The faces of Cape Town: a day tour with a difference
We take a day tour with a difference, through Cape Town's infamous Imizamo Yethu township.
As our white SUV swings around the corner and begins the steep drive into Imizamo Yethu, the leafy mansion-lined streets of Cape Town’s wealthy Constantia instantly fade from memory.
Here in one of South Africa’s most infamous townships, the street is cramped with colourful tin shacks instead. Layers of rusted iron sheets nailed together to forge a home, the leaning structures both support and jostle each other to claim every square inch of the muddy spare ground. People mill about, some run to the bus stop outside, others laugh as they call to each other in Xhosa - one of South Africa’s 12 official languages.
As we roll to a stop and get ready to begin our Urban Adventures Faces of Cape Town tour through Imizamo Yethu, I clutch the camera in my hands a little tighter and silently will my heart rate to slow down. [editor’s note: unfortunately this Urban Adventures tour no longer runs, but you can book a very similar township experience here]
Until now, we’ve been warned away from townships just like this one by horrifying stories of poverty, crime, and gang violence.
Yet here we are. Standing nervously beside a main road in a township abuzz with activity on a warm spring day, completely unsure of what to expect.
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WELCOME TO OUR HOME - IMIZAMO YETHU
“Welcome to our home!” A young Xhosa woman bounds over to us with her arms extended. In jeans and a yellow top that wouldn’t look out of place on a Milan Catwalk, her beaming smile radiates like the sunshine around us.
This is Nandipha (Nandi, she tells us) our guide through Imizamo Yethu, an 18 hectare informal settlement formed in 1991 on the slope of a mountain overlooking the Hout Bay area.
Officially, the records list around 33,000 people living here, though Nandi points out that this doesn’t account for unregistered or foreign residents. The real number, she estimates, is much closer to 100,000.
“Today, you’re our guests. I want to show you the real township and how we live here”, she smiles. “Imizamo Yethu is Xhosa for ‘our collective efforts’. We built this community, and we are proud of it. Let’s go!”
keep reading | our complete cape town city guide
Feeling at ease in her presence we follow her lead, slipping into the rabbit warren of crooked houses and narrow laneways.
Numbered with scrawling black pen, most homes are tin and wood while a lucky few have a sturdy concrete wall. Cardboard and rugs provide makeshift floors, electrical wires run haphazardly overhead. A 4-toilet block that services a few hundred people stands locked, the keys kept by a supervisor to avoid vandalism and violence.
Women chat as they hang out washing on lines strung up between shacks and concrete blocks. Small children dart around their feet playing tag, while the sounds of local radio drift along the street. Wandering past the open door of a small shack, an old man watches a small TV set with one eye, and us warily with the other.
A woman prepares food with a neighbour’s baby strapped to her back, while a group of teenage boys kick a soccer ball back and forth to each other with considerable skill.
This is Ubuntu, a shared way of life. It stems from the ancient Xhosa word meaning humanity to others, which Nandi tells us is an intrinsic part of life in Imizamo Yethu and something that the community is extremely proud of.
Back on the main street, we pass by Phillip’s Tavern (‘one of the only pubs in town!’). Here, shacks have blossomed into general stores, full of food and supplies with business names painted on tin shopfronts. There’s a town hall and even a couple of schools. Hardship fosters creativity and resourcefulness, and an entrepreneurial few are turning theirs into success.
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HERE, WE LIVE BY HOPE
Remove the place and the prejudice, and it’s a street scene like any other. Except that here, in Imizamo Yethu, there’s barely running water, and the wait for a proper government house to be built can literally take a lifetime.
Laughing at our surprise at just how normal life seems here, Nandi says “We didn’t invite you here to feel sorry for us. This is our collective effort, remember? We may not have much, but we make the best of it. Here, we live by hope”.
Entering a small primary school as morning lessons wrap up, a roar of noise greets us. It’s immediately clear Nandi’s a crowd favourite, and we soon find ourselves in the midst of 30 exuberant 4 and 5 years old hugging and dancing with rhythm we can never hope to obtain. Their happiness is infectious, and transcends any limitations of their birthplace.
