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qualified to take visitors around.

“I had this burning desire to start my own business and I thought, why not branch into tourism?”

He realised there was no one in Soweto trained in tourism when it came to birding. He started his own business in 2004.

By the time the Soccer World Cup rolled around in South Africa in 2010, he was providing fully fledged tours.

“My training included the biology of the birds, their habitat, their characteristics, the climate, trees, plants and scoping areas with conservation value,” he explains.

Rampolokeng says he identified the area near the lake because it had conservation value.

Here, he says, we can find an assortment of bird species, from waders in the water such as greyheaded gulls to herons, swallows, swifts, hadeda ibis and different kinds of pigeons.

Birds such as warblers, which often hide behind long reeds, are easily spotted at this location, well relatively easily. We were lucky to spot and hear most of these.

During the winter months in Soweto, he advises, bird enthusiasts will be able to see 60 bird species. In summer, the number rises to between 80 and 90 due to the influx of visiting species.

Rampolokeng does his bird tours at two other locations, the Enoch Sontonga koppie behind the UJ Soweto Campus and the Moroka Dam in Rockville, Soweto.

The story goes that Sontonga, composer of the South African national anthem, used to spend time relaxing on top of the koppie and that’s how it came to be named after him.

The Moroka Dam is part of a precinct with three parks – Thokoza Park, Moroka Dam Park and the Regina Mundi Park of Remembrance.

The dam was named after Dr James Moroka, a former president of the ANC who spearheaded the move towards militancy in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

During the apartheid era, the Regina Mundi Church opened its doors to anti-apartheid groups and provided shelter to anti-apartheid activists. It is the largest Roman Catholic church in South Africa.

Rampolokeng says one of the ways to promote conversations about conservation in the community is to encourage primary school pupils to do part of their learning outside of the classroom in these areas, which fits in with their Natural Sciences curriculum.

The aim is to introduce a new kind of Soweto to the public, Rampolokeng explains.

As we stood listening and watching the various birds, I could see, but not hear, in the distance the cars on Chris Hani Road.

It felt as though nature had come alive, and we were the ones lucky enough to see it.