Township Tour

We spent the morning on a township tour with Samantha, one of the owners of Camissa Travel who specialize in township tours (she is from Langa, one of the townships). It was an amazing experience and we both agreed it has been, by far, the most eye opening tour we've ever been on.

We were picked up at the hotel and driven to the District Six Museum. It is an old church that has been turned into a a museum to help educate people about what happened in this area of Cape Town. During the apartheid, all black and coloured (meaning mixed race and/or asian) people were forced from their homes and dumped on the outskirts of the city after district six was declared a white-only zone. Their homes were destroyed, and the land was cleared for developers to come in and rebuild for white people. Many white people were against apartheid as well and business developers wouldn't touch the land. After Nelson Mandela was sworn into office in 1994, the government has been trying to bring the original families back to this area. The problem with this is that they have to prove by way of deed, picture, title, etc. that their descendants lived there. Many people lost all records the might have had. The museum is trying to help original residents claim their land by way of a giant map of the city on the floor that district six residents can write their names on in the block they lived.

After we spoke with the man that helped found the museum (a former resident of the area who is hoping to move back), we drove to Langa, one of the townships, and later to Gugulethu. As we didn't know much about what to expect on this tour, I was a bit concerned at how this would be perceived by the people in this area. I could only assume they would see it as rich, white people coming into their neighbourhoods like they were on a safari, shooting the poor, black people with their expensive camera equipment. Our tour guide explained it was just the opposite. This was an opportunity for some of the tourist money to flow to their neighbourhoods and went on to say that all of the tours of people's homes were prearranged and that a gift would be expected. I won't say that this explanation put me at ease but considering their rent was about $20/month, we made a few people happy for letting us peer into their lives.

We had the opportunity to actually go into some of these homes. It was astounding. People are so impoverished, entire families are sharing an area the size of one of our bathrooms at home with many other people. Below is a video showing the home of three families. The parents sleep on the beds, and bedding, cardboard, or clothing is put onto the floor for the children.

As we wandered through the area, we ended up at an 'informal pub.' We were led inside and asked to sit down. This is the part of the tour where were wondering whether or not this was an elaborate scheme to rob tourists. After all, we ended up here, at the Masincedane Pub.

The guide explained that the residents make their own beer and people come to sit and drink out of one communal bucket. They sit around in a circle from oldest to youngest and once the oldest person takes a slug out of the bucket, it gets passed around and the youngest person puts it back on the 'table,' which is a piece of wood on the floor, next to the other bucket that has wood burning in it to heat the shack.

Oh, and then it became clear that we were supposed to drink out of it.

OH. MY. GOD.

We got the vibe that it would have been really rude and uppity if we didn't partake. We both wanted to die. We watched the woman 'wash' the bucket we had just seen an old man drinking from. No soap, and no idea how many times the water had been used. We're counting the minutes until certain death... because we both blew off the froth and took a sip.

We finished off the tour a bit shellshocked. We were thankful for everything we had and heartbroken that people live this way though they are proud of what they've accomplished with what money they've managed to earn and rightly so. We had given money to the people's homes we visited and bought wooden salad tongs which we will never use from a woman selling her wares but it seemed so futile. Here are groups of hundreds of thousands of people (growing by 20,000 people per month, coming from the country and other countries seeking asylum) who do not have the means to buy a proper home let alone go to University (which costs about $10,000 give or take, depending on the program). Literacy is low as well which exacerbates the problem. Our guide told us that there is often money earmarked for things in the townships but the government is so corrupt that it often goes missing and that she gave up trying to change things about eight years ago. Sad. Still mulling things over in my head trying to process it all.

Once we were back at the hotel, we had the privilege of going for lunch. The concierge (who we have to get a picture of... his name is Hoon and he NEEDS to be in a movie, playing himself) booked us in at The Roundhouse in Camps Bay. Hoon also booked the hotel car to take us there and pick us up once we were finished. It was lovely... picnic style where you tick off everything you want that is listed on a big menu. We had thin crust pizza and ciabatta bread with jalapeño hummus, truffled cream cheese, and caramelized onion pate which all came in jars as spreads. We loved the concept, the setting, and the flavour of everything.

We also couldn't help but notice that the number of staff there were for us (we were the only table there for lunch; they had just opened for the season) who, no doubt (and confirmed by our tour guide), came from the townships. They get paid approximately R1500 to R2000 per month which works out to $200 to $300 per month. Our lunch was $80... what does a person say at this point?

Apartheid ended here in 1994 and though I never experienced South Africa before then, I can't imagine it would be much different than things are now. Two white boys having a glamour lunch with eight black people waiting to serve and meet our every need. Blurg.