“It’s hard to have good role models here,” says Nandipha later as we wave goodbye to our excited little friends.
Township life can be hard for youngsters here as they navigate the obstacle course of adolescence with the added threat of substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, and high school dropout rates.
Many see no hope for their future and turn to drugs to numb their pain, prostitution to put money on the table.
keep reading | the top things to do in cape town
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
“When girls don’t have that positive person to look up to, they lack motivation, they get bored. They sleep with their boyfriends or take drugs because there’s nothing else to do. They get pregnant, they drop out of school because they can’t cope. Then the cycle continues”.
It’s a cycle that Nandi has been working tirelessly to change through Sistahood, the not-for-profit girl’s organisation she founded in 2010. The club provides teenage girls with tutoring, life skills sessions, and social activities.
More importantly, it provides them with a sorority. It’s a safe place for support in tough times, and inspires young girls to dream beyond the township and make plans for their future.
Nandi pauses, and asks us to look out over the Hout Bay Valley below.
“As a young girl, I used to come here and look out at the big white houses in Hout Bay. I was so angry. Why did they get to live there, while I lived like this, here? But as I grew up, I changed my heart. I let go of the anger, let the love in. Now, I’m inspired by the difference. I look to the future, and do my part to make my community a better place”.
That’s not to say Nandi hasn’t had her own struggles. She’s seen family members imprisoned, suffered discrimination and still struggles to make ends meet some days.
For now though, she turns to us with bright eyes, “I hope you’ve come to understand our special community better now”, and bids us farewell at the edge of the township. We’re feeling moved, inspired, and hopeful, our preconceived ideas about township life falling away.
If Imizamo Yethu is ‘our collective efforts’, people like Nandipha are the proof. In her lives hope, and everything good about the new South Africa, and we love it.
With people like Nandi leading the way, the future of South Africa looks brighter than ever.
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CAPE TOWN TOURS AND DAY TRIPS
Wondering what to do in Cape Town, and want to take the stress away and organise a tour or day trip to the major sights? We’ve got you covered.
We’ve put together a comprehensive list of the best day tours in Cape Town, taking in all the major sights and attractions this city has to offer.
READ MORE | The best day tours in Cape Town
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STAYING SAFE IN CAPE TOWN
We’ve written a comprehensive guide to safety in South Africa here, but overall, we found travelling in South Africa no more or less dangerous than most popular tourist destinations around the world.
Our key advice would be to be cautious but not afraid as a traveller there.
Keep your wits about you, take the usual precautions you would anywhere in the world (don’t walk alone at night, don’t visit unsafe parts of town, don’t flash expensive jewellery or cameras, be aware of your surroundings, etc.).
It goes without saying that when you travel in South Africa, travel insurance is super important.
We use World Nomads, and find they're the best when it comes to providing a good range and level of cover at affordable rates.
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PLANNING A VISIT TO CAPE TOWN SOON?
We have a whole of essential reading before you travel to Cape Town:
CAPE TOWN GUIDE | Our guide to the stunning city of Cape Town
BO KAAP | Our guide to Cape Town’s most colourful suburb
WOODSTOCK, CAPE TOWN | Our guide to Cape Town’s coolest suburb, Woodstock
SOUTH AFRICA SAFETY | How to travel safely in Southern Africa
AFRICA TRAVEL TIPS | Everything you need to know before you travel in Africa
PACKING FOR AFRICA | Our ultimate Africa packing list (what to pack and what to leave behind!)
TRAVEL INSURANCE | Don’t leave home without travel insurance (seriously, don’t!). Click here to get the best deals with World Nomads, our trusted travel insurance provider
PHOTOGRAPHY | Love our photography? Wondering what gear we use to get all of our photos around the world? Click here to view our detailed photography gear guide, as well as our top travel photography tips!
VISITING CAPE TOWN? YOU MIGHT LIKE THESE POSTS
If you're keen to explore a different side of Cape Town, we highly recommend Urban Adventures' Faces of Cape Town tour to Imizamo Yethu. If you book using this link, we'll received a small commission at no extra cost to you.
This post originally appeared on the Intrepid Travel Journal blog.
