Tourism has been part of township life for many years. During the apartheid era it was rare to see a white person in the township unless it was a police officer. Now that South Africa is a Democracy, tourism in the township has intensely accelerated. It is rare to have a day go by without seeing a white person, especially tourists come and visit. Tourism in the township is a sign that South Africa has become a democratic country, whereby every place can be visited by anyone who wishes to do so.

There are many positive things about tourism, not just in the township but in South Africa as a whole. Since there are no minerals that are mined in the Western Cape, tourism helps to improve the economy of the country. There are people in the townships who use tourism to sell their hand-made products which are sculptures, beads and other items.

A bad side to tourism is that the people who visit townships don’t ask for a permission to take pictures of the people living there. This causes some people to hide their faces because they believe that after the pictures have been taken the tourists will make up stories about them. For example, tourists may take the pictures back home to their countries and tell people about how the people of the townships were starving and the little food given to them by the tourists saved them.

I faintly remember myself as a child playing with hand-made-toys because I didn’t have the opportunity to buy toys from the store. Our hand-made-toy-cars were made out of wire from fences and copper, wire from old telephone line. The wheels were made out of polish containers. When we were outside playing, we would see the tourist bus entering our neighborhood. Each and every child would run after the bus screaming with joy “Abelungu!” meaning “ white people”. We would pose in front of them with our hand-made cars. I felt privileged, due to the fact that at home we only took pictures once a year, which was Christmas because that is when I would be wearing brand-new clothes.