WILL TOWNSHIP TOURISM ERADICATE UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA?
It is sometimes speculated that the origin of township tourism started when an enterprising person started hosting tours in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for those tourists who wanted to experience the notorious favelas.
fast forward a few decades and township tourism has become a legitimate and accepted way for tourists to break away from luxur y 5-star hotels, albeit for some hours, and go on guided tours through some of the lesser known parts of
world cities.
In Africa, cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos - are well known for different reasons, yet all of these cities and others globally offer a glimpse into the other side of life, where tourists can see, experience and even socialise with residents of a township, in relative safet y. Vilakazi Street in Soweto, Johannesburg is famous and boasts a number of night spots and restaurants where tourists can mingle and get astute of local township life.
Cape Town offers Langa, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, which mostly offer guided tours in the form of walks or cycle rides through various sections, exposing a totally different way of life that international tourists have been exposed to. However, commercialising township tourism extends beyond merely being a voyeur activit y for the tourist.
“There are certain ways to make township tourism commercially viable. For instance, we know that residents didn’t like that tourists would only drive through the township looking on from their bus windows. We designed something called township visits in conjunction with anthropologists from the Universities of Florida and Cambridge . We don’t do tours, we do visits. Tourists must walk, they must interact with local people, must touch, taste and eat local food, and therefore we have designed experiences that capture the space and environment that local residents live in,” says Siviwe Mbinda of Siviwe Tours. Mbinda has been active in Cape Town’s Langa township since 2007, and has grown his tour operating business to a staff compliment of 15 people.
“We offer walking and bicycle tours in Langa, my company alone now has 15 walking tourist guides. We have a demand for tourists who want to experience authentic township home life, so now we can approach and source residents who are able to host tourists for a night or t wo. This is done without red tape, both servicing the tourist demand, while creating a financial opportunity for residents.”
Township tourism has grown from being an original haphazard, risk y adventure during early post apar theid days to a more structured and well planned industr y, as well as an emerging mini-economy, which contributes significantly in terms of servicing the “other” piece of the pie away from traditional luxurious beach holidays and normal sightseeing that Cape Town offers.
“Currently we have tourist escor ts, 8 of my people patrol the area to ensure safet y for tourist walks and that is employment. Local people who own transpor t vehicles are also benefitting by transporting tourists. This contributes to
Vilakazi Street in Soweto, Johannesburg is famous and boasts a number of night spots and restaurants where tourists can mingle and get astute of local township life. Cape Town offers Langa, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, which mostly offer guided tours in the form of walks or cycle rides through various sections, exposing a totally different way of life that international tourists have been exposed to.
wards the economy of South Africa.” This is now, but it was not all that easy. Before democracy came to South Africa, townships were considered no go areas, hotbeds of political turmoil where some of South Africa’s foremost politicians hailed from, and cer tainly not ready to openly receive outsiders of any sor t, let alone tourists, whether local or international.
Mbinda explains: “I star ted working in this sector in 2007, although township tourism started to happen after 1994, immediately after democracy came to SA. I do not know who started this trend, but honestly speaking, the tourists themselves started it, they were curious about
" We don’t do tours, we do visits. Tourists must walk, they must interact with local people, must touch, taste and eat local food, and therefore we have designed experiences that capture the space and "environment that local residents live in.
black South Africans, and during the Mandela era tourists were interested to see how we lived in townships. Freedom of movement was new then with no more restrictions in place and at that time, township residents generally did not know anything about tourism.
In the early years of democracy af ter 1994, townships in South Africa were earmarked for development with the South African government’s RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) programme, a massive drive to upgrade infrastructure, ser vices and build houses. It was lef t up to local entrepreneurs to recognise the demand and gap in the tourism market in order to capitalise and commercially exploit this opportunity. Unfor tunately or not, townships are the vestiges of apar theid and this has resulted in the anomaly of spatial planning, which can be seen even in Cape Town today, where economic spatial residential segregation is very apparent. This is relevant today because most townships are still not on a par in terms of municipal services. This means that township tour operators have to compete against the more established cit y hotels within the confines of limited water, public transport and electricit y ser vices.
James Tayler, Know Your City Programme Officer from international NGO Slum Dwellers International says: “The best
- Siviwe Mbinda, CEO, Siviwe Tours.
way to improve economic functioning of the so called township is to work at integrating them with the cities from which they were once excluded. Better water, sanitation, lighting, basic ser vices and an integrative transpor tation nodes so that the residents can enjoy their fair share of the cit y's resources. Once these are in place, then secondar y industr y like tourism could benefit.”
Mbinda added, “Tourism is a private sector, we need to move away from relying on government. Initially, the Cit y of Cape Town and Cape Town Tourism did assist me and some others to get started, but now we are self-sustaining, our websites, marketing, etc. are all done by ourselves.”
“It is a ver y unique thing we are doing, to visit a communit y , and South Africa, in my opinion, is leading , we are number one but I don’t think we are getting recognised for the role we are playing by authorities here. I don’t think the government understands what we are doing in terms of how township tourism is contributing. Inside our own countr y, I don’t think we are getting recognised for the role we are playing or the magnitude, we are not getting the same attention as the winelands, Table Mountain, etc, and we still need to work ver y hard.”
"Currently we have tourist escorts, eight of my people patrol the area to ensure safety for tourist walks and that is employment. Local people who own transport vehicles are also benefitting by transporting tourists and this contributes towards the economy of South Africa.”
Siviwe Mbinda estimated that 10-15 % of local residents in his township derive an economic benefit directly by tourism. Most tourists are international travellers with ver y few from the rest of Africa . “We don’t really have local tourists at all,” he added.
Despite a thriving company that is busy every day, there is still a lot that needs to be done in terms of the township tourism, according to Mbinda.
“There is still a huge space. We need more people who can create more employment in this township industr y. Everyday local people are asking me for jobs involving tourism.”