Africa's largest black-owned shopping mall represents a major post-apartheid landmark, writes Joe Humphreysin Soweto.
If you think the Irish are the only ones who get excited about the opening of a new shopping centre you are wrong. An estimated 100,000 people gathered in the heart of Soweto on Thursday morning for a ribbon-cutting ceremony performed by Nelson Mandela.
Local politicians, including some former freedom-fighters who cut their teeth in anti-apartheid rallies on the streets outside, described the occasion as "historic" and "momentous".
Here was Africa's largest black-owned shopping mall opening its doors to a neighbourhood once characterised by internecine violence and bloodshed. And not just any old shopping mall. An upmarket, 180-store centre, compete with a multi-screen cinema, boutique fashion outlets and a giant branch of Woolworths - the South African equivalent of Marks and Spencer.
For symbolism, and sheer audacity, it could be matched perhaps by Harrods opening a megastore between the Falls Road and Shankill in West Belfast. In short, no one had expected such a thing would grace Soweto - the epicentre of South Africa's struggle years - so soon after the end of apartheid. No one, that is, except Richard Maponya, a pioneering black tycoon who spent close to 30 years plotting the creation of the Soweto mall which takes his name.
"I was convinced the people really needed a mall . . . I never stopped," says the 82-year-old entrepreneur who began in business by opening a dairy in Soweto in the 1950s.
During the apartheid era, Maponya ran a hugely successful retail business and later branched into cars, property and racehorses, causing some consternation in the white-only Jockey Club of Southern Africa. Today, the businessman - whose late wife was a cousin of Mandela's - retains a passion for change.
"Soweto is my home, the people have supported me all their lives," he says. "I've always wanted to give back and my goal is to create job opportunities at a bigger scale than what I was doing before.
"It has been a long journey. I never stopped that dream because I knew that one day, one day, the people of Soweto will own what is theirs."
GREETING THE OPENING, some international media described the Maponya Mall as the largest in Africa. But that is something of an overstatement. At 65,000 sq m (compared with Dundrum Town Centre's 79,000 sq m), it is topped for size by two megastores, also in South Africa: Gateway outside Durban, and Menlyn near Pretoria. Critically, the latter are controlled by foreign interests - both specifically by a branch of the London-based insurance giant Old Mutual. And, thus, the 650 million rand (€65 million) Maponya Mall lays claim to being Africa's largest indigenous shopping centre.
"It's one of the best things to ever happen to Soweto," says Thapelo Mogale, one of the first customers through the doors. "It is what we would like to see happening in other townships in this country, which were not developed and were left in a very turbulent state."
Carrying a bulging shopping bag, the snappily-dressed 24-year-old is representative of a growing band of African middle-class consumers dubbed the "Black Diamonds".
"Things have greatly improved since 1994. People can afford things we could not afford then. People own their own property. They own shares. I think this country is heading in the right direction." He adds: "People like to concentrate on crime. But this sort of development will help to deal with crime. It is somewhere where people can come and relax, and find work too."
One local resident who landed a job in the mall was Meme Mpuru, 25, manager of Soweto's first branch of Exclusive Books, an upmarket South African bookstore chain. Mpuru noted that black middle-class people tended to travel to white-dominated suburbs of Johannesburg to shop but this could change "now that we have our own trendy mall".
"I'm looking at the Black Diamonds as one of my markets but I'm catering for everyone," she said. "I expect African fiction, religion and romance to be big sellers - but also business books, sports books, music and jazz. I'm planning a children's corner, too, where I will read stories on a Saturday morning."
JOB CREATION ISthe main factor behind the emergence of the Black Diamonds. In the past five years, South Africa has created 2.5 million new jobs, 70 per cent of which have gone to black workers.
In Soweto, a township with a population of about one million, the number of people in lower middle-income groups earning between 4,000 and 7,000 rand (€400-€700) a month has trebled since the end of apartheid.
Signs of affluence of are becoming increasingly visible, with luxury Mercedes Benz and BMW motors, as well as one-million-rand houses, now commonplace on the red, sandy streets which were once best known for burning tyres and broken-down shacks.
Naturally, not everyone is happy with the way South Africa is developing. Some believe the growing gap between rich and poor is storing up problems for the future.
Even the Maponya Mall has generated some grumbling, with a number of small shop owners in Soweto complaining that the mega-store will put them out of business. Whatever the truth of that, the people are voting with their feet - and their wallets.
Inside Mpuru's bookshop, 70-year-old Soweto resident John Poply holds onto a coffee-table book celebrating past leaders of the African National Congress. "They would be happy," he says, glancing around at the shiny, new store. "This is what they fought for."