Hello SA Blog readers far and wide!
I’m Nozuko, from Khayelitsha (that’s Xhosa for “new home”), a township outside Cape Town. It’s South Africa’s second largest. (Soweto is number one.)
Nozuko P, Township Blogger
In my posts, I’m going to be showing you around Cape Town’s townships, especially Khayelitsha (of course!), Langa, Guguletu, Nyanga, Delft, Montana (no, not the state in the US!). We’ll visit places to stay, places to eat and have a good time, we’ll get to know township culture, and if you’re lucky I might even teach you a bit of Xhosa.
[Editor's note: Learn some easy Xhosa on SA Blog by clicking here.]
More about me:
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Singita Safari Lodges
Five locations in Mpumalanga Province (Sabi Sands region), and the Kruger National Park | Map
Singita Accommodation
Accommodation type: Fully-catered game lodges
Number of stars: 5
Rooms starting from (per person sharing): R7140.00
SA Blog recommends? Enthusiastically, given a cooperative bank balance.
Book your luxury game lodge at Singita here.
Snippet
Since this review comprises part of SA Blog’s “Fair Trade” series, we’ll leave further (and fully-justified) raptures to the outfit’s website, and concentrate on what makes Singita special from a social responsibility perspective.
(See full review below.)
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Just a few months from now, the soccer World Cup kicks off in Cape Town -
- What!?? -
screech SA Blog’s legion readers. Particularly those who’ve already bought their non-refundable plane tickets to Berlin, and paid their hefty accommodation deposits. (And also those who abstained from voting for South Africa during the 2006 World Cup bid process, thus handing the event to Germany, i.e., Charles Dempsey, may his name roast forever in the fiery annals of infamy.)
Well, it’s quite true, folks: the World Cup is coming to Cape Town in 2006. The Homeless World Cup, it should at this point further be clarified.
What is the Homeless World Cup?
It’s a global poverty-fighting initiative pioneered by the International Network of Streetpapers (INSP), which brings individuals from the world’s homeless communities - all of whom earn a living by selling streetpapers like The Big Issue - together for a week of fun, community-building, global-poverty-awareness-raising, and, of course, competitive streetsoccer. The yearly event first kicked off in Graz, Austria, in 2003, and has since visited Gothenburg, Sweden and Edinburgh, Scotland. The champions from those tournaments were, respectively, Austria, Italy, and Italy once again.
Homeless World Cup OnlineBest site for the other World Cup.
The HWC opens in Cape Town on 23 September 2006, hosted by The Big Issue South Africa. The tournament’s vital stats:
Over 30 countries expected to participate; each continent represented.Almost 50 teams competing for top honours (taking into account that many countries have more than one streetpaper).Direct benefit for participants: of the 204 HWC players in 2004, 78 have moved into regular jobs, 16 have signed with football clubs or work as coaches, and 95 have improved their housing situations.
To participate in the Homeless World Cup, all you need to do is buy a streetpaper. Vendors make an honest living doing what they do - support one today! Alternatively, donate to the HWC directly, or purchase an item from its online shop.
SA Blog will follow the build-up to HWC 2006 in Cape Town closely - bookmark the Homeless World Cup tag to keep up to date.
Guide to HWC streetsoccer rules (from www.streetsoccer.org):
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Heather Hunter, who runs the Honey Pot B&B with her husband Bob, in the KwaZulu Natal seaside resort of Umhlanga, is also actively involved in development tourism, and is the person to call for township tours in the area.
KwaMashu is the largest such township: Helen can arrange day sightseeing trips, shebeen (pub) lunches and suppers, and even overnight accommodation, for those keen to see more of KZN’s north coast than people frying on beaches.
The most popular day tour ranges across the region’s countryside, visiting Mahatma Ghandi’s famous Phoenix settlement, the dam at Inanda, and the Shembe Village, home …
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Langa and other sites
Cape Town
Western Cape
Trip or Tour? - A Visit to Langa
“It’s a trip really, not a tour, inside the other side of Cape Town. And I’m not a guide; I’m a tour facilitator.”
With these words, Inkululeko Tours, which calls itself “the freedom route” in bold, black letters on its shiny, white Mercedes bus, begins the trip into the townships of Cape Town.
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New Brighton & Others, Nelson Mandela Metropole (Port Elizabeth)
Eastern Cape Province
Calabash Township Tour
Operator: Calabash Tours
Township based? No
Will pick you up? Yes
Cost per person: R300 (avg. excl. tip)
Departs from: NMMM (Port Elizabeth)
Duration: 3 hours - evening
Sites visited: Red Location, Ramaphosa, Kwamagxaki, Kwazakhele, New Brighton & others (depending on tour)
SA Blog recommends? In a heartbeat!
Snippet
The Calabash evening tour - a sojourn to a few of the shebeens (informal pubs) in Port Elizabeth’s townships - is one of three that the tour company offers.
(See full review below.)
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South Africa is the first country in the world to have a “Fair Trade” label for its domestic tourism industry. Fair Trade in Tourism SA (FTTSA), which determines who gets the label, has given out eighteen of its precious approvals so far - and counting. The organisation is dedicated to helping tourists who want to make a positive social impact in the areas where they spend money find just what they’re looking for.
Jennifer of FTTSA
What is Fair Trade? It’s a consumer movement that tries to ensure that people in …
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Soweto, South Africa’s most famous township, and one of the most-visited places on the continent, now has its own tourist information centre, opened last week in the historic precinct of Kliptown. The centre - still being completed, but open for business (it’s scheduled for completion this April) - is designed to be a one-stop information broker for tours and accommodation, as well as a hub for local tourism entrepreneurship, and boasts a curio shop and an internet cafe.
Contact the Soweto Tourism and Information Centre (note: website and email forthcoming): +27 (0) 11 945 3111 / 214 0700Visit the Centre: Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, cnr. Klip St. Valley Road & Union A, Kliptown, Soweto | Map
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Happy World Wetlands Day!
Spare a thought for birdlife around the world today, under threat not just from avian flu, but also from shrinking wetlands.
In South Africa, many wetlands conservation projects are underway, aimed at preserving the summer homes of the birds that descend each year from Eurasia and north Africa, and the year-round abodes of SA’s thousands of indigenous species.
Wakkerstroom, a small town in Mpumalanga Province (about 200 kms southeast of Johannesburg), is one of the best places to find both. Twitchers from around the world, dare we say it, flock to the area for what are known as “big ticks” - not large, bloodsucking arachnids, but thick black checkmarks in their bird books, next to rare birds, indicating that they’ve spied the feathered flyers in question.
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Howzit! You’ve reached a section of SouthAfricaBlog.com that is, sadly, empty.
In time, however, it will be filled with all sorts of blog fodder, so if this particular subject is your bag, bookmark it and come back later.
Meanwhile, why not visit our Help Wanted section, where you can make yourself useful?
Thanks!
Ben, who am Editor
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