Directly opposite the Magistrates’ Courts in the inner-city CBD stands Chancellor House, the modest building where Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo ran Mandela & Tambo, the country’s first Black law firm, in the 1950s. Restored as a heritage site and street-level museum, its ground-floor windows double as display cases, so passers-by can read the photographs, timelines and stories of the firm’s defiant work even when the building is closed.
Outside Chancellor House stands the striking “Shadow Boxer” sculpture of Mandela in fighting stance, a much-photographed landmark on the 702 Jozi My Jozi Walk the Talk route. Small, free and poignant, it is a five-minute stop that packs enormous historical weight, ideal to pair with a walk through Gandhi Square and the Ferreirasdorp heritage sites. Guided tours can be arranged in advance.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons contributors (CC BY-SA).
