I recently went on a tour of Gugulethu, a Cape Town township. Going on a township tour is sort of a funny thing- just the whole idea of being a tourist to see poverty feels a little strange. As strange as it was, it was worthwhile to see how a significant portion of the South African population lives.
It’s a large area full of small, informal buildings. We actually went into one shack, made of wood, metal, plastic, etc, so they could easily catch on fire and burn down in a matter of minutes (there was a large, extremely damaging fire in Masiphumelele recently). These families are often squeezed in with no running water, which also means no toilets.
It was hard to see, and especially hard to be a tourist, but also interesting to walk around a play of high unemployment, poverty, and limited resources.
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| Informal housing |
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| Trash |
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| No grocery stores, only tuck shops |
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