fifa 2010 football World Cup, the various civic buildings in the distance with their historical significance, and the railway line that divides Orlando East from Orlando West.

Callie will talk passionately about Orlando West, literally his backyard. He will tell you about Vilakazi Street, the street on which the 1976 student protests against apartheid erupted (literally five minutes’ walk away), about the significance of the Hector Pieterson Museum at the end of Vilakazi Street.

Callie will tell you about the wealth of restaurants in the neighbourhood, about how welcoming the residents are, about how you can absorb the pulse of Soweto by being right at the heart of the place, at Ngwenya’s B&B.

“This is a place you can wander at your own pace, without a guide, without an escort,” says Callie. “You can walk to the Orlando Stadium, you can walk to Vilakazi Street, and you will be as safe as if you were at home. That’s one of the reasons why we say to our guests, ‘Welcome home.’”

TEP, says Callie, have “done a fantastic job in helping Soweto tourism businesses to work together, to give the visitor a unique experience that can include shebeens, traditional dancing, great restaurants, history and culture, the vibe that makes Soweto so special”.
 
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