For those of us whities who live in Cape Town, the townships of Khayelitsha, Gugs (Gugelethu) and Langa are places one seldom visits. Most of us give them a rather wide berth, if truth be told, their association with crime, gangsterism, poverty, Aids and anti-white sentiment enough to maintain the segregation of our past.
And yet, on the odd occasion an attempt to find a short-cut to the airport, or a flat tyre just outside Langa (during which I was given tea, a chair on which to sit and a far cheaper offer on a pair of new tyres than I would have got elsewhere), has brought me into contact with a totally different view of the townships.
Anxiety is met only with open-hearted hospitality and kindness. And for any of my friends who visit from Europe, a township tour is an automatic itinerary item, making my avoidance of something they hunger to visit, ever so slightly embarrassing. I begin to suspect that my take on townships is skewed.
Staying in the Townships of Cape Town
But even a tour of the townships can end up having a slightly voyeuristic aspect to it. Sitting safely for the majority of the trip behind the glass of the windows of a mini bus does not a first-hand experience make.
It’s the guesthouses and B&Bs that allow one to really meet the people of Langa or Khayelitsha first-hand, and to walk the streets, play soccer with local children and even, as Radebe’s B&B (and coffee shack) offers, a Sunday church service.
It’s a far cry from the luxury villas that litter the Atlantic Seaboard right up against the mountain, but the informal settlements, with their tin shacks that tumble up and down the dunes, and one another, lining the fences along the N2 en route to the airport, are rapidly becoming a viable alternative of accommodation for visitors.
But you still want to reserve a fair amount of caution when on aΒ visit. The townships aren’t to be strolled alone. You’ll need a guide as they’re usually from the township through which they take you and they know where to stop and what is safe for you to do. In a way it’s a false sense of security. The people here have learnt that when you arrive with a guide, you’re a tourist, and as such are there to boost the local economy.
Not everyone likes the township tours for this reason. Rachel, from San Francisco found the disparity even within the townships between rich and poor overwhelming. βI found I was embarassed when it came to handing my money for the tour to the tour operator in front of neighbourhood kids, who so obviously see that amount of money only when tourists come to visit.β
But most visitors leave the townships the richer for it. βI enjoyed the vibrancy of the streets,β says Liam from Scotland on his whirlwind tour of Cape Town, βI loved the spaza shops and the hawkers who man their stalls selling cabbage and apples until well after dark, trying to catch the homeward bound traffic. I should have had a haircut at the barber I passed, his shop, and the music he played…I dig that sort of thing when travelling.β
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