By Gabisile Ndebele

Hustle and bustle: The view from the balcony of one of the hotel rooms  
  
Struggle heroes honoured in the naming of rooms at Kliptown’s new Holiday Inn.

Soweto's first four-star hotel, in the historic suburb of Kliptown, is to open its doors to guests for the first time tomorrow.

The R23.4-million Holiday Inn Soweto, situated on Walter Sisulu Square, is the first of its kind in the township, and has rooms and suites named after heroes of the fight against apartheid.

The hotel has 48 rooms, two suites, two boardrooms and a funky jazz restaurant. A double room costs R1380 a night on weekends.

The two boardrooms are named after struggle icons Helen Joseph and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The two suites are named after ANC leaders Chief Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo.

The passages are called Long Walks to Freedom after the autobiography of former President Nelson Mandela.

Hotel manager George Phefo said that, as the square was a heritage site, special attention was paid to the naming of the hotel spaces .

“The restaurant is called Jazz Maniacs after the ’50s jazz group, and the cocktail bar is called Rusty’s after Rusty Bernstein, who had a hand in drafting the Freedom Charter (which was signed on the square outside the hotel in 1955),” he said.

Every room features a photograph taken by former Drum and Sunday Times photographer Alf Khumalo.

Interior designers Lauren Beckwith and Fani Makanya from the Black Moon Design Studio decorated the rooms, which are a blend of old and new — Formica tables characteristic of township homes, vintage radiograms and traditional “gogo” (grandmother) tartan blankets are combined with luxuries you’d expect in a hotel, such as cotton percale duvets and marble vanities.

Each room has a balcony with multicoloured wire patio furniture, from which guests can observe Kliptown’s informal traders and the old train station .

Some rooms have views of the winding walkway of indigenous thorn trees planted on the square in 2003 to represent the queues of people waiting to cast their votes in the 1994 elections.

The hotel’s design team have not rid the place of even unpleasant historical reminders — like the pit toilet next to the parking lot, which they say is part of the place’s heritage, but which is fenced off so nobody will get to use it.

Also kept intact on the hotel’s premises is Jada’s Hardware — a shop where ANC leaders like Walter Sisulu and Mandela once hid in the roof space .

Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, chief executive of Zatic Hotels and Resorts, the company that built the Holiday Inn Soweto, said the hotel would generate up to 38 permanent jobs in the neighbourhood.

It would also provide training opportunities for young residents, she said.
 

Sunday Times