Township Tourism in South Africa: On the Road in Soweto

There is nothing Thandi hates more than township tourism. "As if we were wild animals and our settlements were a zoo," says my travel consultant.

Thandi thinks it is indecent when pale visitors in fully air-conditioned buses cruise through the Johannesburg black settlement of Soweto, for example, and exclaim "Oh, how cute!" at every little boy chasing a plastic ball in the dust barefoot and with a snotty nose.

The only thing missing, says Thandi, is that "Please don't feed!" is written on the bus windows.

Despite improvement: Soweto still struggles with poverty and crime.

And yet: What is wrong with South Africa visitors wanting to see townships as well? Isn't it much more indecent to give every black settlement a wide berth on the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town? Which is quite simple, because the apartheid planners knew how to hide their ghettos well.

After all, the majority of the black population, which in turn makes up more than 90 percent of all South Africans, still lives in the poverty settlements today. How can they be left behind?

Nelson Mandela lived in the township of Soweto.

You can't, say more than 200,000 visitors to the southern tip of Africa every year: after Cape Town and Kruger Park, Soweto is considered the country's third-largest tourist attraction.

After all, luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and the Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu have already lived in the township - moreover, the schoolchildren's uprising in 1976, which thoroughly shook the balance of power in the Cape, emanated from the mega-settlement with its three million inhabitants.

Commemorating Nelson Mandela in Soweto. The freedom hero would have turned 100 this year.

So Soweto is worth a visit for historical reasons alone - not to mention the political and social insights that can (only) be gained there.

On a bus through the township? Better not

So it's not a question of if, but how. If you're planning to drive through a township in a taxi or bus, don't do it.

But luckily there's Lebohang Malepa, the former souvenir seller who has created a little tourist paradise in his childhood home in Orlando West, the most central part of Soweto.

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This is where tourists can stay: at Lebo's Soweto Backpackers.

At Lebo's Soweto Backpackers you can stay in a small dormitory or a double room, listen to African storytellers around the campfire in the evening or take part in a drumming class.

You can drink traditional beer (chibuku shake shake) or eat pap en vleis (maize porridge and beef) from the cast-iron potjie pot. But most of all, you can go on a tour of the township with Lebo's guides at 10am. You can choose to go on foot, by bike - or in an Indian tuk-tuk.

Lungile in a tuk-tuk with a German tourist.

"For the lazy ones," says Lungile as he starts the yellow tricycle for his three passengers (including me): Most, more than 30 visitors, have opted for the bicycle, a good dozen set off on foot despite the heat.

But in the tuk-tuk we are always the first at the various stops on the tour and can take more time to eat beef head or drink coffee.

The programme lasts four hours: Enough time to get an impression of life in the township and - if not UV-protected - to get burnt by the sun.

Lots of hustle and bustle on Lebo's bicycle tour.

After 15 minutes at the latest, even among newcomers, nervousness about the foreign surroundings has subsided. A laughing mum shakes our hands, a couple of girls dressed in school uniforms wave, a five-year-old toddler clings to my leg - he's dying to check out the pink hand of the pale face.

"They all know us, of course," says Lungile: Otherwise the greeting would possibly be less relaxed.

Lebo provides jobs for more than 30 people

In Orlando, everyone knows who Lebo and his business are and that he provides work for more than 30 people. In the four years he has been in business, he has never known anyone to be hostile to his group, says Lungile: "People here know that our business benefits the township."

The fact that not a single child begs and none asks for "sweeties" or even "gimmie money" also has to do with Lungile. If this happened in the first few years, he took the children or their parents into prayer, says the 25-year-old guide.

Lungile continues that Lebo's team does not want to create a "beggar mentality": "For us, responsible tourism means that visitors and residents meet at eye level."

Lungile in front of Hector Pieterson Memorial.

Our guide makes no secret of the fact that he is not politically close to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), whose 25-year "corrupt rule" has betrayed destitute black South Africans. He belongs to the "Black Consciousness" movement, which strives for a radical reform of colonial power relations.

The dark side and the charm of the townships

This also explains why Lungile wants to bring out not only the dark side of township life but also its charm: the barber who shaves his customers by the roadside, the painter who captures everyday scenes from the "location" on a wall, the man with dreadlocks who polishes his BMW in front of the Matchbox house.

Wall painters with tourists.

Of course, Lebo's programme also includes the Soweto standards: Vilikazi Street, where Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu once lived (the only street in the world to have hosted two Nobel Peace Prize winners at once).

The Hector Pieterson Museum, dedicated to the first victim of the student uprising. The stately villa of Winnie Mandela, still revered in Soweto as a heroine of the liberation struggle.

Vilikazi Street pub.

But it is not these stops in the first place that make Lebo's tour a memorable experience. "I would never have imagined life in a black township to be so diverse," says a Stuttgart tourist as he leaves - and Lungile smiles contentedly.