Township tourism received a firm two thumbs-up from the Western Cape administration, with Finance and Tourism MEC Lynne Brown revealing that of 102 reported incidents this year of crime involving tourists, only one occurred in a township.

Township tours take place constantly and people can be mugged anywhere, Brown said at the Athlone launch of the Cape Flats Tourism Framework. "From an analysis of the reported incidents, it is clear that only a fraction of those involving tourists occur in townships," Brown said. "It is time for our detractors to face reality and understand this."

Meanwhile, the director of tourism industry development, Ben Walters, forecasted that the Cape Flats was destined for massive development in the tourism sector.

A study of township tourism by the department, in preparation of the Cape Flats Tourism Framework, indicates that township tours are an "add-on" rather than part of the mainstream tourism economy.

Brown said the intention was to regulate tourism to the Cape Flats with the launch of the framework, which aimed to investigate the tourism potential of the area and make sure that it became part of the mainstream.

Potential thematic routes for the Cape Flats include linkages to the apartheid forced removals in District Six, Langa and Simon's Town; environmental linkages like Kirstenbosch, Wolfgat and Rondevlei nature reserves; and political linkages like District Six, Athlone, Crossroads, Khayelitsha and Langa.

Thematic routes will include spiritual sites like churches, mosques, temples, kramats and graveyards; industrial linkages; and factory shopping and the fishing industry. Walters commended the City of Cape Town for its work on the "sites of struggle", which include the Trojan Horse and Amy Biehl memorials.

Other possibilities which could be expanded for tourism in the province included a sports museum with linkages to Athlone Stadium and the 2010 World Cup. "One of the big possibilities is converting the Athlone power station towers, visible from most vantage points in Cape Town, into an iconic cultural junction on the Cape Flats," Walters said.

"The City of Cape Town has raised the possibility of this being an arts and crafts culture centre. It will serve as a link and integrator between dispersed communities, and could become the cultural icon of the region much like the Guggenheim Museum, London Eye or Sydney Opera House."

Brown referred to the Cape Flats Tourism Framework as a "living document" and invited roleplayers in the tourism industry and communities to come forward with suggestions for the advancement of township tourism.

Noki Dube, chief executive officer of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, remarked that tourism in Cape Town would lack legitimacy and support in the eyes of the community for as long as the impoverished and marginalised believed they were gaining no benefit from the promised prosperity and economic growth it generated.

(Source: The Cape Argus / Philda Essop / 14 December 2005)

Things To Do in The 'Township' suburbs Cape Town: Day & Night
things to do in the township during the day: from a good township tour to many surprises.
things to do in the townships at night: from township stays in Langa and Khayelitsha .